Notes: Duke down after defeat

03/26/2006
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Zach Duke didn't have quite the outing he was looking for in Sunday's 9-8 loss to the Blue Jays. The southpaw scattered 11 hits and allowed eight runs, six earned, over four rocky innings for his third loss of the spring.
"I never accept an outing like this as something that is good -- it's just not in my character," Duke said. "I expect the best, and if I don't get the results, I get upset."
Still, Pirates manager Jim Tracy said he was impressed with the 22-year-old's composure, particularly the grit the youngster showed after Toronto put three runs on the board in the first inning.
"[I saw] a kid that was still battling, never broke down, kept making pitches ... a few ground balls found their way right down the third-base line, that's what you look for," Tracy said. "When things aren't exactly unfolding the way you'd like to see them, you like to observe the body language of the individual and see how he's handling it.
"I saw a very young, mature pitcher who was out there still making pitches. ... That tells me something about that guy. And what that tells me is, he's going to have a lot more good days than bad days, because he gets it."
To his credit, all three runs in the first scored after second baseman Jose Castillo bobbled a double-play ball. Toronto also hit a few screamers right up the third-base line, resulting in base hits. Add in two broken-bat singles, and Duke was saddled with the hard-luck loss.
But Tracy seemed more positive than anything about the outing, and he was quick to come to Duke's defense, cautioning that one outing doesn't make a pitcher.
"That'll happen to the best of them, at any point in time in their career," Tracy said. "When they see [his toughness] on the other side of the field, there's no intonation whatsoever that, 'We got him,' because he's not backing off, and he's not going to back off. He's going to be a terrific Major League pitcher, sooner than later.
"He's already pretty good."
Bautista makes infield rounds: In two years of Major League baseball, Jose Bautista had never played shortstop.
Tracy decided there was no time like the present, and introduced Bautista to the position in the bottom of the seventh. It wasn't completely cold-turkey -- Tracy said Bautista had been taking infield at shortstop during practices. The result was an error-free two innings and a few snazzy stops.
"[The ball] found him a few times today, and a couple times of which were going to be very interesting plays to see what happened," Tracy said. "He made one up the middle, one deep in the hole to his backhand. ... He pretty much made every play you would ask a shortstop to make.
"He's shown us a lot this spring."
Bautista has now seen action at each of the outfield spots, second base and shortstop for the Pirates.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday: During a time when many choose to kick back and relax, Jason Bay has been turning it up a notch at the end of the week.
The All-Star left fielder hit two home runs in three at-bats on Sunday to double his spring total. Each of his long bombs have come on the week's final day. All told, Bay is hitting 6-for-8 with eight RBIs on Sundays.
Bay denied feeling any different on Sundays, but he paused for a minute to reflect on the statistics, before brushing them off with a shrug.
"That's interesting," he laughed. "I thought it's usually that I do better on Fridays, but hey, any day is good."
Even more interesting, perhaps, was the piggybacking first baseman Craig Wilson did. Following Bay in the lineup, Wilson mirrored his performance in each of his three at-bats, resulting in back-to-back homers in the first inning, back-to-back strikeouts at the end of the second and start of the third, and another pair of homers in the fifth.
"He was following everything I did ... it was kind of neat," Bay said. "I've never done that before, exhibition or not."
Whittling down the numbers: The Pirates cut five players on Sunday morning before the team traveled to Dunedin to face the Blue Jays. Non-roster invitees Marty McLeary, J.J. Furmaniak, Ray Sadler, Jorge Vasquez and Paul Chiaffredo all were reassigned to Minor League camp, bringing the total active roster number down to 35.
Of the five, Sadler appeared to be having the best spring. The outfielder hit .364 (16-for-44) with two doubles, three home runs and six RBIs. Pittsburgh needs to trim the roster to 25 before it breaks camp next week.
Long ball battle: In addition to Bay and Wilson's two homers, center fielder Chris Duffy and designated hitter Ryan Doumit each went deep to bring the Pirates' spring total to 42 homers, second in the Majors and eight behind league-leading Detroit.
He said it: "If we were going to venture into that, we'd probably do that over at Pirate City first, just to kind of let him ease into that." -- Tracy, jokingly responding to an inquiry about when fans could expect to see Bautista pitch

Source: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/