Santana homers in Pirates win
BRADENTON, Fla. – Carlos Santana hit a two-run opposite-field home run and Mitch Keller pitched three scoreless innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 7-2 Tuesday.
Both teams had six hits in the game, but the Pirates gained the upper hand by hitting two home runs and by taking advantage of two errors by Toronto that led to four unearned runs.
Santana, a free-agent signee in the offseason, hit his first home run of the spring, over the wall in right centerfield, in the fourth inning to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.
The Blue Jays tied the score in the top of the fifth on a Rob Brantly triple and Whit Merrifield single, but Pittsburgh regained the lead in the seventh after Tyler Heineman reached on an error by Toronto’s Wynton Bernard.
Lolo Sanchez added insurance in the eighth with his first home run of the spring.
The final two runs came across later in the inning after Zach Britton misplayed a ball in right field.
Keller had another strong outing, allowing only three hits with three strikeouts. Carmen Mlodzinski was the winning pitcher in relief. He retired the side on eight pitches in the seventh inning. Chase De Jong, Daniel Zamora, Tyler Chatwood and Cody Bolton also threw scoreless innings.
The games lasted 2 hours, 13 minutes, the Pirates’ fastest spring training game in five years.
Prior to the game, the Pirates reassigned infielders Malcom Nunez and Liover Peguero and pitchers Kyle Nicolas and Jared Jones to minor league camp.