JT Brubaker throws 5 innings, Nick Gonzales homers as Pirates rally to beat Braves

On a day when the Pittsburgh Pirates lost one starting pitcher for at least the next two months, another came through with a performance that proved he is ready for a spot in the rotation.

With lefty Steven Brault (left lat strain) out, right-hander JT Brubaker delivered the deepest outing of spring training in a 6-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

Brubaker threw 72 pitches over five innings and allowed only three hits – though two of them were home-run blasts by Austin Riley – with six strikeouts and a walk in his fourth start of the spring. Tyler Anderson also threw five innings in a 3-1 loss to Detroit on Saturday but did so on fewer pitches (66).

“It was just getting through five without having to roll or be re-entered,” Brubaker said. “Just making sure the body is able to go five is only going to help for the next outing. Just feeling good deeper into the game. That was the main goal: Get out of there healthy, throw pitches, make them swing the bat and I felt like that’s what I did.”

Riley sent the first shot over the batter’s eye in center field to give the Braves a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier tied it in the third with a 404-foot homer to right field, his second in as many games.

After Dansby Swanson drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the fourth, Riley crushed a Brubaker curveball for a 428-foot homer that cleared the deck in left-center to give the Braves a 3-1 lead. Brubaker minimized the damage by retiring the next three batters and giving up only one more hit in the fifth.

“I think that’s a sign of maturity,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Brubaker. “He continued to execute pitches, continued to execute his breaking ball. Good signs. Sometimes in spring training when you have adversity, you kind of see how you’re gonna handle it. Today, the second time through after the four-pitch walk and homer, he did a really nice job executed pitches.”

Kevin Newman continued his hot streak with a double in the first inning and a swinging bunt in the fourth to boost his batting average to .727 (16 for 22). Newman later hit a sacrifice fly to right for the go-ahead run.

The Pirates took the lead with a three-run sixth, sparked by a Bryan Reynolds single to center to score Phillip Evans and a Gregory Polanco double to center to score Colin Moran to tie it at 3-3. Newman’s sacrifice fly scored Anthony Alford for a 4-3 lead.

Nick Gonzales hit a line-drive homer to left-center off A.J. Minter for a 5-3 lead in the eighth. Wilmer Difo added an RBI single to score Will Craig to make it 6-3. Shelton was impressed with the stroke of Gonzales, the Pirates’ first-round pick (No. 7 overall) last June out of New Mexico State.

“I’d seen video of him hitting in college, and it was very similar to that, but to lead off an inning and to show bat speed like that … I was hoping we could get a smile out of him, but we didn’t,” Shelton said. “I think everybody in our dugout was pretty excited about that for Nick.”