Kovacevic: Pirates’ Indian pitchers make pro debuts

MIAMI—Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the Pirates’ Indian-born pitchers, made their professional debuts this afternoon for Bradenton of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, each working an inning of relief against the New York Yankees’ affiliate.

Patel, the right-hander, pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout, and needed just nine pitches, seven of which were strikes.

Singh, the left-hander, allowed a run on two hits with a strikeout and wild pitch. He needed 20 pitches.

Patel?  How am I gonna make a living on these deadbeats?

Singh, in his fractured English, described the experience on the duo’s blog: “I getting in bullpen and feeling nervous warming up out there. They calling your name, and I feeling little nervous. After first pitching, I feeling good. ??? I think next time I doing much better now I knowing how feeling on mound. I wish we winning game so I feeling happy on total.”

The Yankees won, 4-2.

“Same Rinku I feeling little nervous,” Patel wrote on the blog. “In bullpen, they saying my name and my heart going very fast. I think I doing good, but I sad we losing. It not matter if we doing good if team not winning.”

The box score is here.  Quite the lineup for the GCL Pirates!

DH Doumit
LF Milledge
1B Rodriguez, G
CF Freeman, W
3B Gonzalez, El
RF De La Cruz, M
C Marquez
SS Gonzalez, B
2B Ngoepe