We’re only about two weeks away from Pirates opening day and we saw one very encouraging thing and one very unencouraging thing.
Let’s start with the good:
Oneil Cruz leads the majors in home runs this spring, hitting his fifth on Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.
And, he made it look easy.
You don’t have to tell Pirates fans to take spring stats with a grain of salt.
Kevin Newman hit .700 or something a few seasons back and Mark Johnston was crushing homers back in the day.
But, with Cruz coming off a broken fibula, it’s important that Cruz works toward getting back into baseball shape.
The bad:
Pitcher Roansy Contreras struggled.
Over 4 innings pitched, Contreras gave up four earned runs, two hits and walked six.
He struck out three.
He had poor command of his fast ball.
The Pirates are hoping for a bounce back year from Contreras.