Jonathan Sanchez, Jeanmar Gomez dominate Astros

The Pirates three-hit the Astros behind three scoreless innings each by Jonathan Sanchez and Jeanmar Gomez. Even with the word "Astros," and even in the middle of spring training, that's not a sentence I ever thought I'd type, so Sanchez and Gomez, who'd previously pitched even more poorly this spring than their track records suggested they would, deserve a bit of credit here. Sorry, Jonathan -- I was just kidding!

Sanchez allowed a leadoff single to Jose Altuve, then mowed down nine batters in a row. Gomez allowed a walk, a single and an HBP, but that was it. Then Chris Leroux took over and pitched a perfect seventh, followed by Bryan Morris, who went three up, three down in the eighth before struggling with his control in the ninth, walking two batters and allowing a wild pitch. Brooks Brown then took over and allowed both inherited runners to score on a single by Jose Martinez before getting the last out.

Offensively, Garrett Jones and Ivan DeJesus had two hits apiece. The Pirates got one in the second on Jones' RBI single and two in the seventh on Travis Snider's RBI double and a sacrifice fly by Jordy Mercer.