Saturday, March 10, 2007

Maholm Down; Snell Up; Eldred Solid, Bucs Lose

The Pirates lost Paul Maholm's spring debut on Saturday and it wasn't pretty for the young lefty. In the first, he gave up three hits and issued a pair of walks. Those baserunners helped the Yankees score three runs en route to a 5-3 victory in Bradenton.

Maholm's final line feature three hits, three runs, three walks and two strikeouts in three innings. On the contrast, Ian Snell came into the game in the fourth and was electric. His three innings were flawless, no hits or walks and featured one strikeout, lowering his spring ERA to 3.38

At the dish, Ronny Paulino continued to stroke, going deep for the second time, driving in two runs and finishing with three hits in all three at-bats. Brad Eldred, who has been nothing short of unbelievable this spring, had three more hits and made a nice running catch in the outfield. It was Eldred's first appearance in right field in game action and he certainly impressed Jim Tracy.

"I'll tell you this: He did a very nice job running the ball down that was hit to right-center," Tracy said. "The ball that went out of the ballpark in the ninth inning, if it's in the ballpark, he's gonna catch it."

Josh Sharpless and Damaso Marte pitched scoreless innings. Soloman Torres allowed two runs in the ninth to take the loss. Chris Duffy had a hit in two at-bats and was caught stealing second base. Jose Castillo had an RBI single in three at-bats.

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