After nursing a sore elbow, Andrew McCutchen returned to the lineup for the first time in nine days and cracked his first home run of the spring as the Pirates came from behind to down the Phillies, 4-3. Drew Maggi drove in a ninth inning run with a single and Chris Owings scored on a wild pitch to grab the win in unlikely fashion.
JT Brubaker threw five innings and gave up two runs on four hits, striking out six. The Bucs erased a 3-0 deficit with McCutchen’s two-run homer in the 6th inning and the 9th inning rally that was fueled by two walks, Maggi’s single, a bunt single by Rodolfo Castro, and the wild pitch.
After the game, the Pirates trimmed the roster by eight players. Starter Luis Ortiz and reliever Yohan Ramirez were sent to Indianapolis. Pitchers Cody Bolton, Daniel Zamora, and Carmen Mlodzinski, infielder Andres Alvarez, outfielder Chavez Young, and catcher Carter Bins were all reassigned to minor league camp.
The Bucs are off today. They’ll play the Red Sox tomorrow in Bradenton.
WBC
The World Baseball Classic came down to a 9th inning showdown between Angels teammates Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and Ohtani struck out Trout swinging on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run in scoring position to give Japan a 3-2 win and the championship. Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber homered for the U.S. in the game. Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto homered for Japan.
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