Jose Ascanio has been temporarily shut down after suffering a right hand injury in a home accident. Ascanio is attempting to return from shoulder surgery that he underwent in late 2009.

The Pirates have reached an agreement with second round draft pick Stetson Allie. Jen Langosch reports that a few details still need to be worked out at this point.

The Pirates have officially signed their 15th round draft pick, shortstop Drew Maggi. Kendall Rogers of Yahoo! Sports tweets that Maggi received a bonus of $468,000.

Dejan Kovacevic reports that Joe L. Brown, Pirates general manager from 1956 to 1976 and briefly in 1985, died yesterday afternoon. He was 91.

First round pick Jameson Taillon, second round pick Stetson Allie and 15th round pick Drew Maggi put the pen to paper at various points on Monday. Click here to read through the live updates that I provided from morning to midnight.

Sunday's games in the Pirates' lower minor leagues were partially hampered by rain.... The GCL Pirates again had today off.

The State College Spikes and the Aberdeen IronBirds fell victim to rain.� That game will not be made up, as the Spikes are not scheduled to play Aberdeen again this season.� Tomorrow is an off day for the Spikes, then on Tuesday, Matt Curry, Adalberto Santos, and Jhonatan Ramos will be participating in the New York-Penn League All-Star Game.

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West Virginia Power 3,� Lexington Legends 3 -- suspended (box)

The Power and the Legends were supposed to play 2 games today, making up for last night's rainout.� They got started on Game 1, but got only into the third inning (of a 7-inning game) before the rain returned.� That game was suspended and the second game was postponed.

The game began with a scoreless first inning for both teams.� In the top of the 2nd, LF Rogelios Noris and C Ramon Cabrera both singled, then with two outs, 1B Kyle Morgan blasted a 3-run homer.� The Legends responded with 3 runs in the bottom of the frame on four singles.� With one out in the top of the 3rd, the game was suspended.� They will try to finish this one, then play a second game tomorrow.

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New Hampshire FisherCats� 3,� Altoona Curve� 2 (box)

More extra innings for the Curve and the FisherCats, but this one went New Hampshire's way.�� The Curve threatened in the 2nd inning, when both 1B Matt Hague and 2B Jordy Mercer led off with back-to-back singles.� DH Jim Negrych's grounder forced out Hague at third, and C Kris Watts walked to load the bases.� Another ground out ended the inning, though.�� A triple by SS Chase d'Arnaud and a sacrifice fly by 3B Josh Harrison in the 3rd inning did put the Curve onto the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead.� They scored again in the 5th on an exciting play.� CF Jose De Los Santos began with a single.� D'Arnaud grounded to short, for what should have been a double play, but the New Hampshire second baseman missed the catch, and both runners were safe.� De Los Santos tagged up and advanced to third on a fly out, then stole home in a double steal.

Rudy Owens pitched 5 scoreless innings in his start for the Curve, striking out 6 batters.� He scattered 5 hits, no walks, and only had more than one runner on base at a time in the 3rd, but got out of it with a strikeout and a ground out.� Jared Hughes relieved Owens to start the 6th.� Hughes walked a batter then erased him with a double play in the 6th.� In the 7th, Hughes hit the first batter, CF Callix Crabbe with a pitch.� Crabbe stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored on an RBI single.� That batter was thrown out at second base by RF Miles Durham when he tried to stretch his single into a double.� Moments later, a solo home run tied the game at 2-2.� Hughes also pitched the 8th, and again gave up a walk and erased the runner with a double play.

The tie continued as the Curve went down in order in the 7th.� D'Arnaud was hit with a pitch in the 8th, was bunted to second by Harrison, then stole third base, but was left stranded.� Daniel Moskos worked around a lead-off single to keep the tie going in the top of the 9th.� Jim Negrych singled in the bottom of the inning, but was erased in a double play.� Derek Hankins retired the FisherCats in order in the top of the 10th.� Kris Watts singled in the bottom of that inning, and was replaced by pinch-runner Anthony Norman, who was also left on base.

Hankins came out again for the 11th.� With two outs, he gave up a single, then an RBI double to Crabbe, and the FisherCats had the 3-2 lead.� Matt Hague walked with two outs in the bottom of the 11th, but a grounder off the bat of Negrych forced out Hague at second base to end the game.

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Syracuse Chiefs� 4,� Indianapolis Indians� 2 (box)

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Like yesterday, the Indians had an early lead in this afternoon's game against the Syracuse Chiefs at Victory Field.� Like yesterday, the Chiefs' late inning rallies had them catching up and taking the lead.� But, unlike yesterday, today, the Indians could not stage a last-minute rally for the dramatic win.� Rehabbing right-hander Chris Jakubauskas (photo above) could not hold off the Chiefs, and he suffered the loss.

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Jeremy Powell (photo) made the start for the Indians, under yet another 90+ degree sunny sky.� For the first 6 innings, he was brilliant.� He retired the side in order in half of his innings.� He worked around a one-out single by C Wilson Ramos in the 2nd inning.� Ramos singled again with two outs in the 4th, but Powell ended the inning by inducing a pop out.� He also worked around a one-out double by opposing pitcher Jordan Zimmerman in the 3rd.� Zimmerman surprised almost everyone in the stadium by ripping a line drive to the 418' sign in left-center field.� For anyone else, that would have been an easy triple, but not wanting to overtax the pitcher, particularly in the heat,� Zimmerman started slowing down shortly after he rounded first base, and all but walked into second base, where he watched LF Kevin Melillo's throw come back to the infield.

Melillo got the Tribe out to a good start with a lead-off single in the bottom of the 1st, though he was left stranded.� The Indians had two runners on in the 2nd inning, when 1B John Bowker (photo, on right) lined a single into right field, and SS Pedro Ciriaco bunted to the left side of the mound, where Zimmerman could not find the handle on the ball to make a throw.� 2B Brian Friday popped up, and the infield fly rule was invoked.� That brought up Jeremy Powell with two outs, and he could only bounce a grounder to short, ending the inning with the two runners on base.

The first Indians' run came in the 3rd inning.� With one out, 3B Akinori Iwamura worked a walk.� Then CF Alex Presley worked his magic again, taking a long bouncer just barely fair down the right field line.� The carom off the wall in the right field corner fooled Syracuse RF Leonard Davis, and while Davis was busy chasing down the ball, Iwamura scored and Presley cruised into third base with a triple.� Indians up, 1-0.� The inning ended without further runs scoring.� RF Brandon Moss's oops-swing lifted a low, twisting flop of a fly right to Chiefs' 3B Pete Orr.� Presley had been taking a lead, and he could not get back to the bag in time, so was doubled off to end the inning.

Houston once again rallied late to beat back the Pirates. And once again the Pirates bats were held in check. Hunter Pence was at the center of Houston's attack and J.A. Happ pitched well over six innings.

Probable Starters RHP Chris Volstad vs. RHP James McDonald RHP Ricky Nolasco vs. LHP Zach Duke RHP Josh Johnson vs. RHP Ross Ohlendorf LHP Sean West vs. LHP Paul Maholm

Aberdeen 3, State College 2 (11 inn.) State College 1, Aberdeen 0 State College split the first two games of a weekend series at Aberdeen, home...

The Pirates scored twice in the first and left the bases loaded in the second. Other than that, Bud Norris was dominant. He whiffed 14 in seven innings and Hunter Pence powered the Astros come from behind win.

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Erik Kratz is a good sport.

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Indianapolis Indians� 4,� Syracuse Chiefs� 3 (box)

2B Brian Friday (photo) and CF Alex Presley were the big heroes in the bottom of the 9th inning, giving the Indianapolis Indians a walk-off win over the Syracuse Chiefs at Victory Field tonight.� Friday, Presley, and SS Pedro Ciriaco all had 2 hits in the game and all had a hit in the 9th, and reliever Justin Thomas earned the win.

The Indians were clinging to a 2-1 lead going into the 9th inning.� Justin Thomas had come on in relief in the top of the 8th, striking out RF Pete Orr to end that inning.� He began the 9th by getting CF Michael Martinez to ground out to second.� Former Indy Indian, pinch-hitter Carlos Maldonado made the Victory Field crowd gasp as he drove the first pitch he saw on a high line drive into center field.� Tribe CF Alex Presley went back and back, but was able to catch up to the ball just in time, for the second out of the inning.

Thomas walked LF Boomer Whiting, and that was worrisome, because Whiting is a big base-stealing threat� -- he had already stolen 30 bases this season.� Before he threw even one pitch to the plate, where SS Danny Espinosa was waiting, Thomas threw to first base three times, trying to keep Whiting on first base.� Then, with the southpaw Thomas looking right at him, Whiting ventured a little too far off first.� Thomas' 4th pick-off throw clearly had Whiting, who then turned and raced for second base.� 1B John Bowker took that throw from Thomas and threw to second base, where Pedro Ciriaco was waiting to tag out Whiting by several steps -- but Bowker's throw hit Whiting in the back and bounced into short left field.� It was ruled a stolen base and a throwing error on Bowker, and by the time the ball was retrieved, Whiting was standing on third base.

Finally, Thomas pitched to Espinosa.� He got Espinosa to a 2-2 count, and Espinosa fouled off two more pitches, but Thomas was one out away of an Indians' win.� Then Espinosa lifted a long high fly to right center field... which CF Alex Presley and RF Brandon Moss quickly realized that it would do no good to chase it� -- a 2-out 2-run homer, to give the Chiefs the lead, 3-2.� A tapper back to the mound ended the inning, and sent the game to the bottom of the 9th.