BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates lost both of their split-squad contests Sunday, falling to the Tigers, 8-4, in Bradenton, and to the Phillies in Clearwater, 4-3.
In Bradenton, Derek Holland made his first appearance as a Pirate, gunning to make the opening day roster. The first pitch of his roster spot campaign: A curveball, low.
It looked like an odd choice for him. Last year, he barely offered his curve to right-handed hitters, like JaCoby Jones. He barely threw it to open at-bats, too.
His second pitch: Launched over the right-center wall.
While that would seem like the type of early sequence that would worry a pitcher fighting for a roster spot, Holland was fine. So was his catcher, Luke Maile. It was a bad result, but they liked the sequence.
"We were having a little fun," Holland said. "You've got to enjoy it. This game's played to have fun, enjoy yourself."
Maile defended going with the curve first. Not that he needed to.
"Why can't you use it the first pitch? That's the way I always look at it," Maile joshed with me. "It kind of backfired on us today, but I've seen it work more times than it hasn't."
The thing is, Holland wanted to make sure he worked on all of his stuff in his first start. He and Maile were on the same page, and Holland praised his backstop after the game, unprompted.
"He was perfect behind the plate," Holland said. "Great game calling. I did tell him a few things, what I was going to do beforehand because we're setting things, and he's getting a feel for me, I'm getting a feel for him."
Steven Brault, who pitched the third, is also getting a feel for him.
"We talked before, we talked afterwards. He's good at communicating," Brault said. "Had a good plan. I liked the pitches that he called. I only shook him once. He knows that I like to throw fastballs inside, so he called it and it worked."
This offseason, Ben Cherington talked about how the team wanted to use their catchers to get the most out of their pitchers. Not just in analytical terms like framing, pitch blocking and defensive runs saved, but the intangibles, like calling games, processing information mid-game and how they can handle the staff.
While the Pirates pitchers have universally praised Jacob Stallings for his preparation and performance as a defender, Maile was an outsider, coming from Toronto this offseason. This spring, Maile has to not only earn his roster spot, but try to understand what clicks for each pitcher.
"You're got to be with these guys for six, seven or eight months, whatever it is. You may as well establish a good relationship with them," Maile said. "Doesn't mean you're not going to disagree at times, but I feel like my background, being what it has been the last couple years, I feel like I've got at least a little bit to stand on when it comes to these guys' opinion, and they have been super receptive. And there are some guys in this room that have tremendous ideas that I'm taking to heart as well.
"It's early. We're going to continue to develop that relationship."
• Holland struck out five of his eight batters faced, but allowed two runs on a homer and two doubles.
Still, he thought it was a productive first outing.
"I thought today was one of those days where we're going to work on everything," Holland said. "A lot of people get caught up in the numbers and all that stuff, but when you've got two innings to work with, you want to try to throw everything.
"I know obviously I'm competing for a job, but I want to make sure I've got everything where it needs to be."
Some of his pitches were sharper than others, which is obvious for this stage of the season. He left a couple changeups on the zone that he paid for, but Derek Shelton didn't pay it much mind.
"He's a feel to pitch guy, and that's a pitch that he can use and be very effective using," Shelton said. "He's getting the feel for it."
• Brault only need eight pitches to complete his first outing of spring, getting three weakly hit outs.
As he put it, "Efficient, consistent, sweet."
"That's what I was trying to do this offseason, so it's a good feeling," Brault said.
He pitched just the one inning, with the plan being to ramp up his workload over spring.
He also mixed in some offspeed stuff, a rarity for a pitcher who has been known to throw nothing but fastballs for innings at a time.
"Some of spring training is just working on stuff. Getting pitches in," Brault said. "I felt good about every pitch I threw today."
• J.T. Riddle made a good first impression for a roster spot by working an 11 pitch walk in the first and moving from first to third on a ground out later in the inning.
"I just noticed they had the shift going," Riddle said. "Third baseman was playing over and once he covered second, I looked over and there was no one at third, so it was a foot race to get there."
He also jumped on a fastball to pull a triple into the right field corner and picked up an RBI on a weakly struck single.
• Keone Kela struck out the side in the fourth, mixing in a lot of curveballs.
"I definitely wanted to started working on reestablishing my secondary [pitch], because I know I have a fastball," Kela said. "Being able to come into later inning roles, I want to be able to establish something different, get guys off balance and stuff like that. Add more oomph to my fastball."
Most guys usually start their springs by focusing on the fastball, but Kela started with a couple curves.
"I'm not gonna give anybody some free juice," he said with a smirk.
Kela walked one, but that free pass to Jorge Bonifacio only happened because he didn't get the call from home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi.
Cuzzi and Kela joked after, with Cuzzi asking where that curveball came from. Kela jabbed back that he's had it for five years.
"I know that if the umpire's having so much of an issue to see it, the hitter is as well," Kela said.
• Gregory Polanco got the start as the designated hitter, drawing a walk and popping out to third twice.
"I thought he approached [his at-bats] very aggressively," Shelton said. "It was really good to see."
• In the Phillies game: Trevor Williams allowed four runs on four hits and a walk in his two inning spring debut. Jose Osuna went 2-3 with an RBI, and Kevin Newman and Ke'Bryan Hayes each had a base hit.
• Who threw today:
Vs. Tigers
Derek Holland: 1.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 5 K
Brandon Waddell: 0.1 IP
Steven Brault: 1 IP
Keone Kela: 1 IP, 3 K, 1 BB
Richard Rodriguez: 1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 K
Sam Howard: 1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 BB
Robbie Erlin: 1 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, BB
Dovydas Neverauskas: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Nicholas Economas: 1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 K
Vs. Phillies
Trevor Williams: 2 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 BB
Hector Noesi: 1 IP, 1 H
Nick Burdi: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB
Montana DuRapau: 1.1 IP,
J.T. Brubaker: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Cody Ponce: 1 IP, 1 K, 2 BB
Blake Weiman: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
