�

Alex Presley is congratulated after his home run





.

..

�

�

Indianapolis Indians� 4,� Louisville Bats� 2 (box)

The Indians were able to take advantage of physical and mental mistakes by the Louisville Bats and earn a win at Victory Field this afternoon.� In their last Sunday afternoon home game of the season, the Indians came from behind, taking the lead in the bottom of the 8th inning.� Tribe CF Alex Presley led the charge with a solo home run and a key double that began the 8th inning rally.

Joe Martinez (photo) made his third start for the Indians, and the Bats kept him hopping in his 5 innings.� He worked around a one-out line drive single by SS Zack Cozart in the 1st inning.� With one out in the 2nd, he gave up three consecutive singles, which put the Bats onto the scoreboard.� LF Todd Frazier drove a long fly off the wall in the right field corner for a double, and a single by 2B Chris Valaika brought in Frazier from second base.� C Corky Miller added a single into short left-center, moving Valaika up to second base.� Martinez ended that inning with a strikeout of his counterpart Ben Jukich and a fly out by yesterday's Bats' hereo, CF Dave Sappelt.

After a quick 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd, Martinez had to work around two runners on base in the 4th.� 3B Juan Francisco reached base when his grounder right over the second base bag hit SS Pedro Ciriaco's glove or foot and glanced off to his left.� Luckily, 2B Doug Bernier was right there to back him up, but by the time the ball got to him, Bernier had no play on Francisco.� Chris Valaika lined a double into center field, and Francisco raced around to third base.� Martinez left both of them in scoring position, with a strikeout by Miller and a tapped grounder by Jukich.

Many fans got their wish today, as the Pirates opened their books to the public. Sort of. After financial records were leaked to the Associated Press, Bob Nutting and Frank Coonelly preemptively revealed the leaked details to local media members. I am far from an expert on finances, so I will just stick to a few of my general reactions.

Probable Starters RHP Kyle Lohse vs. RHP Ross Ohlendorf RHP Adam Wainwright vs. LHP Paul Maholm RHP Jake Westbrook vs. RHP Jeff Karstens

Zach Duke outdueled Johan Santana and the Pirates offense collected just four hits. But two of them went over the fence without a hop.

As detailed by Dejan Kovacevic in the Post-Gazette, the Pirates have opened their books as a pre-emptive strike, due to the leaking of team...

The start of the game was delayed by rain. The end of the game was called by rain. In between, the song remained the same: the Mets beat the Pirates.

Louisville Bats� 10,� Indianapolis Indians� 6 (box)

Twenty-nine combined hits kept things hopping at Victory Field tonight.� But the Bats had 18 of those hits, for 10 runs, including a 5-run 7th inning.� Louisville's CF Dave Sappelt, in only his 9th AAA game, went 5-for-6, missing the cycle by only a home run -- he had a triple, two doubles, and two singles, and made the most spectacular catch of the game in center field.

Brian Burres (photo) kept the Bats scoreless in the first three innings, despite having to work around runners on base in each of those innings.� Sappelt opened the game with a single lined over the head of Tribe SS Pedro Ciriaco, and the next batter, SS Zack Cozart followed with a line drive into center field.� But Burres took a deep breath, and got 1B Yonder Alonso to bounce right to 2B Brian Friday, who started a 4-6-3 (Friday to Ciriaco to 1B Mitch Jones) double play.� Burres walked LF Todd Frazier, but then got 3B Juan Francisco to ground another ball right to Friday to end the inning.

The second inning also began with a single, this one a grounder up the middle by RF Wladimir Balentien.� Burres got out of that with two grounders to 3B Doug Bernier and a strikeout by opposing pitcher Matt Maloney.� The Bats began the 3rd inning by getting their lead-off batter on for the third straight inning.� Sappelt doubled over the reach of Mitch Jones at first and down into the right field corner.� Cozart tried to sacrifice bunt Sappelt over to third, but his bunt attempt went up instead of down, and Burres scrambled over to catch the pop before it could fall in.� Burres whirled to throw on to third, but Sappelt had wisely remained at second base.� He wasn't wise enough to stick close to the base, though.� Before Burres threw his first pitch to Alonso, he turned and picked Sappelt off second base.� Alonso grounded to Brian Friday at second to end the inning (photos below).

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

.

Pirates' lower minor leaguers on Saturday...

�

Altoona Curve� 10,� Binghamton Mets� 4 (box)

The Curve posted 14 hits, with two big innings, as all but one member of the starting line-up had at least one hit in the game, as starter Rudy Owens earned his 10th win of the season.� SS Jordy Mercer doubled three times and 1B Matt Hague doubled twice, with 4 RBI.� Even Owens doubled, walked, and scored twice.

Owens got off to a little bit of a shaky start on the mound.� He gave up a double, a single, and a sacrifice fly to begin the bottom of the 1st.� A single and a double gave the Mets a second run in the 3rd.� Owens settled in after that, and allowed just one hit in each of the 4th and 5th.

The Curve got one run back in the top of the 4th, after putting runners on base in each of the first three innings but failing to score.� In the 4th,� Mercer hit his first double, and he scored on RF Miles Durham's RBI single.� Then they broke through in the 5th.� Owens led off the inning with a walk.� LF Jose De Los Santos singled, then 3B Josh Harrison bunted both runners into scoring position.� 2B Jim Negrych was intentionally walked to load the bases.� Hague cleared the bases with a double into left field, then Mercer hit his second double (this one was a ground-rule double), plating Hague.� The Curve had a 5-2 lead.

The next inning began with a solo home run by Miles Durham.� One out later, Owens doubled, and De Los Santos singled.� A fielding error on a ball hit to third by Harrison let Owens score.� Negrych brought in both Owens and De Los Santos with another double, and Hague made it three doubles in the inning with his 26th of the season, bringing in Negrych with the fifth run of the inning.� The Curve were up, 10-2.

Mike Colla relieved Owens to begin the 6th.� He gave up a solo homer in that inning, and another solo homer in the 8th, but retired the other 12 batters he faced in 4 innings.� Owens earned his 10th win of the season, and Colla earned his first save.

The DSL season just wrapped up yesterday with an 8-3 loss to the Rays team, but overall it has to be considered a successful...

Indianapolis Indians� 1,� Toledo Mud Hens� 0 (box)

Indians' starter Jeremy Powell earned his 9th win of the season with 7.1 shutout innings against the Mud Hens at Fifth Third Field in Toledo, Ohio tonight.� Powell walked 5 batters and hit one, but he allowed only 2 hits.� The Indians posted only 4 hits, but made them count, as they squeaked past the Mud Hens.

The first three Indians' batters of the game did all the scoring the Indians needed.� LF Kevin Melillo opened the game by taking a walk on four straight balls.� Melillo quicky stole second base, then moved over to third when 3B Akinori Iwamura lined a single into center field.� With runners on the corners, CF Alex Presley (photo) slipped a single through the hole on the right side of the infield, scoring Melillo from third and putting Iwamura on second base.� The rally came to an abrupt halt, when RF Brandon Moss flied out to center field, and Iwamura was out at third as he tried to tag up after the catch, on a fine throw in from CF Casper Wells.� DH John Bowker struck out to end the inning.

That was it -- the rest of the game was two rows of donuts on the scoreboard.� The Indians clung to that one-run lead, as Jeremy Powell (photo below) and two relievers, Justin Thomas and Jean Machi, threw 9 shutout innings.� After the game, Powell admitted that he had not felt really comfortable on the mound and with how he was pitching early in the game, and the walks went along with that.� Powell threw 108 pitches, for strikes, but he threw key pitches when it counted.� He walked two batters in the 1st and one in the 2nd, but left them on base.� He walked 2B Scott Sizemore to begin the 3rd inning, but got 3B Justin Henry to bounce into a double play.

The Mud Hens' first hit of the game came in the 4th, when Casper Wells led off with a single into left field.� Moments later, C Jason Jaramillo threw out Wells as he tried to steal second base.� The other hit was a two-out double by SS Cale Iorg in the 5th.� Powell walked Sizemore again to put two Mud Hens on the bases, but then he got Henry to tap back to the mound for an easy third out.� Powell retired the Mud Hens in order in both the 6th and 7th innings, and he made it 8 straight batters retired when he got Iorg to fly out to center to begin the 8th.� Then he hit Sizemore (who walked 3 times in the game, so did not have an official at bat) with a pitch, and that was the end of Powell's night.� "I was happy with my last couple of innings, and all I can say is that I was able to go deep into the game and keep the one-run lead," said Powell after the game.

Toledo native Justin Thomas relieved Powell with one out and one on in the 8th.� He did walk LF Jeff Frazier, but got a strikeout on either side of the walk, to end the inning and keep the shutout going.� The southpaw Thomas came back out to begin the bottom of the 9th, to pitch to the first Toledo batter, left-handed hitting 1B Michael Bertram.� Bertram popped out to third base.� Then manager Frank Kremblas brought on the righty Jean Machi to face the next batter, right-handed hitting RF Ben Guez. Guez lifted a long long fly ball to right field, making the crowd gasp.� RF Brandon Moss went back and back, and with his own back against the right field wall, made the catch for the second out.� Switch-hitting DH Max Leon worked the count full, then took a high and outside pitch from Machi for a walk, but Machi needed only one pitch to get C Max St. Pierre to pop out to 2B Brian Friday in short center field to end the game.

A busy Friday for the Pirates' minor league affiliates:

�

Bradenton Marauders� 5,� Jupiter Hammerheads� 3 (box)

The Marauders posted 14 hits, with each member of the line-up collecting at least one.� C Eric Fryer had a perfect 4-for-4 night, with all four hits singles.� SS Greg Picart had 2 singles, and LF Quincy Latimore doubled and homered.� They scored only 5 runs on those 14 hits, though, leaving 13 runners on base.

Bradenton began scoring in the 2nd inning, on Fryer's first single and an RBI double by 1B Calvin Anderson. Latimore's double and a single by DH Jeremy Farrell to score Latimore added another run in the 3rd.� Latimore's home run over the left field wall made it 3-0 in the 5th inning.� The Marauders took advantage of an error by the Hammerheads to score agin in the 6th.� With one out, Greg Picart singled and 2B Shelby Ford reached on a fielding error in left field, which let the speedy Picart score from first base.� Ford went to third base on the error, and he scored on RF Robbie Grossman's RBI single.

Nate Baker earned his 2nd win with the Marauders, going 6 shutout innings and allowing only 2 hits, with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.� Three of those walks came in the bottom of the 1st inning, but Baker got out of that bases-loaded jam with a pop out and two fly outs.� He had two more runners in scoring position in the 2nd, with a walk and a double, but got out of that jam too.� The other single he allowed came with two outs in the 3rd.� After that single, Baker retired the next 10 batters he faced, to finish his night.

Craig Hansen came on in relief of Baker to begin the 7th.� He kept Jupiter from scoring in the 7th, despite two runners in scoring position from a hit batter, a single, and a wild pitch.� The Hammerheads' only runs came in the 8th, and only one of the three runs was earned.� A double and two walks loaded the bases, and a sacrifice fly brought in the earned run.� After a second out, Hansen was relieved by Duke Welker. The first batter Welker faced took a ball into center field, but an error by CF Starling Marte caused two unearned runs to score.� Welker finished that inning with a line out to short.

Noah Krol earned his 30th save of the season with a perfect 9th inning.� He leads the Florida State League in saves -- #2 has 28 saves and #3 has 21 saves.� How many saves do you need to have before you get promoted?

�

Loss number 82 came about quickly and early. The Mets clobbered Jeff Karstens for seven runs in the first four innings and cruised in. Pittsburgh's offense was anemic, mustering only six hits of Mike Pelfrey.