Split-squad Pirates battle back to tie Twins, lose to Orioles despite 9th inning rally

After a day off, the Pittsburgh Pirates used a split squad to play two games Tuesday afternoon. That meant splitting the coaching staff for the Grapefruit League games.

Where manager Derek Shelton’s team took a 7-6 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla., bench coach Don Kelly led the Pirates to a 2-2 tie against the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.

The Pirates had the chance to beat Baltimore. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth after singles by Nick Gonzales and Endy Rodriguez and a full-count walk from Carter Bins, Jared Triolo grounded out to third to end the game.

The Orioles took advantage of mishaps by center fielder Jack Suwinski to score five runs in the second inning off lefty Rich Hill, who showed his frustration after being called for a quick pitch by home plate umpire Will Little in the first inning.

In the second, Josh Lester tripled when Suwinski dived for a fly ball but dropped it. Lester then scored on Daz Cameron’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. After singles by Heston Kjerstad and Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo doubled off Suwinski’s glove in right-center to score Kjerstad to make it 2-0. Westburg scored on Colton Cowser’s fielder’s choice to first and Mayo on Terrin Vavra’s sacrifice fly for a 4-0 lead. After Cowser beat Bryan Reynolds’ throw on an Adley Rutschman single to shallow left for a 5-0 lead, Cam Alldred replaced Hill to get the final out.

Spring training rules allowed Hill to return, and he allowed five earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts over three innings. During an in-game interview, Shelton told AT&T SportsNet that he thought Hill fared better than his pitching line indicated.

“We had a couple balls we should’ve caught in the outfield and it ended up extending the inning,” Shelton said. “I think Rich has thrown the ball pretty well all spring. … He’s really shown that if you execute and throw strikes, you can get hitters out.”

The Pirates answered with four runs in the third, as Austin Hedges doubled and scored on a single by Oneil Cruz. Ji-Man Choi’s bases-loaded single drove in two more runs to cut it to 5-3, and Reynolds scored on Carlos Santana’s groundout to first to cut it to 5-4. Travis Swaggerty singled to right to drive in Tucupita Marcano to tie the score at 5-5 in the fourth.

The Orioles added two more runs in the seventh against Cody Bolton, as Josh Lester hit another RBI triple down the right-field line, and pinch runner TT Bowens scored on Cameron’s groundout to make it 7-5.

In Fort Myers, the Twins took a 1-0 lead on Max Kepler’s RBI single off Kyle Nicolas in the third but the Pirates tied it when Canaan Smith-Njigba hit a 390-foot home run off Brent Headrick.

Michael A. Taylor doubled, then scored on a double by Trevor Larnach to give the Twins a 2-1 lead in the fourth, but the Pirates tied the score on Matt Gorski’s line-drive single to score Matt Fraizer in the eighth.