The 2026 regular season is within sight for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who played their penultimate spring training game Sunday afternoon at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.
Mitch Keller, making his final start of spring, took on the Boston Red Sox and delivered 32⁄3 innings in a 6-3 Pirates defeat.
Boston scored the winning runs against Jaden Woods in the eighth inning, plating four on four hits.
Keller was relieved with two outs in the third after throwing 72 pitches, having allowed one earned run, three hits and a walk while striking out five.
Henry Davis homered for the Pirates (17-12) in the fourth, followed by Shawn Ross in the eighth.
Keller let up a run in the first inning, but the Pirates tied the score in the second, when Jake Mangum battled Sonny Gray for nine pitches before scoring Nick Yorke with a base hit.
In the fourth, Davis launched his second home run of spring training to put the Pirates up 2-1, connecting on a Gray fastball for a 378-foot opposite-field blast.
Gregory Soto, pitching the fifth, let up a triple to Ceddanne Rafaela but got out of the inning unscathed, preserving the lead while recording three strikeouts.
Justin Lawrence and Woods pitched scoreless sixth and seventh innings for the Pirates.
Woods, staying on for the eighth, ran into trouble, letting up a walk, three singles and a double in a four-run frame for the Red Sox.
Boston (13-14) then added one more in the ninth vs. Joe La Sorsa.
Notes: Carson Fulmer, who was reassigned to minor-league camp earlier on Sunday, is set to start the Pirates’ final spring training game Monday afternoon at LECOM Park vs. the Atlanta Braves. The Pirates open the regular season Thursday in New York against the Mets, with reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes set to face Freddy Peralta at Citi Field. Manager Don Kelly revealed Sunday that righty Carmen Mlodzinski will begin the season as the Pirates’ fifth starter and will take the hill Sunday against the Mets. Keller (Saturday in New York) and righties Braxton Ashcraft (Monday at Cincinnati) and Bubba Chandler (Tuesday at Cincinnati) round out the Pirates’ season-opening rotation.
