Joe Musgrove made his spring-training debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates an efficient one, as the right-hander threw two scoreless innings in a 6-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday at LECOM Park.
Musgrove hit leadoff batter Roman Quinn with a pitch, but catcher Luke Maile threw out Quinn on an attempted steal of second base. Musgrove then struck out Scott Kingery and forced Didi Gregorious to fly out. In the second, Musgrove retired all three batters he faced.
Clean work by Joe Musgrove in his two-inning spring debut. 25 pitches, 18 strikes. No hits, no walks, one hit batter, one strikeout on a breaking ball.
— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) February 25, 2020
Fastball sat at 93 mph, touched 94. Lot of sharp secondary stuff. ICYMI, some of what he's working on: https://t.co/SmJ8JXGRma
Two scoreless for Big Joe in his Spring debut.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/n9vSbTKfTK
— Pirates (@Pirates) February 25, 2020
The Phillies took the lead in the sixth when Kingery doubled to right field, then scored on Jean Segura’s double to deep center for a 1-0 lead.
Pirates catcher John Ryan Murphy answered with two-run homer to left field on a 1-2 pitch by Connor Brogdon. It was the team’s first homer of the spring.
John Ryan Murphy with the first homer of Spring.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/cYyumUn13s
— Pirates (@Pirates) February 25, 2020
The Phillies took the lead with a four-run seventh off reliever Williams Jerez. Matthew Vierling hit a bases-loaded fielder’s choice to tie it, Daniel Brito hit an RBI double and Jose Gomez followed with a two-run triple for a 5-2 lead. Gomez added a two-out RBI single off Brandon Waddell in the ninth to make it 6-2.
The Phillies’ lineup included Pine-Richland alum and former Pirate Neil Walker, who went 0 for 3 while batting fifth and starting at first base. Walker is one of four former Pirates on the Phillies. Andrew McCutchen, Josh Harrison and Francisco Liriano did not play.
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