There are early morning start times today for Indianapolis, Altoona and West Virginia, while Bradenton has the only night game. Nick Kingham will be on the mound for the Marauders, trying to win his fourth game in a row. West Virginia was rained out on Monday. Then they planned to make it up on Tuesday as part of a doubleheader, but weather forced them to move the doubleheader to today. For a look at the possible starters over the next few weeks, please check out our Probable Pitchers Chart. We have added a Recent Transactions section to the bottom of this page, for all Pirates minor league transactions. A full recap of yesterday’s action can be found here.
AAA: Indianapolis (22-11) @ Scranton Wilkes-Barre (18-12) 10:35am
Probable starter: Kris Johnson (2-2, 3.86)
Yesterday’s Result: Scranton/WB 3, Indianapolis 1
Kris Johnson will make his fifth start of the season today. He has also made two relief appearances. On the year, he has pitched a total of 25.2 innings, allowing 28 hits, two homers, 11 walks and he has 22 strikeouts, with a 1.41 GO/AO ratio and a .280 BAA. In his last start, Johnson threw 5.2 scoreless innings against Lehigh Valley. His ERA is skewed by one poor relief outing, his last appearance, in which he gave up six earned runs over three innings of work. As a starter, his ERA is 2.08 and he also has a huge home/road split, posting a 0.00 ERA at home, as opposed to 7.07 on the road.
AA: Altoona (12-20) @ Harrisburg (15-17) 10:30am
Probable starter: Luis Sanz (1-1, 3.29)
Yesterday’s Result: Harrisburg 13, Altoona 2
Luis Sanz will make his first start of the season today. He has spent this entire year in the Altoona bullpen, pitching 13.2 innings over ten appearances. Sanz has an impressive strikeout rate, with 15 K’s on the year, but he has also walked 11 batters. He has already faced Harrisburg three times this year, twice running into trouble. In his last outing against the Senators however, Sanz threw two scoreless innings. He has a 1.70 GO/AO ratio and a .250 BAA. Last season, he made 15 starts for Lakeland in the Florida State League.
High-A: Bradenton (11-21) @ Dunedin (20-11) 6:30pm
Probable starter: Nick Kingham (3-2, 2.76)
Yesterday’s Result: Dunedin 3, Bradenton 1
Nick Kingham will make his seventh start of the season tonight. He has picked up the win in each of his last three outings. Kingham has pitched a total of 32.2 innings, allowing 25 hits, two homers and six walks, while picking up 40 strikeouts. He has an 0.87 GO/AO ratio and a .207 BAA. In his last two outings combined, he has given up seven hits and two walks over 12 innings, while striking out 20 batters. He trails the FSL leader in strikeouts by one, behind only Corey Black of Tampa, who has already made his seventh start of the year.
Low-A: West Virginia (14-16) VS Greenville (10-20) 10:30am
Probable starter: Joely Rodriguez (1-2, 4.06) and Orlando Castro (3-2, 1.36)
Yesterday’s Result: West Virginia 4, Greenville 2
Joely Rodriguez will get his seventh start of the year today and he is coming off back-to-back strong starts. He went 5.1 scoreless innings on 4/25, then followed it up with one earned run over six innings, six days later. In those 11.1 innings, he gave up eight hits and one walk. At home, he is 0-2, 4.12 in four starts. Rodriguez has a 2.42 GO/AO ratio and 26 strikeouts in 32 innings. Orlando Castro will start the other game, making his seventh start of the year. He has pitched a total of 33 innings and has put up some impressive stats. Castro has allowed just one walk and one home run. He has 29 strikeouts, a 1.46 GO/AO ratio and a .220 BAA. The one area where he has surprisingly had trouble, is against left-handed batters, who are hitting .304 against him. On 4/16, he threw five shutout innings against Greenville.
Recent Transactions
5/6 Phil Irwin placed on Indianapolis DL. Oscar Tejeda added to Indianapolis roster.
5/6 Matt Curry placed on DL. Justin Howard and Miguel Perez added to Altoona roster.
5/5 Daniel Grovatt added to Bradenton roster. Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Extended Spring Training
5/5 Zack Dodson added to Bradenton roster. Junior Sosa sent to West Virginia.
5/4 Jeff Larish added to Indianapolis roster.
5/4 Barrett Barnes put on West Virginia disabled list
5/3 Jordy Mercer promoted to majors. Charlie Morton added to Indianapolis roster.
5/3 Jose Contreras promoted to majors. Jared Hughes sent to Indianapolis.
5/3 Pirates sign Jeff Gibbs
