Bees Still Win Despite Losing Outman to Pirates
By Robert Held
Staff Writer
Josh Outman was supposed to start for the New Britain Bees on Friday, against their in-state rivals the Bridgeport Bluefish. However, before the game, Outman was signed by the Pittsburg Pirates.
The Bees have had a number of pitchers signed to Major League Baseball teams this season. Outman joins fellow former Bees’ pitchers Nick Greenwood (Minnesota) and Josh Zeid (New York Mets). Earlier this week, Cole Johnson was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks and current Bee Eric Fornataro was signed by the Baltimore Orioles before returning to the Bees.
Outman will be reporting to the Pirates triple-AAA team in Indianapolis. This season for the Bees, Outman made 14 starts with a 3-3 record, 55 strikeouts and a 4.23 ERA. This is not Outman’s first time with a major league team. The St. Louis, Missouri native has also played for the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, and the Oakland Athletics.
“Outman has been a veteran leader for our team this season and brought a tireless work ethic to our ball-club,” said Bees Manager Stan Cliburn. “We wish him the absolute best with the Pirates organization.”
Sean Gleason started in place of Outman and had a rough start. Gleason only made it through the first four innings, allowing two earned runs and was constantly pitching out of trouble all night. Luckily, for the Bees, this did not stop the team from defeating Bridgeport by a score of 5-2.
The Bees fell behind early in the top of the 3rd inning when the Bluefish had runners on the corners with no outs. Gleason was able to get Bridgeport’s Welington Dotel to ground into a double play but Luis Hernandez was able to score on the play.
Bridgeport struck again in the top of the fourth when Anthony Giansanti doubled in a run but was thrown out at third base to end the inning.
New Britain came storming back in the bottom of the fourth inning scoring four runs. It started off with a double from Michael Crouse. The Bees then tied the game at 2-2 when James Skelton hit a sacrifice fly. All-Star Jovan Rosa put the Bees ahead 4-2 with a two singles to cap off the scoring in that inning.
Bluefish starting pitcher DJ Mitchell was also knocked out in the fourth inning. It was a rough day for both starters, as Mitchell only went 3.2 innings and allowed four earned runs, while picking up the loss.
The Bees scored their final run in the bottom of the sixth on a double play.
Bristol native Anthony Marzi pitched strong in relief, and picked up the win. In fact, the whole Bees bullpen pitched well, in five innings Bees relievers only allowed one hit and struck out four.
