Indianapolis has a doubleheader, starting this morning at 11:05 AM. Roansy Contreras was supposed to pitch yesterday and Nathan Kirby was the scheduled starter for today, so I have them listed as the two pitchers for today. Carlos Jimenez, who has a 2.51 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 14.1 innings, gets the start for Bradenton. The other two teams were all TBD for the starting pitchers when I set up this article, so I will fill them in today as they show up. They are all night games.
TRIPLE-A: INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS
Game Time: 11:05 PM DH
Box Score: LINK (game one) LINK (game two)
Starting Pitcher: Roansy Contreras (0-0, 2.45) and Nathan Kirby (0-1, 1.69)
- Final Line: Contreras: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO
- Kirby 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO
Notable Performances:
Oneil Cruz 1-for-1, 3 BB
Kevin Newman 1-for-3, HBP
Ji-hwan Bae 0-for-3, RBI, BB
Mason Martin 1-for-4, 3B
Cal Mitchell 1-for-3, RBI
Canaan Smith-Njigba 0-for-2, BB
Hoy Park 0-for-2, BB
Cole Tucker 0-for-2, BB
GAME TWO
Oneil Cruz 1-for-3, 2B, BB
Cole Tucker 0-for-3, BB
Cal Mitchell 1-for-4
Jared Oliva 1-for-2, BB, 2 SB
Travis Swaggerty 1-for-2, BB
Ji-hwan Bae 1-for-1, 3B, 3 RBI
Game Recap:
Roansy Contreras got through five innings for the first time this season on Thursday morning and had a decent performance against Toledo. He was shaky with his command at times, which led to high pitch counts in the first three innings, then he looked great in the fourth and fifth innings, which allowed him to come out for the sixth. He gave up an inside-the-park home run on a high fly ball that hit the top of the fence in straight away center and bounced straight up in the air, allowing the runner to circle the bases. Contreras retired the next two batters, then left with 83 pitches, 53 for strikes. He gave up some hard contact in this game and was missing his spots a lot with his fastball, but the fourth and fifth innings showed some impressive work after throwing so many pitches in the first three frames. Eric Hanhold finished out the sixth, then gave up an unearned run in the seventh. Indianapolis got both of their runs on ground outs, one by Cal Mitchell and one by Ji-hwan Bae. They had a lot of opportunities in their seven innings, getting five hits, seven walks and a hit-by-pitch. Mason Martin hit his fifth triple. Oneil Cruz got three of those walks, and he had a single. Everyone reached base at least once.
GAME TWO RECAP
Nathan Kirby got the start in game two and it was a rough outing before he was pulled. He was on a limited pitch count to start, so he wasn’t expected to go long. However, he recorded just one out before being removed. He gave up two hits, a walk and two runs, throwing 24 pitches. He was replaced by Jerad Eickhoff, who had a strong performance, needing 31 pitches to get through 2.2 scoreless innings on one hit and five strikeouts. John O’Reilly tossed a scoreless inning in his first appearance since April 24th. Austin Brice allowed two runs in the fifth, before Cristofer Melendez dominated for the final two frames, striking out five batters to secure the 8-4 win. Ji-hwan Bae had the big hit late in this game as a pinch-hitter, coming up with the bases loaded and a tie score, then clearing them with a triple. Mason Martin’s sixth homer provided the early offense. He drove in three runs. Oneil Cruz hit his fifth double and Jared Oliva stole two bases, giving him four on the season.
DOUBLE-A: ALTOONA CURVE
Game Time: 6:00 PM
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Carmen Mlodzinski (0-2, 4.63)
- Final Line: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO
Notable Performances:
Nick Gonzales 2-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI
Liover Peguero 1-for-4, 2B
Lolo Sanchez 0-for-3, BB
Jared Triolo 1-for-4
Connor Scott 1-for-4, RBI
Game Recap:
Carmen Mlodzinski missed a start last week while on the injured list. He had a bit of control trouble and there was a costly error, which limited him to 2.1 innings, despite one earned run. he threw 52 pitches with 26 going for strikes. He has a 4.56 ERA in 25.2 innings, with 27 strikeouts. Noe Toribio followed with a dominating outing, going 3.2 scoreless on 36 pitches, with one hit, no walks and four strikeouts. Austin Roberts allowed a run in the seventh. Zach Matson tossed a scoreless eighth, but Colin Selby allowed a run in the ninth, his second earned run of the season, which led to a 5-4 loss. Altoona scored first on a Brendt Citta homer. They added two more runs in the third on the fourth home run of the season for Nick Gonzales. Connor Scott bunted in a run in the fourth. Andres Alvarez had a single and three walks. He has a 1.061 OPS in limited time. Liover Peguero hit his 12th double. Altoona struck out 13 times in the game.
Minor Moves article from today notes three transactions, including Carmen Mlodzinski returning after a 7-day IL trip.
HIGH-A: GREENSBORO GRASSHOPPERS
Game Time: 6:30 PM
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Sean Sullivan (0-1, 3.63)
- Final Line: 3.2 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO
Notable Performances:
Yoyner Fajardo 3-for-4
Hudson Head 0-for-3, BB, SB
Matt Gorski 2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI
Endy Rodriguez 0-for-3
Jack Herman 0-for-4
Sammy Siani 1-for-4, 2B
Game Recap:
Greensboro lost 12-3 on Thursday, as Sean Sullivan got roughed up, allowing seven runs on ten hits in 3.2 innings. He now has a 5.54 ERA, almost two full runs higher than when he started the day. Logan Hofmann tossed 2.1 scoreless. Michell Miliano allowed one run in two innings. The game got lopsided in the eighth when Jack Carey allowed four runs while recording two outs. Yoyner Fajardo went 3-for-4 to raise him to a .356 average. Matt Gorski homered twice, giving him back-to-back games with two homers. He has 14 homers on the year and a 1.077 OPS. Sammy Siani hit his first double. Hudson Head stole his third base.
LOW-A: BRADENTON MARAUDERS
Game Time: 6:30 PM
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Carlos Jimenez (0-2, 2.51)
- Final Line: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 SO
Notable Performances:
Tsung-Che Cheng 1-for-5, 3B
Sergio Campana 2-for-5, 3 SB
Rodolfo Nolasco 1-for-5, RBI
Jase Bowen 1-for-3, BB, HBP
Alexander Mojica 1-for-4, BB
Game Recap:
Carlos Jimenez went five innings for the first time this year and he did it without allowing a run. His previous high was 3.2 innings this season. Jimenez allowed two hits, three walks and he struck out four batters. He threw 75 pitches, with 44 going for strikes. He now has a 1.86 ERA in 19.1 innings, with 29 strikeouts. Denny Roman, Dante Mendoza, Cristian Charle and Jack Hartman each tossed a scoreless frame to finish off the 4-0 win. Bradenton scored a run in the first on a Rodolfo Nolasco ground out. They wouldn’t need anymore runs and they almost didn’t get them either. In the ninth inning, two errors led to three runs. The Marauders scored four runs without a single hit with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-11. Tsung-Che Cheng had the only extra-base hit, his second triple. Jase Bowen reached base three times. Sergio Campana came into the game with three steals and stole three bases tonight.
Yes, his numbers are likely inflated due to Greensboro home ball park, but Gorski needs to be moved up to Altoona ASAP to be age appropriate for his level…..
any info on fajardo? not a lot of power, but all he’s done so far is hit.
He’s kind of a guy without a position. This FO emphasizes athleticism very heavily, which probably played a role in the stupid decisions to leave Martin and Mitchell off the roster. They did at least let Fajardo hit his way into the lineup, as they did with Alvarez. So that’s something.
hmmm i see. thanks for the info! as far as….non ‘prospects’ go….fajardo is pretty interesting. he’s kinda like sabol where he’s not a ranked prospect but so far has just put up good stats his entire career. which is something anyways. someone to keep an eye on, i think
Do you think they could trade Keller for anything right now? I just don’t see him figuring it out here. Maybe he works in the bullpen?
I think trading him at this point in his (lack of) development is exactly the kind of wrong move this org specialized in the pst decade. Bad teams bring up good prospects too early and suffer the consequences. Really bad organizations develop these prospects on the big league roster and then cast them off to bloom elsewhere
What do you do with him then? I think he needs a move to the pen or to be traded. The guy just can’t get big leaguers out consistently.
like Glasnow and Holmes the only thing preventing Keller from reaching his ceiling is staying with the Pirates. Once the pirate pitchers change to another team and other coaching, they become much, much better then when they were with the Pirates. I would not trade Keller. this is a team capable of losing 100 games with him pitching or not. I would let him pitch every five days and hope he figures it out. It is all mental as far as I see it.
Glad to see Gonzales tearing it up as of late. I think it’s time for Martin and Mitchell to come up as well. Maybe June1st? I think Contreras needs some more time, control has not been the best.
Jack Hartman has pitched 3 hitters in his pro career
Is it too early to say he has the best FB in the entire system?
So hitting is down except when FACING pirates pitchers, no matter which level.
I guess Bowling Green also realized they could hit HRs tonight too
GORSKI JUST HIT ANOTHER!!! 14!!!
Cards promoting Gorman and Liberatore. Just in time to face the Pirates. Must be fun.
Gorman has 15 homers and 23 RBIs. That feels impossible
As the site historian, did Jeff king had a season where he hit like 10 HR but had 100+ RBIs?
Not a historian but I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night. Per Baseball Reference he has 2 100+ RBI seasons and he it 30 and 28 HRs respectively. He did have one with 18 HRs and 87 RBI but that was the closest to what you were asking. I just love this here intersweb thingy!
I used the google machine as well, he did have a 9 HR 98 Steaks in 1993. Is amazing how often I try to go off my no so great memory when I have the info a few clicks away….
Don’t know how I totally missed the 93 season. My bad…….
Casey McGehee had a 4 HR with 76 ribby season lol
Tom Herr, 1985 — 8 HR, 110 RBI
Hitting behind Vince Coleman and Willie McGee will do that.
One of the things I love about baseball reference is on the game log page for a specific season, you can see things like 70 of Herr’s 110 RBI were Coleman and McGee.
Speaking of promoting relievers earlier, I thinks it’s time for Matson and Selby to go to Indy
Course Selby then gives up a run on a seeing eye single that Scott threw into another county
You just had to go and jinx him, didn’t ya? I did my fair share last year. My worst was saying it looked like Martin had been doing better with the strikeouts not long before a game started. He proceeded to go 0-fer with 4 Ks. I got pummeled on that board, lol!
Everyone was talking smack on Gonzales, he started mashing. The “is this the turn around?” started, and then he struck out twice lol
Lol! Group Jinx!
Gorski going to be at 20 HR’s by end of weekend
Gonzales struck out. Back to slump! Lol but hopefully not
is gonzo back??
Last year, when he got going, he REALLY got going. Sure would be great to see that now.
He’s gonna be among league leaders from one week lol
I know barely anyone cares about wins anymore, and we only post win-loss here for starting pitchers before games, BUT this speaks highly to the pitch limits in the minors for the Pirates. In 141 starts (including the two Indy games today), their starting pitchers picked up 11 wins. It’s not like any of the teams are bad, all of them are around the .500 mark, so it’s definitely more about the pitch limits
I feel like this is MLB trying to test the waters to merge the packages. I’m all for it.
Also, Gonzales staying hot with a double in first AB
In case you didn’t know, free MiLB tv game tonight https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1527408074209775637
OK I’ve seen enough. Mitchell and Bae in Pittsburgh by Memorial Day. Let’s make it happen.
Bae should at least 100% be cause of positional flexibility
What about Mason Martin…an ACTUAL first baseman playing first base would be a pretty cool concept to try in Pittsburgh. Just thinking outside of the box 🙂
I’m almost ready to add Martin to the list. Was waiting to see how long the recent slump lasted and whether his K% would stay below ~35%. Of course, there’s also the matter of cutting Tsutsugo loose, which let’s be honest is not happening until that contract is more than halfway played out. Nutting just won’t treat Tsutsugo like the sunk cost he is, and I don’t see any world where Martin is added to the 40-man without Tsutsugo being dropped. So as much as I might want to see Martin in Pittsburgh now, I don’t think it’s happening before the all-start break, and possibly not until August 3.
Mitchell and Bae would be replacing any number of guys like Marisnick, VanMeter, Tucker, etc – guys no one is committed to and who aren’t making very much anyway.
Melendez with a K swinging on 100 mph. Thank goodness we’ve got Duane Underwood so we don’t have to watch that.
when they make underwood a starter, we won’t have to watch him in the bullpen anymore!
Yeah, and that way he’ll max out at two-thirds of an inning!
i hope it happens though. pirates aren’t interested in winning games, so at least that would be entertaining. for me anyways.
It’s making me so much more angrier watching hitters like Mason, Mitchell, and Bae succeed, while Newman and Tucker continue to look incompetent, even against the same AAA pitchers. Or Melendez, Stratton, or De Los Santos blow away hitters, knowing they’ll likely add Brice or Eickhoff first, or claim another Beede.
And I bet they’d say something about needing to “refine their control”. You know who else has no control? Tyler effing Beede. And Beede doesn’t even strike people out at a high rate to pair with his awful control.
“And Beede doesn’t even strike people out at a high rate to pair with his awful control.”
not yet anyways. just wait until the pirates coaches get ahold of him
At least they’re more transparent than the last FO
B-b-but, if they called up one of those guys and they were actually good, they’d have to . . . . . . . . PAY THEM!!!
Yeah, but think how cheap the roster would be the 3 years before they’d have to pay them!
Only 98 on that K, so never mind.
100 on the third one, so it’s back on.
Cruz doubles to the deepest part of the park, then nearly gets thrown out at 2nd for choosing not to slide..
Cruz with a 112 missile double that I’m pretty sure dented the CF wall
If he gets a hit in his next AB, he will be above the Mendoza Line !!!
Ji-Hwan Bae trying to get added to
Anthony Murphy “Daily Video Rundown” for Tedwins
After he said that I have been keeping an extra eye open for him to do something noteworthy to get on DVR lol
Mason showing power. Mason flashing the leather.
Bissonette been trying to make a flashy play at 3B all game, but every time it’d be called a foul ball after he’d throw it.
Those @)($)@$ Umps !! They are stealing the glory from Bissonette!
I swear you could be my kid. This would be what he would post LOL!
Eickhoff will be promoted before Roansy.
First it was Del Pozo in game 1. In game 2 Indy has had to face Drew Hutchinson, and then Sam Howard. Not to mention Lavarnway is DH for Toledo.
Something isn’t right with Swaggerty. He’s struggled before, but never 35% K rate struggled before.
Could be health. Could be basically missing nearly two full seasons. Could be he’s not that good. Could be all of that.
A lot of things it could be. I’d be hard pressed to go with “he’s not that good” seeing how he finished his second half in Bradenton, and then how he started in Indy last year pre-injury. He was impacting the ball, with a lot of loud outs. Now he’s striking out a lot, and more than half his balls are on the ground.
His timing just seems completely obliterated right now.
I’d almost be more worried if he were plodding along with a 90ish wRC+. That would scare me into just not that good territory; this version is off the deep end.
Which is funny considering we were just talking about the last 2 drafts and college hitters, it’s not Ben’s pick, he’s another Top 10 pick that’s leaving you wondering, “What’s going on?”
Preach!
Youve probably noticed this is my latest hill to die one, but the HS vs College pendulum has swung way, WAY too far.
And what made me facepalm even more was, I started looking into the Cardinals latest “dominating rookie out of nowhere”, Brendan Donovan.
First thing I noticed was, “Oh, he was born in Germany”. Then, I saw where he went to college: South Alabama. Draft year? 2018, 7th round. Why is this relevant you ask? I’ll tell you. Same draft year, and drafted from same school as……. Travis Swaggerty.
(Disclaimer: This is not to diminish Swaggy-T, I still see something in him, and think he COULD be a very solid big leaguer. If they figure out whatever is going wrong. Or he ends up going somewhere else with a competent staff)
hahaha oh man as soon as you wrote south alabama…
USA! USA! USA!
mason bomb! he seems to have rebounded nicely after a small slump
He seemed to break out of his early May struggles soon after I posted my doubts about him last week.
First pitch Mason sees from Drew Hutchinson
I’m a sucker for funny gifs, an easy thumbs up decision
Kirby more walks than K’s?! lol wow
It would appear they didn’t figure it out in ST, but tonight should seal the deal that Park shouldn’t be at 3B. He doesn’t have the arm.
A Del Bozo appearance for Toledo!
lol how long does it take a pitcher to ‘get stretched out’. contreras pulled again without going over 85 pitches. at this point they’re just being overly cautious…which is whatever fine. just call it that, instead of saying they’re stretching him out.
I think with no ST and his BO time in the Burgh 83 pitches was a good hard stop. He is ready to go 5 innings which is where he needs to be to join the MLB rotation. Make it so
BO = bullpen… need edit button
try clicking the settings symbol in the lower right corner of the comment box, I found one there.
Contreras threw 71 innings last year and 0 innings in organized games in 2020. I’m guessing they have a rather low ceiling of innings/pitches this year.
that’s fair. it would just be nice to hear them communicate that to the fans though i guess.
“Communicate”
Time for bed for me, go Indy👍👍
That was strange, think they changed pitchers in the middle of the at bat to Bae, did Manning get hurt?
Maybe saw something. They checked on him earlier, and velocity has been down.
👍
Ro is completely unfazed by the runner on 3B practically 3/4ths the way to home before he pitches.
That was distracting me watching it, no clue how Ro stayed cool.
It’d be one thing, kind of, if players like Tucker and Newman were at least mashing minor league pitching. The we could at least say something like, “We just need THAT to translate to MLB”. But we can’t even make that excuse for keeping them around.
I personally do not think those two should be lumped together, only because Newman had flashes as a potential MLB SS, Tucker not, but i actually dont care, mad i responded🤣
But Newman’s “flash” though was one season, 3 years ago now, that was heavily weighted by big series in Cincy and Houston. Both hitters parks.
Yup, but his glove year bought more time
Sure, if he didn’t already have more errors than all of last season lol
I see Tucker picked up right where he left off from the the Bigs……
Im way past the point of making fun of him , actually i dont really make fun of anyone, so ignore me🤣
Guess Cruz wants to dampen our P2Daily article expectations😇🤣
Joking aside, nice to see Newman playing, think he gets appreciated more when we see life without him, which is probably just a sadder commentary
Manning should be a pretty good test for Indy hitters today
Though, doesn’t have the same heat today
Ruh Ro
Ruh Ro Rastro——-Tralfaz YUCK!!
Had to work a little, but he got out of it with limited damage
in some mock draft news, keith law has a new one out. he has the pirates taking brooks lee, while connecting them to cole young and cam collier. he also says the pirates are leaning towards a college hitter. no surprise there.
cole young seems like a big reach to me at 4.
ugh.
I think Cole Young and Collier are both reaches at 4. Could live with Lee, but still prefer Green or Johnson if there at 4.
not a huge fan of lee, but i’d rather have him than young or collier i guess. collier is fine…just seems like a reach at 4.
i would also prefer green or johnson…..holliday too
thanks for sharing. Still alot can change, but if they go college hitter, let it be Parada por favor
I would be shocked if they were to draft a catcher 2 years in a row in the first round, so I doubt they would draft Parada.
FYI:
Stats for Parada:
.355/.444/.732 w 24 HRs! in the ACC
Stats for Brooks Lee:
.364/.471/.651 w 12 HRs in the Big West Conference (UC Santa Barbara Gauchos were the best team in the conference this year)
FYI Only Ivan Melendez from Texas, who’s having a monster year, also leading NCAA in BA & HR’s, 2nd in RBI’s, has more HR’s this year than Parada. Even if Parada is below average C, he’ll be a top 5 pick
idk, with the dh and the defensive concerns with davis and parada, does it matter much? if they can hit, they’ll play somewhere.
Yep. Don’t like that at 4 at all. I’m not really enthused by taking a big haircut with a top 5 pick. I’d be ok with Lee or Collier there, less so with Young or Berry.
I’d be ok with Lee or Berry, but Young and Collier are too big reaches at 4. I do not mind Berry like a lot of people. I know about his defensive issues, but he can hit. We could always move him to 1B, or possibly RF or even DH. His bat is the real deal though, and we can always use a big time bat.
I don’t want a DH at 4. Honestly, I’m with agent: if TJ or Green is there, I’d go with them. But I also wonder if their plan will be similar to 2020: college bat underslot early, and snag arms after that.