Wednesday, with games going on all afternoon and evening....

Bradenton Marauders� 3,� Tampa Yankees� 1 (box)

A 3-run 5th inning was all it took from the Marauders' bats this afternoon.� The inning began with 3B Jose De Los Santos reaching base on a fielding error.� RF Robbie Grossman singled, moving De Los Santos to third base, and LF Quincy Latimore doubled, scoring De Los Santos.� Both Grossman and Latimore scored on 1B Erik Huber's single into right field.� Huber stole second base, but was left there when the inning ended on a fly out. All three runs were unearned.

Those three hits were half of the Marauder's total for the game.� Latimore and Huber also singled in the 2nd inning, and C James Skelton walked, loading the bases, but three consecutive strikeouts ended the inning with all three runners still in place.� CF Austin McClune singled to lead off the 6th, 2B Adenson Chourio reached on a fielding error, but a double play ended the inning with Chourio forced out at second.� The Marauders went down in order in the last three innings of the game.

The only run the Yankees scored was also unearned.� Bradenton starter Aaron Pribanic pitched 5 innings and scattered 4 hits.� He came back out to begin the 6th, but was relieved after giving up a single and a walk.� Tom Boleska struck out the first batter he faced, then Skelton threw out the second runner as he tried to steal second in a double steal.� When the next batter reached on a throwing error by De Los Santos, the runner (who had stolen third base) scored from third.� Boleska pitched a scoreless 7th.� Tyler Cox allowed a single and a walk in the scoreless 8th.� Diego Moreno, who has finished his organizational suspension and has been reassigned to the Marauders, pitched a scoreless 9th, allowing just one walk.

Reliever Mike Colla has been promoted from the Marauders to AA Altoona, trading spots with Moreno.

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I have no idea how to explain this. Without the injured Andrew McCutchen in the line up, the Pirates bats have shown fire power that was lacking all season. Pedro Alvarez homered twice for the second straight game and Delwyn Young homered and knocked in five to support a nice outing from Zach Duke.

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Conference time

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Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs� 4,�� Indianapolis Indians� 2 (box)

Back-to-back home runs in the 3rd inning was all the Iron Pigs needed to beat the Indians at Victory Field tonight.� Former Indianapolis Indian CF Chris Duffy smacked the first homer, and 2B Ozzie Chavez followed with the second.

The start of the game was delayed by nearly 90 minutes, though it wasn't raining, and in fact the sun was shining for part of that time.� The sun was not shining in downtown Indianapolis at around 5 pm, though.� That's when a sudden downpour sprang up with virtual no warning, catching the Victory Field ground crew without the tarp on the field.� By the time the tarp could be spread, quite a lot of water had gotten onto the infield.� Shortly before 6 pm, the tarp was pulled back and the crew went to work, first on the third base line and the third base and home plate areas, then later on the opposite side of the infield.� Several times in the process there was a conference on the field (photo above), including Lehigh Valley manager Dave Huppert, two of the umpires (black shirts on the left), head groundskeeper Joey Stevenson (red shirt), Indians' assistant general manager Randy Lewandowski (white shirt), and Indians' manager Frank Kremblas (far right).� It took the crew more than 2.5 hours to get the infield into a safe and playable condition, and the game began at about 8:30 pm.

Daniel McCutchen (photo) made the start for the Indians, and he generally looked sharp.� He threw 80 pitches (52 strikes) over 5 innings, and was only removed at that point because his turn in the batting order came around in the bottom of the 5th and the Indians had a runner on base and were trying to catch up.

McCutchen gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk, and struck out 5 batters.� He retired the side in order only one time, in the 5th.� He worked around one base runner in the 1st (a walk to LF Domonic Brown), in the 2nd (a single by C Dane Sardinha), and the 4th (he hit Sardinha with a pitch).� The only inning that gave him any serious trouble was the 3rd.

That inning began with Iron Pigs' pitcher JA Happ taking a 2-2 pitch down the right field line and into the corner for a double.� Happ is a lifetime .070 hitter, who has had one previous double, in 2009.� Chris Duffy took McCutchen's next pitch for a ride over the wall in right-center field, for a no-doubt 2-run homer.� Then Ozzie Chavez also hit the first pitch from McCutchen ove rthe right field wall, to the right of where Duffy's sailed out.� McCutchen took a deep breath, and struck out the next batter, Domonic Brown, then ended the inning with two ground outs.� After the homers, McCutchen faced only one batter over the minimum for the rest of his might, and that was when he hit Sardinha with a pitch.

Pedro Alvarez hit his first career grand slam as part of a nine run first inning and the Pirates hung on to win 11-9.

The Pirates’ starting rotation has been awful in 2010. They rank 29th out of 30 teams in ERA, 30th in FIP, 29th in xFIP, 30th in innings and 30th in strikeouts. From Charlie Morton’s implosions to Chris Jakubauskas’ one scary inning, it has been a tough year to be in the Bucs’ rotation. Let’s take a deeper look, in graphical form.

Ryan Doumit is out of the lineup tonight after a foul tip struck his mask in last night's game. Erik Kratz will start in his place. Doumit may be available to pinch-hit.

Brian Friday is back with Triple-A Indianapolis after a rehab assignment. Friday has been out with a sprained ankle that he sustained on June 9th.

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Brandon Moss is congratulated on his home run

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Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs� 10,� Indianapolis Indians� 8 (box)

Yes, that's what they did.� The Indianapolis Indians squandered a 7-run lead at Victory Field tonight. � They were one strike away from a win, when the Iron Pigs scored 3 runs to take the lead in the 9th inning, and a few minutes later, win the game.

Tribe starter Dana Eveland (photo) was going to be limited to a pitch count of about 75 pitches.� He used up 26 of them in the 1st inning.� Eveland ran the count full on the first two batters he faced, then went to a 2-2 count with an extra foul ball on the third batter.� Former Indy Indian (2007) LF Chris Aguila led off the inning with a soft single into center field.� 2B Ozzie Chavez took that full count, then took another ball, for a walk.� RF Domonic Brown (remember him from the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League?� He was a teammate of Daniel Moskos, Donnie Veal, Brian Friday, Jose Tabata, and others) grounded sharply to the right side, and 2B Jim Negrych's dive kept the ball from going into right field for a single.� Negrych knocked the ball down, then hopped up and threw to first base for the out on Brown, but Aguila moved to third and Chavez to second.� CF John Mayberry dropped a short fly into center field, driving in Aguila with the first run of the game.� With runners on the corners, Eveland caught a break -- 3B Neil Sellers bounced to short, where SS Argenis Diaz started a 6-4-3 double play, Diaz to Negrych to 1B Jeff Clement, to end the inning.

All-Star pitcher Nate Bump made the start for the Iron Pigs.� Bump had recently spent a couple of weeks on the Disabled List, and it appeared that he is not back up to speed yet.� He began the bottom of the frame a little like the way Eveland started the top of the frame.� He ran the count full, then gave up a single on a big bouncer into center field by LF Kevin Melillo, then walked 3B Akinori Iwamura on another full count. The similarilty ended there, though.� Melillo tried to time Bump's delivery and make an early jump for a stolen base, and was easily thrown out when Bump turned and saw him going.� It was an unfortunate mistake, because Melillo would have been to second base in just a moment when Iwamura walked, and Melillo could have scored when CF Alex Presley extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a double off the tip of 3B Sellers' glove and into left field.� Instead, when Presley doubled, Iwamura went to third and the Indians had two runners in scoring position.

1B Jeff Clement made it back-to-back doubles with a fly that bounced on the track at the base of the wall in the right field corner, scoring both Iwamura and Presley.� RF Brandon Moss slipped a low line drive through the hole and into right field, extending his hitting streak to 10 games.� Clement had been a little slow taking off from second base, maybe thinking that Iron Pigs' RF Domonic Brown would get to the ball more quickly, and so he only reached third base instead of scoring on the play.� No matter, Jim Negrych brought in Clement with a sacrifice fly to center field.� New Tribe catcher Jason Jaramillo (photo) added the third double of the inning, a long fly to right field, where Brown made a leap -- but had the ball bounce off his glove, off the top of the wall, and then down onto the track.� That brought Moss all the way around from first base, scoring the 4th run of the inning.� A strikeout ended the inning, but the Indians had a 4-1 lead, and Nate Bump had thrown 35 pitches.

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Jeff Karstens retired the first 12 batters he faced, but Prince Fielder led off the fifth inning with a solo home run. Karstens allowed a two-run blast to Rickie Weeks in the sixth, and the three runs were too many for the Bucs' feeble offense to overcome.

Monday's action with the Pirates' lower minor league affiliates.� The West Virginia Power have a a scheduled day off.

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GCL Pirates� 11,� GCL Braves� 3 (box)

The Pirates got in on the recent hit-o-rama fun the minor league teams have been having.� This afternoon, the Pirates collected 20 hits on their way to 11 runs.� 2B Kevin Mort went 5-for-5, all singles.� SS Jorge Bishop had 4 hits, including a double, and 2 RBI.� 1B Michaelangel Trinidad had 4 hits, two of which were home runs, and he knocked in 7 of the Pirates' 11 runs.

The fun started with 5 runs in the 2nd inning.� Trinidad's first homer was for 2 runs after Mort's first single, and it was followed by a walk to CF Chih-Wei Hsu and three doubles, by 3B Eric Avila, Bishop, and LF Exicardo Cayonez, for 3 more runs.� Trinidad blasted another 2-run homer in the 3rd inning, following another one of Mort's singles.� Bishop led off the 4th with a single, and he scored on two more singles, by RF Gregory Polanco and Mort.

Polanco, Mort, and Trinidad hit three consecutive singles in the 6th to add another run.� The Pirates' final two runs came in the 7th, on singles by Cayonez, C Elias Diaz, and Mort, with a 2-RBI double by Trinidad.

Vincent Payne pitched 4 innings in his 5th start for the Pirates.� He scattered 3 hits, and only one counted -- a solo home run in the 4th inning.� He did not walk anyone, and he struck out 2 batters.� Bryton Trepagnier made his second pro appearance and earned his first win.� He gave up a single to the first batter he faced, but erased him with a double play, and retired the rest of the batters he faced in two innings.� Joan Montero also gave up a single and erased the runner with a double play in the 7th.� He also gave up two runs (one earned) on a single, a walk, a passed ball,� a wild pitch, and an RBI ground out in the 8th inning.� Dinesh Patel pitched a scoreless 9th inning, allowing only a single.

The Pirates have suspended Altoona closer Diego Moreno for "unprofessional conduct." No other details are known.

Triple-A pitchers Hayden Penn and Vinnie Chulk are close to signing deals with separate Japanese teams.