PIRATES GET ROUGH UP BY THE TWINS

MINNESOTA 10, PITTSBURGH 1

WHEN: 1:05 PM ET, Saturday, March 9, 2019

WHERE: LECOM Park, Bradenton, Florida

TEMPERATURE: 82° 

UMPIRES: Home - John Bacon, 1B - Chad Fairchild, 2B - D.J. Reyburn, 3B - Brennan Miller

ATTENDANCE: 6099

Keone Kela turned around to watch Michael Reed’s home run clear the center-field fence at LECOM Park, looked back toward the Pirates dugout, shrugged and smiled.

Kela gave up four runs on four hits, including three long home runs on a trio of fastballs over the plate, in the fifth inning of the Pirates’ 10-1 loss to the Twins on Saturday -- but he was hardly concerned. Pittsburgh’s setup man retired the next three hitters on seven pitches to get out of the inning.

Kela isn’t worried about the results at this point of the year anyway.

Kela allowed one run and struck out 21 batters in 14 appearances last August after the Pirates acquired him from the Rangers. The club shut him down in early September “to ensure an optimal amount of rest and recovery to be ready in Spring Training,” general manager Neal Huntington said at the time. Kela didn’t pitch in a Grapefruit League game until March 2.

Due to that time down and his offseason preparation, Kela said he’s feeling “great.” If anything, he said, he felt too strong on Saturday. That has given the 25-year-old right-hander more freedom to work on specific areas of his game, which is what he’s doing this spring.

For instance, Kela relied primarily on his fastball (62.6 percent) and put-away curveball (35.7 percent) last season. He threw only 13 changeups last season, according to Statcast data, accounting for less than 2 percent of his pitch usage. This spring, he said about 20 percent of his offerings have been changeups. He’s actually thrown more changeups than curveballs.

You might have also noticed Kela flipping his hand back-and-forth between pitches on Saturday. He’s trying to nail down a release point so that all of his pitches look the same coming out of his hand. So no, he’s not too worried about giving up a few Spring Training home runs.

DICKERSON DAY TO DAY

Corey Dickerson took a painful foul ball to the groin during his first at-bat on Saturday, but that wasn’t the injury that knocked him out of the game.

He also tweaked his right ankle on a slide into second base during the third inning. The dirt around the bag was wet, so the tip of Dickerson’s cleat got stuck as he slid. He exited the game due to right ankle discomfort, but he does not expect to be sidelined for long.

“All my strength’s perfectly fine. I’m not really too worried about it,” he said. “Just see how sore I get.”

AROUND THE HORN

• Closer Felipe Vázquez pitched a dominant fourth inning, needing only 10 pitches to retire the side and touching 99 mph on the LECOM Park radar gun. Vazquez missed his last scheduled appearance due to an upper respiratory infection, but he looked like he was in midseason form on Saturday.

Hurdle praised Vazquez for coming into camp ready to pitch. After Vazquez’s quick inning, Hurdle said he turned to pitching coach Ray Searage and quipped, “You’ve worked with him enough. You can go ahead and start focusing on some of the other guys.”

• Third baseman Colin Moran is lining up farther back than he did a year ago in an effort to increase his lateral range. The Pirates hope that positioning, combined with Moran’s mobility and agility work, will allow him to get to more balls to his right and left. He made a nice play coming in on a grounder to end the third inning of Saturday’s game.

• Right-hander Joe Musgrove threw 53 pitches over three innings in a simulated game at Pirate City. He is scheduled to make his Grapefruit League debut on Friday against the Rays at LECOM Park.

UP NEXT

Right-hander Chris Archer will make his second Grapefruit League start on Sunday against the Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Archer struck out four in two hitless innings in his first official spring start on Tuesday. Right-handers Nick Burdi, Jesus Liranzo, Geoff Hartlieb and Alex McRae are also scheduled to pitch. Former Pirates lefty J.A. Happ is slated to start for New York. The game will air in Pittsburgh on KDKA-FM.

SCORING SUMMARY

INNING				MIN	PIT
Twins		2nd	Wade homered to right, Cave scored and Astudillo scored.	3	0
Twins		5th	Rosales homered to left.	4	0
Twins		5th	Garver homered to left, Arraez scored.	6	0
Twins		5th	M. Reed homered to center.	7	0
Twins		8th	Cronin homered to left, Gordon scored and Cesar scored.	10	0
Pirates		8th	Kelley hit sacrifice fly to left, J. Martin scored.	10	1

FINAL SCORING SUMMARY

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
MINNESOTA	0	3	0	0	4	0	0	3	0	10	15	0
PITTSBURGH	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	1

MINNESOTA

HITTERS	POS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	AVG
Mitch Garver	C	4	1	1	2	0	2	2	.143
Tomas Telis	C	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.083
Michael Reed	RF	3	1	1	1	0	0	0	.333
Zander Wiel	RF	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
C.J. Cron	1B	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	.316
Wynston Sawyer	PR-1B	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.154
Jake Cave	CF	4	1	1	0	0	1	1	.286
Jimmy Kerrigan	PR-CF	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.286
Willians Astudillo	LF	4	1	1	0	0	0	2	.250
Jon Kemmer	LF	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.167
LaMonte Wade	DH	4	1	2	3	0	1	2	.292
Jordan Gore	PH-DH	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.400
Ronald Torreyes	SS	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	.346
Nick Gordon	SS	2	1	1	0	0	1	2	.312
Adam Rosales	3B	3	1	1	1	0	1	2	.450
Randy Cesar	3B	2	1	1	0	0	0	2	.200
Luis Arraez	2B	3	1	1	0	0	1	2	.188
Joe Cronin	PH-2B	1	1	1	3	0	0	0	1.000
Totals		43	10	15	10	1	10	17
Batting
2B - Willians Astudillo (1), Randy Cesar (1), Luis Arraez (1)
HR - Mitch Garver (1), Michael Reed (1), LaMonte Wade (1), Adam Rosales (3), Joe Cronin (1)
TB - Mitch Garver 4, Michael Reed 4, C.J. Cron 2, Jake Cave, Willians Astudillo 2, Jon Kemmer, LaMonte Wade 5, Ronald Torreyes, Nick Gordon, Adam Rosales 4, Randy Cesar 2, Luis Arraez 2, Joe Cronin 4
RBI - Mitch Garver 2 (2), Michael Reed (1), LaMonte Wade 3 (7), Adam Rosales (6), Joe Cronin 3 (3)
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - Mitch Garver (1), LaMonte Wade (4), Randy Cesar (2)
Team LOB - 7

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	ERA
Martin Perez (W 1-0)	4.0	3	0	0	1	3	0	2.00
Trevor Hildenberger	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3.60
Fernando Romero	2.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.29
Chase De Jong	2.0	1	1	1	0	0	0	13.50
Pitches-Strikes - Martin Perez 24-20, Trevor Hildenberger 3-3, Fernando Romero 9-9, Chase De Jong 7-7
Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Martin Perez 5-3, Trevor Hildenberger 3-0, Fernando Romero 4-1, Chase De Jong 3-1
Batters Faced - Martin Perez 15, Trevor Hildenberger 3, Fernando Romero 6, Chase De Jong 7

Pittsburgh

Hitters	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	Avg
Adam Frazier	2B	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	.250
Kevin Kramer	2B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
Patrick Kivlehan	LF	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	.280
Calvin Mitchell	LF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
Corey Dickerson	DH	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	.636
Hunter Owen	PH-DH	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Lonnie Chisenhall	RF	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	.300
Bryan Reynolds	RF	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.238
Colin Moran	3B	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	.190
Ke'Bryan Hayes	3B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.350
Jose Osuna	1B	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.182
Will Craig	1B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
Kevin Newman	SS	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.211
Pablo Reyes	SS	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.261
J.B. Shuck	CF	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.409
Jason Martin	CF	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	.333
Christian Kelley	C	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	.100
Arden Pabst	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.273
Totals		29	1	4	1	1	4	3
Batting
3B - Jason Martin (2)
TB - Corey Dickerson 2, J.B. Shuck, Jason Martin 3
RBI - Christian Kelley (1)
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - Colin Moran (2)
SF - Christian Kelley (1)
Team LOB - 3
Fielding
E - Adam Frazier (1)

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	ERA
Clay Holmes (L 0-1)	3.0	3	3	2	0	3	1	5.14
Felipe Vazquez	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
Keone Kela	1.0	4	4	4	0	1	3	12.00
Richard Rodriguez	1.1	4	0	0	0	3	0	0.00
Tyler Lyons	1.2	3	3	3	0	1	1	7.71
Brandon Waddell	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	3.86
Pitches-Strikes - Clay Holmes 23-21, Felipe Vazquez 5-5, Keone Kela 13-10, Richard Rodriguez 12-12, Tyler Lyons 19-12, Brandon Waddell 9-5
Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Clay Holmes 5-1, Felipe Vazquez 2-0, Keone Kela 0-2, Richard Rodriguez 0-1, Tyler Lyons 1-2, Brandon Waddell 1-0
Batters Faced - Clay Holmes 13, Felipe Vazquez 3, Keone Kela 7, Richard Rodriguez 8, Tyler Lyons 8, Brandon Waddell 5
Inherited Runners-Scored - Tyler Lyons 2-0