Pirates down Marlins 9-3
MIAMI (AP) — Jared Jones struck out 10 over 5 2/3 innings to win his major league debut and lead the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Miami Marlins 9-3 on Saturday.
A 22-year-old righthander taken by Pittsburgh with the 44th pick in the 2020 amateur draft, Jones allowed three runs, three hits and two walks. He threw 62 of 89 pitches for strikes, including 22 swings and misses. His fastball topped at 99.9 mph and averaged 97.1 mph.
Jones (1-0) made the opening-day roster after throwing 16 1/3 scoreless innings in six spring training outings. He kept Miami hitless until Jake Burger's two-out RBI double in the fourth.
Connor Joe doubled twice, singled and drove in two runs for the Pirates, who had 16 hits against starter Ryan Weathers (0-1) and four relievers.
Miami's Luis Arraez singled in the seventh, ending an 0-for-13 start for the defending NL batting champion.
Edward Olivares gave the Pirates an early lead with his RBI single off Weathers in the third. Joe's run-scoring double and Ke'Bryan Hayes' RBI single in the fourth made it 3-0.
Ahead 5-3, the Pirates scored four runs in the seventh helped by Bryan Reynolds' two-run double.
Pittsburgh All-Star closer David Bednar, who had been dealing with a lat issue during spring training, made his season debut with a perfect ninth that finished a five-hitter.
Weathers gave up three runs, seven hits and two walks in four innings.
BREWERS 7, METS 6
NEW YORK (AP) — Rhys Hoskins drove in four runs, a day after his hard slide into Jeff McNeil caused dugouts to empty, and Yohan Ramírez was ejected for throwing behind the back of Milwaukee's designated hitter in the Brewers' 7-6 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday.
“I'm a competitor, no doubt about it — people boo you, people doubt you, people do whatever they do, it's always nice to prove people wrong,” Hoskins said, “So yeah, I'm ecstatic about what I was able to do to help us win a game today. We won a series on the road to start the year in a place that's not easy to do so. Stoked about that.”
Hoskins hit a two-run single in a three-run first inning and followed with a two-run homer in the third and singled and scored on a balk in the fifth by Luis Severino (0-1), who gave up a career-high 12 hits in his Mets debut.
Ramírez's first pitch to Hoskins in the seventh sailed well behind the right-handed hitter, who dropped his bat and glared at Ramírez as the reliever raced to pick up the ball, which caromed off the backstop.