Ji-Man Choi hits 1st homer of spring training against former team as Pirates beat Rays

Ji-Man Choi promised to bring a lot of smiles to Pittsburgh Pirates fans this season, and he delivered one against his former team.

Choi hit his first home run of spring training, a two-run shot in the first inning, to lead the Pirates to a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

Even Rays manager Kevin Cash cracked one.

“It’s funny because my first homer was against the Rays,” Choi told AT&T SportsNet through interpreter Daniel Park. “When I was running towards home plate, I saw Cash and he was smiling, too.”

The Pirates acquired Choi from the Rays in November for minor-league pitcher Jack Hartman in an effort to address first base. The 31-year-old South Korean had 11 home runs and 52 RBIs for the Rays last season and 61 career homers in seven major-league seasons.

“It was a good deal for us,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton told AT&T SportsNet during an in-game interview. “It’s something over the last couple years we’ve been through a lot of first basemen. We were able to actually secure Choi and (Carlos) Santana this year, which is really important for us. Ji-Man’s done a nice job.”

After leadoff batter Ji Hwan Bae was hit by a pitch, stole second base and advanced to third on a Bryan Reynolds groundout to second, Choi hit Luis Patino’s 0-2 slider 375 feet over the right-field fence for a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Choi has hit safely in four of his last five games, going 5 for 13 with a double, homer and four RBIs.

“He’s really starting to take better swings,” Shelton said. “Two games ago, (he had) a couple base hits — a line-drive double — and then today being able to get the slider up and out of the ballpark.”

The Pirates got a strong start from Osvaldo Bido, a 27-year-old right-hander who spent last season at Triple-A Indianapolis. Bido made a spot start to fill in for a rotation depleted Tuesday, when the Pirates had split-squad games against the Baltimore Orioles and Minnesota Twins and right-handers Roansy Contreras and Luis Ortiz pitched for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.

Bido threw two scoreless innings without giving up a hit, allowing one walk while striking out four as he threw 17 of his 27 pitches for strikes.

The Pirates increased their lead to four runs in the second inning. Tyler Heineman, who also was hit by a pitch, scored on Bae’s double to right when he knocked the ball out of catcher Christian Bethancourt’s mitt sliding into home plate for a 3-0 lead. After Reynolds was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Chris Owings scored on Jack Suwinski’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-0.

Canaan Smith-Njigba sent Patino’s 1-2 fastball 391 feet over the center-field fence in the third to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead, officially his second of spring training despite one that cleared the fence but was ruled a single when he passed a baserunner. It was the second homer in three games for Smith-Njigba, who is hitting .353 (6 for 17) with a 1.095 OPS over his last seven games.

“Good swing. Good barrel,” Smith-Njigba told AT&T SportsNet. “I’m a big guy, so all I’ve got to do is touch it and it goes out.”

Angel Perdomo gave up a 414-foot solo shot to Luke Raley as the Rays cut it to 5-1, but the 6-foot-8 lefty struck out the other three batters he faced in the fourth inning as Pirates pitchers combined to record 16 strikeouts. Perdomo’s nine strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings leads Pirates relievers, followed by Jose Hernandez and Dauri Moreta, who struck out two of the three batters he faced and has eight in 5 2/3 innings.

Logan Driscoll drove a Yerry De Los Santos 2-2 slider 367 feet to right field for a solo homer to cut it to 5-2 in the seventh. Mason Martin gave the Pirates a 6-2 lead when he launched Calvin Faucher’s 1-1 curveball over the batter’s eye in straightaway center for a solo homer in the eighth, driving the ball at a game-best 108.1 mph exit velocity and an estimated 417 feet, per Statcast.

Mitch Keller is expected to start against Minnesota’s Aaron Sanchez when the Pirates host the Twins at 1:05 p.m. Saturday.