Grapefruit League Game 7: Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Toronto Blue Jays 1

The Pittsburgh Pirates played their 7th off 33 Grapefruit League games on Thursday afternoon

The Pittsburgh Pirates are now 1-4-2 in Grapefruit League play. Their first victory of the spring came against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 4-1 at LECOM Park in Bradenton on Thursday afternoon.

Right-handed pitching prospect Nick Kingham started for the Pirates on Thursday and logged 3 strong innings of work. Kingham allowed a run on 3 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts in his 3 innings pitched. Nick Kingham has now allowed that single run on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts in 5 innings pitched this spring.

With the Pirates trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Sean Rodriguez launched his second home run of the spring tying the game at 1. Rodriguez finished the game 1-for-2 with this home run and a strikeout.

Felipe Rivero pitched a scoreless 4th inning with a pair of strikeouts, while Michael Feliz recorded a strikeout in a scoreless 5th inning of work. This spring, Feliz has retired each batter he has faced except one while recording a quartet of strikeouts.

Starting pitching prospect Clay Holmes would pitch the 6th and 7th innings. He held the Blue Jays off the board while allowing a pair of singles and issuing a walk. Holmes, like Kingham, will start the year in the Triple-A rotation but should make his Major League debut in 2018.

In the bottom of the 6th inning the Pittsburgh Pirates would break the tie. Kevin Newman was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Later in the inning he scored on an Eric Wood single to make the score 2-1 Pirates.

The bottom of the 7th inning saw top hitting prospect Austin Meadows continue his red hot spring. Meadows launched a 2-run home run scoring Chris Bostick to make the score 4-1 Pirates.

Austin Meadows is now 5-for-8 with a home run, a triple, and two doubles this spring. This is a very welcome sight to Pirate fans after all his injury issues in 2017.

With the score now 4-1, Dovydas Neverauskas entered to pitch the top of the 7th inning and he retired the Blue Jays in order. Non-roster invitee, and ex-Bleu Jay farmhand, John Stilson would then pitch a scoreless top of the 9th inning to close out the game.

Adam Frazier started in left and led off for the Pirates on Thursday, he went 0-for-2 with a walk. Josh Harrison, Colin Moran, and David Freese all went 0-for-2 as well. As for Bucco backstops, Francisco Cervelli was 0-for-1 with a walk while Elias Diaz served as the designated hitter and went 0-for-3.

Next: Daniel Nava out 10-12 weeks

Next up for the Pirates is a trip to Sarasota to play the Baltimore Orioles at 1:05 on Friday afternoon. Tyler Glasnow will make his second appearance of the spring and start for the Bucs on Friday.