Steven Brault leaves after 2nd inning with left arm tightness as Pirates lose to Orioles

The alarming part for the Pittsburgh Pirates wasn’t that Steven Brault allowed allowed three hits, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter in the first two innings Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles.

It was that the left-hander threw only 33 pitches in his fourth start before he was removed from the Grapefruit League game after the second inning for what the Pirates called left arm (latissimus muscle) tightness.

Less than two weeks before Opening Day, the Pirates could be without their 2020 Steve Blass Award winner as top pitcher. Brault was receiving further examination from the medical staff and is listed as day-to-day, which could cause a shuffling of the starting rotation.

The Pirates overcame a four-run deficit to take a two-run lead before the Orioles rallied to tie the game. Cedric Mullins hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to boost Baltimore to an 11-9 victory over the Pirates at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.

“Anytime you lose a starting pitcher with two weeks left it is a little concerning,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Brault. “The level of concern, we’ll probably wait until we see what we’ve got. Then we’ll have a better idea or more ability to comment.”

It was the second consecutive start in which Brault struggled. He gave up three runs on five hits, including a home run, and one walk in a 6-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. In eight innings this spring, Brault was 1-1 with a 5.63 ERA and 1.63 WHIP. He allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits, five walks and one hit batsman and had six strikeouts.

“I think it was probably injury-affected,” Shelton said of Brault’s performance against the Orioles. “We’re going to go day to day and kind of reassess and have him evaluated and have him move on from there and have more information as we go forward.”

The Pirates didn’t help matters for Brault by getting off to a poor start, with errors by second baseman Adam Frazier and left fielder Brian Goodwin allowing the Orioles to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Brault didn’t fare much better in the second, hitting leadoff batter Rio Ruiz, who advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an Austin Hays single for a 3-0 lead. Brault threw another wild pitch that allowed Hays to advance to second before striking out Trey Mancini.

The Orioles increased their lead to 5-0 in the third, as Pedro Severino doubled off Chris Stratton to score Anthony Santander and Yolmer Sanchez singled off Edgar Santana to score Severino.

The Pirates rallied with a two-out, three-run third, as Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled to right and scored on a Bryan Reynolds single and Todd Frazier hit a two-run homer to left.

Mancini hit a solo shot to left-center to start the fourth to increase Baltimore’s lead to 6-3, but the Pirates responded with a five-run rally in the bottom of the inning thanks to a pair of Orioles errors and some aggressive baserunning by Brian Goodwin and Wilmer Difo.

Goodwin scored on an error by shortstop Freddy Galvis, and Difo beat the throw home by third baseman Rio Ruiz to tie it at 6-6. Adam Frazier gave the Pirates a 7-6 lead when he scored on a fielder’s choice, and Hayes scored on Todd Frazier’s sacrifice fly for an 8-6 lead.

The Pirates padded that lead in the fifth when Erik Gonzalez scored on Adam Frazier’s groundout, but the Orioles answered with a three-run sixth on an Austin Hayes RBI double and Ryan Mountcastle’s tying two-run homer to right field.