Dotel's Scoreless Outing: Pirates Rookie Shines

0:00It's April 28th. This is MLB News today baseball coverage powered by AI. Pirates Rookie Wilbur Dothel just turned heads in Pittsburgh, stepping up as a bulk reliever against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 27th at PNC Park. In his third big league outing, the 23-year-old right-hander tossed four scoreless endings with three strikeouts and didn't let a single. Runner reach base. Singing and after openers handled the first two frames, he locked down the game like a vet. Dothel leaned heavy on his four-seam fastball, firing at 70% of the time over 44 pitches, averaging 99 miles per hour and, touching triple digits twice. The Cardinals couldn't touch it, whiffing on all three K's and he kept his command sharp with no walks or hits. This was a clean slate compared to his earlier brief stints. In his first two appearances, one against the raise on April 19th and another versus the Rangers on April 21st, Dothel showed flashes butt, gave up a homer and some free passes.

1:03This time, he stayed locked in, batter by batter, as he put it post-game, building that confidence for bigger loads. Dothel's got starter routes from the minors with 84 starts in 98 games and he's bulked up his workload while cutting walks and boosting strikeouts in double A this year. The pirates, already deep in starters, see him as rotation insurance, especially with guys like Hunter Barco and Jose Erquady stretching out down in. Triple A, from signing for 65,000 bucks as an overlooked Dominican teen to earning props from the front office and Skipper Don Kelly, Dothel's A. Proving his heat plays up here. Keep watching, he's just getting warmed up for whatever spot they carve out next.