Other than Indianapolis, it was mostly a poor day around the system. Jared Jones did, though, strike out ten and Kyle Nicolas eight.
TRIPLE-A: INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS
Game Time: 8:07pm
Starting Pitcher: Bryse Wilson
- Final Line: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Notable Performances:
- Canaan Smith-Njigba 1-5
- Travis Swaggerty 2-5, 3B
- Ji-Hwan Bae 2-5, HR (5)
- Mason Martin 0-4, BB, 3 K
- Carter Bins 2-4, 2B
Game Recap:
Indianapolis (24-22) beat St. Paul, 7-4. Bryse Wilson’s first start for Indy looked a lot like most of his starts for the Pirates, except it lasted a bit longer. He fanned eight over six innings, but allowed four runs. Three came on the two gopher balls he allowed. Aaron Fletcher followed with two scoreless innings and Eric Hanhold struck out the side in the ninth. Ji-Hwan Bae continued to rake, picking up two hits, including his fifth home run of the year, and three RBIs. He’s now hitting 333/440/568 in May, but he’s no Josh VanMeter, that’s for sure. Travis Swaggerty and Carter Bins each had two hits as well, with Swaggerty getting a triple and Bins a double. Swaggerty’s hitting 345/387/500 in May. Hoy Park and Bligh Madris each had doubles.
DOUBLE-A: ALTOONA CURVE
Game Time: 7:00pm
Starting Pitcher: Kyle Nicolas
- Final Line: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Notable Performances:
- Liover Peguero 1-4
- Everybody else was 0-fer-something
- J.C. Flowers 2.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Game Recap:
Altoona (22-22) nearly got no-hit and lost to Harrisburg, 3-2. Kyle Nicolas was victimized by one bad fielding play in the first inning. Matt Fraizer misplayed a two-out, catchable fly ball into a double, ultimately costing Nicolas two runs that shouldn’t have happened. Nicolas worked four scoreless innings after that, fanning eight total. Meanwhile, Nats’ pitching prospect Cole Henry, who’s obliterating everybody this year, started the game with four perfect innings. The Curve was hitless through eight, but they tied the game in the eighth anyway on four walks and a force out. Liover Peguero finally broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the ninth, but the next three hitters fanned. After Nicolas left, Will Kobos threw a scoreless inning and J.C. Flowers added two more, but Flowers gave up a walkoff home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
HIGH-A: GREENSBORO GRASSHOPPERS
P2Daily: It’s Greensboro Grasshoppers and Matt Gorski Week on Pirates Prospects
Game Time: 6:05pm
Starting Pitcher: Jared Jones
- Final Line: 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
Notable Performances:
- Hudson Head 1-4
- Endy Rodriguez 1-4, HR (6)
- Maikol Escotto 0-3, 3 K
- Sammy Siani 2-3
- Michell Miliano 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Game Recap:
Greensboro (20-23) lost to Asheville, 8-4. Jared Jones had a start that more or less epitomizes his season so far. He allowed six hits and a walk over five innings, but only one run. That came on a pair of two-out doubles in the first. The next batter singled, but Sammy Siani threw the runner out at the plate. In the third, a walk, single and wild pitch put runners at second and third with nobody out, but Jones fanned the next three batters. In the fourth, two singles put runners at the corners with nobody out, but Jones got a strikeout, a pickoff and another strikeout. For the game he fanned ten. Nick Dombkowski followed and retired only one of five batters. He was only charged with one run, though, because Michell Miliano got two outs to leave the bases loaded. Miliano, who’s been pitching much better lately, fanned four over 1.2 IP. Garrett Leonard and Eddy Yean, who are having dismal seasons, blew up the game by allowing six runs in the eighth. The Hoppers got completely dominated over the first six innings by a pitcher who came in with an ERA of almost 9.00. They got all four of their runs in the ninth, three on Endy Rodriguez’ sixth home run of the year. Siani was the only Hopper with two hits.
LOW-A: BRADENTON MARAUDERS
BRADENTON MARAUDERS WEEK: 5/31
Game Time: 6:30pm
Starting Pitcher: Justin Meis
- Final Line: 6 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Notable Performances:
- Rodolfo Nolasco 0-3, BB
- Jase Bowen 1-4, HR (6)
Game Recap:
Bradenton (19-25) got stomped for the fifth straight time by Fort Myers, 9-2. The series has been a pretty good reflection of the two teams. Fort Myers leads the league easily in both runs per game and ERA. The Marauders have some promising arms, but their position players haven’t looked good. The hitting has been bad and the fielding terrible. You have to wonder whether the latter problem is partly attributable to the Pirates’ practice of having everybody play everywhere, which so far seems to be ensuring that nobody can play anywhere. Combined with the defense taking a big step backward at the major league level, this practice isn’t looking so good.
Anyway, Justin Meis was the victim in this game. He gave up a solo home run in the first, then a five-spot in the second. He didn’t pitch well in the inning, but four of the runs were unearned due to two errors. One of the plays was scored H + E, but it should have been an out and Meis should have been out of the inning with no runs. To his credit, Meis bounced back to go six innings total, allowing just one more run. Wilkin Ramos came on to walk the first three batters he faced, then almost got out of it before allowing two runs. Darvin Garcia threw two scoreless innings, fanning three. The Bradenton offense remained anemic, with just three hits. They did draw seven walks, but went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, bounced into three double plays and fanned 13 times. Both runs scored on Jase Bowen’s sixth home run of the season. The other hits were a Luke Brown double and Brenden Dixon single. Wyatt Hendrie got hit in the back of the head and had to be carted off, but he was able to get up and walk to the cart.
