BRADENTON, Fla. -- It was important for the Pirates this year to do what they can to help their pitchers know the new rules that come with the pitch clock.
Sometimes those new rules aren't always so black and white though, as they would discover in their 7-6 loss to the Orioles Tuesday at LECOM Park.
While the call did not have an outcome on the game, a quick pitch call on Rich Hill definitely fired up the veteran lefty and sparked a conversation on the mound that proved that there are some things to still iron out before the start of the regular season.
Facing Adley Rutschman as the second batter of the game, Hill tried to sneak a 1-1 curveball over the plate before Ruschman appeared to be fully set. New pitch clock rules mean that the hitter has to be in the box and engaged by the eight second mark, which he was, but home plate umpire Will Little still called that Hill did not give the hitter enough time to prepare.
At the end of the day, the call had no bearing. Rutschman lined out and the pitch would have been called a ball anyway. But for someone who has been dinged by the new pitch clock rules already this spring, Hill again took the hit.
"It’s a lot of discretion," Hill said. "Everybody is trying to get used to it, so Will was just telling me the hitter has to be eyes locked in. I thought he was. He said he wasn’t. I said, ‘OK.’ That was it."
The conversation Hill, Little and Derek Shelton had on the mound after the call showed it wasn't so cut and dry. While hardly hostile, there was at least some level of confusion and frustration on the Pirates' part.
"It's something that he's done his entire career," Shelton said. "I think as we're learning the pitch clock, we're going to have to learn when that is and the definition of the hitter being engaged is."
Getting a feel for where those new rules is probably a good thing, right? Umpires and the league have warned teams that the new rules are going to be enforced right out of the gate this season, and if the minor-league game is any indicator, there are going to be some bumps in the road to start that eventually level out.
Better to find exactly where that line in the sand is now rather than in Cincinnati later this month, right?
"It’s a learning curve for everybody throughout spring training," Hill said. "It’s good to get there now as opposed to doing it during the season. Will’s been around for a while. I’ve been around for a while. I get it. I’m gonna be intense whether it’s spring training or regular season. The other side is just understanding rules and having an idea of what is the line on it. I think we got there and we know where we’re going to be. Just go from there."
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• As for the rest of Hill's start, well, why not let him take it:
"The results were what they were. So it’s crap."
Some defensive miscues and well placed contact snowballed on him in the second, resulting in a five-run frame that he couldn't complete. Because of spring training rules he was able to return to pitch a quiet third or fourth inning, but that one bad inning put the Pirates in a bad spot all game.
"I’m not outcome-oriented, but the results are what they are," Hill said about his spring start. "That’s part of the game. You give up some mishit balls that fall in, it’s good to do it now in spring training and work on stuff. But at the same time, we like to see results. Go out there and take the positives out of it. Zero walks. A lot of competitive pitches. Move on from there."
The Pirates did chip away to tie the game at five -- highlighted by a couple line drive hits from Travis Swaggerty and a Ji-Man Choi bases loaded hit -- but Cody Bolton allowed a pair of runs in the seventh inning to give the Orioles the lead for good. A late Pirates rally ultimately came up short when Jared Triolo grounded out with the bases loaded in the ninth.
Chase De Jong went 1 2/3 scoreless frames, Dauri Moreta tossed a quick sixth inning and Mike Burrows closed out the game with two hitless innings, striking out three and walking one.
• Swaggerty is having himself quite a spring. For someone who admits he is normally a slower starter and needs 50 or 100 at-bats to get into the swing of things, he's gotten off to a fast start this year, picking up a couple more hits Tuesday to raise his spring average to .368 (7-for-19) with two home runs and a 1.084 OPS.
He attributes part of that early success to reworking how he does batting practice, doing more mixed pitch cage sessions and trying to simulate more of a game feel.
"I think that goes back to last year, getting sent down from the Major Leagues and not going back up," Swaggerty said. "That gave me more motivation for the offseason and then coming into spring training, I knew that I needed to be aggressive with everything that I do, but keep it controlled, so that I can keep the ball in my own court, you know? It's worked so far, so I'm just gonna keep doing that, or at least mentally think that way."
He also seems to be in a much better spot mentally. He had injuries to battle through last year plus family healthy scares that made 2022 an extremely difficult season. Now that his family is doing well and he's fully healthy, he's pushing to try to earn an opening day job.
"There's a lot of competition out there," Shelton said. "We said coming in with all those guys who played in the minors leagues there's going to be competition. Swags has done a nice job. He's swung the bat well and he's played well defensively."
• That good outfield defense has been hard to come by so far this spring. Jack Suwinski has gotten more reps in center field, and while LECOM Park is notoriously rough for outfielders because of the sun, he has struggled to read fly balls that have dropped in safely for hits. On Tuesday, he made an erroneous dive on a base hit that turned into a triple, sparking the Orioles' five run inning.
This has been a recurring theme this spring, not just with Suwinski, but with Bryan Reynolds and Cal Mitchell too.
"We need to be better," Shelton said. "The sun has had a factor, the wind has had a factor, but our routes and breaks need to be better."
It's worth noting that outfield coach Tarrik Brock has been away from the team for over a week as he coaches for team China in the World Baseball Classic.
• It was a split-squad day Tuesday. The other batch of Pirates went to Fort Myers, Fla. and tied the Twins, 2-2. Canaan Smith-Njigba, another young outfielder in competition for an opening day spot, homered and pitching prospect Kyle Nicolas allowed one earned run over 2 2/3 innings.
Vince Velasquez was originally supposed to make that start, but the Pirates opted to have him throw a simulated game at Pirate City instead so they could more closely monitor him. Catching up with him Tuesday afternoon, he said he threw 61 pitches over four innings, and that there is nothing pressing as to why he stayed behind. Shelton would say afterwards they wanted to keep the veteran closer rather than making the long drive.
• We've got a new batch of roster cuts, including Endy Rodriguez. More on that here.
