Making his spring debut 10 days after signing his one-year deal with the Pirates, Andrew Heaney felt good physically but struggled with his command in Tuesday afternoon's 12-4 loss to the Red Sox at LECOM Park. 

Heaney, whose quick buildup consisted of a bullpen session and a live batting practice before ultimately being deemed ready for game action, said there's a big difference between throwing bullpen sessions and feeling good about missing spots by an inch. In a game situation, those particular pitches result in a ball and a negative outcome. On this day, they were frequently thrown and resulted in an outing that included three walks, two hits and four earned runs allowed over 1 2/3 innings.

"I think changing that mindset a little bit from feeling good to competing a little bit better and just getting back to some basic things," Heaney said. "I don't know how many first-pitch strikes I threw, just little things like that just make it a little bit harder."

Heaney, who is expected to have a role within the Pirates' starting rotation, threw 22 of 41 pitches for strikes and relied on 16 four-seam fastballs as well as an even mix of sliders (9), cutters (8) and changeups (8). The cutter is a pitch Heaney is looking to work into his arsenal more this spring after throwing it just three times all of last year. He allowed one hit -- a second-inning single by Nick Sogard -- when turning to the cutter and got three called strikes with the pitch. He was only out of the zone twice when missing low and in to hitters. 

"I think there were some decent ones in there, and there were some not so great ones," Heaney said. "I had a little bit of a feel for what was going right or wrong for them. So it's just hammering down the good ones and making sure we're repeating it. Throwing it in live game action, kind of understanding where are my spots to get to, what are my feels. Maybe a little bit start learning who are the hitters, what are the counts, situations we can use it. Other than that, I felt pretty good. I threw a couple good sliders. Fastball was fine. I'm never going to be ripping it 98, I know that. I've got to rely on hitting spots and making good pitches at the right time."

Derek Shelton said the most important thing was that Heaney had the chance to face hitters, and while he only delivered first-pitch strikes to four different hitters, he did manage to stay around the plate for the most part. 

“It wasn’t like it was egregious misses, it was the fact that he missed by a little bit," Shelton said. "Overall, the fact that he was on the mound and was able to face another team, that’s a positive moving forward. Total confidence he’ll be sharper and on the plate as we continue to go.” 

Here's Heaney's full media availability: 

A few other notes: 

• Caleb Ferguson and Carmen Mlodzinski combined to throw 5 1/3 innings this afternoon. They allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. Jaden Woods allowed two runs in 1/3 of an inning.

• Ji Hwan Bae had three of the Pirates' eight hits in the win. He scored two runs, including one on a solo home run off Quinn Priester in the third inning. Bae has registered six hits in 11 at-bats this spring. 

“He’s worked really hard in the offseason," Shelton said. "We’ve talked about it at different times, but he continues to have good at-bats. I really like the position he’s in. He’s really consistent with his load and his swing, and his balance has been outstanding so far this spring.” 

• Tsung-Che Cheng also homered in the seventh inning off Michael Fulmer. Cheng, the Pirates' No.17-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, has four hits in 13 at-bats this spring and has three over the last three games.