Pittsburgh Pirates: Takeaways from Game 4 of MLB Spring Training
By Derek Snyder
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox squared off on Monday, February 26th in the Bucs’ fourth 2018 MLB Spring Training game of the season.
It’s a good thing that these 2018 MLB Spring Training games don’t count for anything, because the Pittsburgh Pirates got hammered by the Boston Red Sox on Monday afternoon. Not only did their bats fall silent, but their pitching staff, once again, had far too many terrible innings. Needless to say, that trend has to stop before the end of March.
While there are always numerous things ball-clubs need to address in preseason play, it seems the Pirates’ problems have been getting worse over the weekend. When you have six different pitchers giving up at least one run in a particular game, you know there are some major problems afoot.
With that being said, take a look at the box score from the Bucs’ blow-out loss to the Red Sox on Monday.
Box Score:
There’s no other word to describe what happened to the Pirates on Monday other than “ugly”. From start to finish, Boston looked like the better overall ball-club. We knew the Red Sox would have an advantage in the regular season, but little did we know their younger prospects would beat Pittsburgh this badly.
Highs:
It was nice to see Starling Marte show what he’s capable of against a team like the Red Sox. Yes, I know this was just a Spring Training game, but the Pirates center-fielder finished the afternoon with two hits and one stolen-base. Needless to say, in a year without Andrew McCutchen in the outfield, Pittsburgh is counting on Marte to stay on the field and produce at a high level.
Lows:
Once again, the Pirates pitching-staff was absolutely terrible. They not only gave up 13 runs, but the Red Sox scored four runs in one inning twice, had eight players record an RBI and had 15 total hits. It’s bad enough to get blown-out, but it’s a whole different story when you get dominated like this against a lineup mixed with prospects.
Next: Trade for Corey Dickerson was huge move for Pirates
Now with an 0-3-1 record heading into Tuesday afternoon, the Pirates’ attention will be placed upon the Atlanta Braves. If you want to take a look at MLB’s preview for Braves vs Bucs at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, you can take a look at it here.