JT Brubaker is a right-hander who is fighting for a spot in the Pirates rotation. In his rookie season last year, Brubaker, 27, started out as a long reliever but found himself as a starter in early August due to an injury to right-hander Mitch Keller.

Although Brubaker had a 5.53 ERA as a starter, manager Derek Shelton was impressed with what he saw.

“The thing that impressed me the most was his execution of pitches,” Shelton said. “When something got away from him, it was [for] a short period of time.”

Brubaker told the local media on Saturday that he is going to try to stick to his game plan. Right now, he is focusing on his curveball and changeup. He doesn’t want the curveball to blend in like a slider. Brubaker has to fix his release on the curveball, he said.

“Mentally, I’m preparing to compete for a spot. I want to make the starting rotation just like the other starters do,” Brubaker said. “Mentally, I’m focused on throwing strikes and trying to get ahead of batters. I’m not trying to be too fine or do something that isn’t in my style of pitching.”