Ke'Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds home runs highlight Pirate offensive outburst

Home runs from Ke'Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds powered the Pirate offense as Marco Gonzales struggled in a Grapefruit League victory for the team

Entering Tuesday afternoon's action, the Pittsburgh Pirates were 0-3 in Grapefruit League play. Well, the team is now in the win column. This comes following a 13-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, improving to 1-3 in the Grapefruit League.

Marco Gonzales struggles in Pirate Grapefruit League debut

Marco Gonzales was acquired from the Atlanta Braves via trade in December. With this, Gonzales was immediately penciled into the Pirate starting rotation. On Tuesday, he made his first Grapefruit League start with the Bucs.

The 1st inning saw Gonzales suffer from some soft contact that found holes. In the 2nd inning, however, Gonzales would really struggle. After retiring the first two batters of the inning, Gonzales issued a walk and hit a batter. He also allowed three balls in play with an exit velocity greater than 96 MPH.

This resulted in Gonzales failing to finish the 2nd inning. He pitched 1.2 innings on the day, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, a walk, a hit batter, and a pair of strikeouts. While stats in Spring Training do not matter much, results and performance do. Neither the results or performance from Gonzales were encouraging, especially considering he already enters the season with red flags and concerns.

Luis Ortiz's fastball velocity

Right-handed pitcher Luis Ortiz dazzled with an impressive cup of coffee in the majors in September of 2022. The highlight of his success that month was his power fastball that sat in the high-90s, hitting 100+ MPH multiple times.

Last season, Ortiz was viewed as a breakout candidate for the Bucs. Well, unfortunately, this did not come to fruition as he posted a 4.78 ERA and a 5.57 FIP in 86.2 innings pitched across 18 MLB appearances.

A big factor for Ortiz's struggles was that his stuff did not look as sharp or explosive as it did in 2022. Tuesday afternoon, that explosive fastball was back from Ortiz. He allowed an unearned run in 2 innings pitched, but that came on just a single hit, a walk, and 2 strikeouts.

Ortiz threw 7 pitches that clocked in at 98 MPH or greater on the radar gun. If the Pirates can get anywhere close to the Ortiz they saw in September 2022 this season it would be a huge boost to the pitching staff. Tuesday was an encouraging sign.

The rest of the pitching

Competing for a spot in the Opening Day bullpen, lefty Jose Hernandez walked a batter in a hitless, scoreless 5th inning. Hunter Stratton allowed a hit and issued a walked, but struck out a pair in a scoreles 6th inning.

Kyle Nicolas also allowed a hit, issued a walk, and struck out two as he fired a scoreless 7th inning. This was a nice bounce back outing from Nicolas who struggled mightily in his first Grapefruit League outing over the weekend. Michael Plassmeyer pitched a scoreless 8th inning and J.C. Flower struck out the side in a scoreless 9th inning.

Two key Pirate offensive cogs go deep

Entering the bottom of the 3rd inning the Pirates were trailing 4-0, but that would change.

Jack Suwinski doubled with one out in the inning, Liover Peguero singled, and Oneil Cruz drew one of his two walks on the day. Then with two outs, Ke'Bryan Hayes launched a grand slam to center field. His 1st home run of the spring tied the game at 4.

In the bottom of the 5th inning, it was Reynolds turn. After Cruz drew his second walk of the afternoon, Reynolds launched a moonshot. His 1st home run of the Grapefruit League season made the score 6-4 Pirates.

As for Reynolds, he will be looking for more consistency this season. By no means is the .790 OPS, 113 OPS+, 110 wRC+ season that Reynolds posted in 2023 a poor one, but it is a step down from the standard he has set for himself. Hopefully, today was the start of Reynolds putting together a big 2024 season.