Tyler Anderson was still in spring training mode, feeling his way through his delivery when Austin Hays and Freddy Galvis hit back-to-back home runs off the Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander.
That forced Anderson to switch into regular-season mode in an outing he believed was better than it looked on the scoresheet: two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts.
Anderson’s outing was overshadowed by the Grapefruit League debut of 2019 first-round pick Quinn Priester, who gave up the go-ahead run in the fifth inning. The Baltimore Orioles used an eight-run seventh inning to pull away from the Pirates for a 12-3 victory Monday afternoon at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla.
“My goal is to get ahead out there, and a couple times I got behind on both of those homers,” Anderson said. “But there were a couple pitches I wasn’t executing there, so I felt like I was working myself into some bad counts and got better as it went on. … Those last couple innings, it was just, ‘Let’s start throwing the ball and competing’ and kind of picked things up.”
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run by Ke’Bryan Hayes in the first inning, then tied it in the third. Adam Frazier, who went 2 for 3 to boost his batting average to .667 (10 for 15) singled to right, stole second base, reached third on an error by catcher Chance Sisco. Frazier scored on a single by Hayes, who went 2 for 3 and has six extra-base hits this spring.
The Pirates gave Priester, ranked their No. 4 prospect and No. 58 overall by Baseball America, his first chance to pitch in a game. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-hander allowed one run on one hit, one walk and a stolen base and also had a balk while facing four batters in two-thirds of an inning.
Priester relieved Anderson in the fifth inning and walked leadoff batter Cedric Mullins, who stole second base and reached third on a balk. Priester got Trey Mancini to pop up to second, but Mullins scored on an RBI double to right field by Anthony Satander to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. Priester got Pedro Severino to ground out to third for the second out before being replaced by Chris Stratton, who went 1 1/3 innings and has yet to allow a hit against 10 batters this spring.
“Certainly not what I was looking to do today, but good to get the first one out of the way,” Priester said. “I did some things well, more things not as well as I expect to here in the future, but it’s all a learning process. Need to get better from it and go from there.”
The Orioles blew the game open by batting around the order in an eight-run seventh inning to make it 11-2. Edgar Santana gave up four consecutive singles and a three-run homer to Jahmai Jones to make it 8-2. Shea Spitzbarth replaced Santana but gave up a walk, a single, had two wild pitches and an RBI single. The Orioles added another run in the eight on a Yusniel Diaz RBI single.
Chad Kuhl is scheduled to start for the Pirates against Jose Berrios and the Minnesota Twins at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday in Fort Myers.
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