Instant Reaction: Nathan Lukes hits grand slam in Blue Jays\u2019 9-2 victory over Pirates<\/p>\n
On Friday afternoon, the Blue Jays hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates in Dunedin, beating the National League team in Grapefruit League action by a score of 9-2. Their Spring Training record now moves to 3-8. Let\u2019s take a look at what happened in this one.<\/p>\n
In the top of the second, the Pirates took a 1-0 lead thanks to an up-the-middle single from Temarr Johnson, scoring Dominic Fletcher. Their other run was scored thanks to a home run by Fletcher, as he hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays rallied in the bottom half of the fourth. With runners on the corner and one out, prospect Josh Rivera hit an RBI single to cut the Pirates\u2019 lead in half. Then with the bases loaded, Nathan Lukes hit a grand slam for his first home run of Spring Training, giving the Jays a 5-2 lead.<\/p>\n
Nathan Lukes has left TD Ballpark \ud83d\ude33<\/p>\n
It’s a GRAND SLAM! <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the bottom of the seventh until a team score again, as catcher Geovanny Planchart hit a sacrifice fly to score Jonatan Clase. With the replacements on the field, the Blue Jays hit back-to-back home runs, as prospect Yohendrick Pi\u00f1ango<\/a> hit two run blast in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-2.Next up was fellow prospect Eddie Micheletti<\/a>, who also hit his first home run of Spring Training, which gave the Blue Jays a 9-2 lead. No more runs were scored in this one, as the Blue Jays\u2019 bullpen had a solid day.<\/p>\n The kids are CRUSHING!<\/p>\n Yohendrick Pinango and Eddie Micheletti Jr. go back-to-back \ud83d\udcaa <\/p>\n Takeaways\u2026<\/p>\n In the bullpen, Jeff Hoffman pitched in his first outing since that game, pitching a scoreless inning with a strikeout. Following Hoffman was Jorge Alcala, who struck out two and allowed two hits in his inning of work. Tyler Rogers struck out two in his inning, picking up his second hold of Spring Training, so get used to that. Brendon Little struck out a batter and walked a batter in his inning of work, and Tommy Nance struck out two in his inning of work.<\/p>\n Little\u2019s five whiffs were the most of any reliever, but Nance\u2019s four weren\u2019t too far behind. Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos had eight whiffs, striking out three but allowing two earned runs over four innings. Still, his 3.38 ERA this Spring Training is an encouraging sign.<\/p>\n The Jays had 11 hits in this game, with nearly half of them being of the extra-base variety. Nathan Lukes\u2019 grand slam was the biggest hit of the game, while both Yohendrick Pi\u00f1ango and Eddie Micheletti went deep to put no doubt on who won this game. Riley Tirotta hit his third double of the spring, and Jonatan Clase hit a triple. Micheletti had the Jays\u2019 only multi-hit game.<\/p>\n