Sports
Pirates Beat Orioles 10-3 on Opening Night
The Pirates spoil the Orioles' Spring Training home opener with an 18-hit attack.
The Pittsburgh Pirates may have been the visiting team on Monday night, but they felt right at home at Ed Smith Stadium on Monday night, beating the Baltimore Orioles 10-3.
The victory came amid an 18-hit attack that got some help from Orioles fielding miscues during the split squad game.
A crowd of 6,228 saw the Orioles give up runs in each of the first five innings as designated hitter Matt Hague drove in two with a homer to left field in the third inning and left fielder Alex Presley went 4-for-4, including an infield single that resulted in two unearned runs due to an errant throw.
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The Orioles squeezed out a run in the bottom of the first on a two-out single to left field and an error by Pirate right fielder Starling Marte, who dropped a fly ball.
The O's next two runs came in the bottom of the sixth on a walk, error, ground out and single.
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By the sixth inning, with the Pirates up 10-3, fans had begun to drift out of the stadium.
By the time the game was over, only a fraction of the crowd that saw the first pitch remained for the final out.
The Orioles' won its other split squad game earlier Monday in Port Charlotte against the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1.
The Orioles head on the road to Ft. Myers Tuesday to play the Boston Red Sox at 1:05 p.m. The next home game is Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. against the Minnesota Twins.
