Ji Hwan Bae gets Pirates off to a fast start in 1st inning but they play Orioles to a tie
Ji Hwan Bae got the Pittsburgh Pirates off to a fast start against the Baltimore Orioles, but it proved to be their only run.
The Pirates and Orioles played to a 1-1 tie Friday night in a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota.
Bae hit a leadoff single off Kyle Gibson, stole second base and scored on Jack Suwinski’s single to give the Pirates (1-4-2) a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Orioles tied the score when Anthony Santander drew a walk against Vince Velasquez and scored on Ryan Mountcastle’s double to left field in the bottom of the first.
It was the only hit allowed by Velasquez, who gave up two walks and had one strikeout in two innings but retired five of the final six batters he faced. David Bednar recorded a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless third inning.
Quinn Priester had runners on first and third in the sixth after giving up a double to Mountcastle, walking Ramon Urias and getting Austin Hays to ground into a forceout, then got Adam Frazier to ground out to escape the jam.
In the bottom of the ninth, Wei-Chieh Huang allowed a single to Maverick Handley, who advanced to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch. But Huang escaped by retiring a pair of former first-round draft choices, striking out Heston Kjerstad and getting 2022 No. 1 overall pick Jackson Holliday to ground out to end the game.
Rich Hill is expected to start for the Pirates against Aaron Nola when they visit the Phillies at 1:05 p.m. Saturday in Clearwater.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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