Pirates get homers from Bryan Reynolds, Jack Suwinski but Braves pound Pirates
Bryan Reynolds homered for the second consecutive game, and Jack Suwinski hit his first homer of spring training but the Atlanta Braves rallied with a five-run sixth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Braves got took the lead on an Ehire Adrianza double and put the Pirates away with Joe Hudson’s two-run homer for an 11-3 win on Sunday afternoon in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla. It marked the third loss in which the Pirates gave up at least 10 runs or more in their past four games, following a 10-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday and a 10-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
Michael Harris II, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a 351-foot opposite-field homer off a Mitch Keller 2-0 sinker. The Braves increased their lead in the second, when Ryan Casteel singled to score former Pirate Jordan Luplow to make it 2-0.
Keller allowed two runs on three hits and one walk, recovering from a rough start to strike out four of the final five batters he faced. In four starts this spring, Keller has given up three homers and five earned runs while recording 13 strikeouts and only one walk.
Braves starter Jared Shuster threw three scoreless innings before Reynolds hit a 433-foot shot to left-center to cut it to 2-1 in the fourth. Reynolds homered in the 3-0 win over the New York Yankees on Saturday, as two of his three hits this spring were bombs. Suwinski added a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
The Braves took advantage of right-handed reliever Yohan Ramirez in the sixth. Ramirez inherited two runners when he replaced lefty Angel Perdomo after Vaughan Grissom singled and Sam Hilliard walked.
Adrianza doubled off Ramirez to score both runners to give the Braves a 4-3 lead. Casteel singled to score Adrianza to make it 5-3, and Hudson hit a two-run homer to left-center to stretch the Braves’ lead to four runs. Ramirez has a 15.75 ERA, allowing seven earned runs in four innings over five appearances this spring.
The Braves added four runs in the ninth, on an RBI single by Forrest Wall, a two-run single by Hoy Park and a Mitchell Tolman double to right to score Park.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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