Pirates tie Phillies 3-3 as rain washes game out in fifth inning

The Pirates and Phillies got a half-day today. After five innings of play, the Florida rain clouds came pouring in and the rain itself soon followed.

Mitch Keller looked impressive in his second spring outing. Over three hitless innings, Keller struck out two and walked one. More importantly, his stuff looked great. His fastball sat at 98 mph and touched 100. His breaking balls looked sharp. Keller even got the attention of Twitter's favorite pitching guru, Pitching Ninja.

Although Spring Training results are not important, it is at least nice to see that Keller’s stuff has improved since last season.

Roansy Contreras also pitched two innings in this game and didn't look quite as sharp allowing three runs on two home runs. He struck out one and walked one.

Offensively, the Pirates were able to barrel up a few balls off of one of Philadelphia’s better pitchers, Aaron Nola. Yoshi Tsutsugo crushed a solo home run in the second inning.

Greg Allen added his second home run this spring in the third. In total, the Pirates tallied eight hits on the afternoon. Allen led the way with two. At this point in the spring, Allen has outperformed Anthony Alford. Both are vying for the starting right field position.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Pirates host the Minnesota Twins as the spring games continue. That game starts at 1:05 ET and will be on AT&T SportsNet.