PIRATES PROSPECTSPITTSBURGH PIRATES MINOR LEAGUE NEWS, TRANSACTIONS, AND ARTICLES

�

�

�

�

Last home game

�

�

�

�

.

�

Indianapolis Indians� 4,� Louisville Bats� 1 ...���� (box)

�

Two RBI from the Indians' MVP and two hits from the team's Rookie of the Year supported a strong effort by the team's Starting Pitcher of the Year as the Tribe defeated the Louisville Bats at Victory Field in their home finale.� The Indians were again playing the role of spoiler, preventing the Bats from securing a playoff berth for at least one more day.

Starter Jeremy Powell (photo) pitched 6 solid innings, and allowed only one unearned run on 6 hits, but no walks, with 6 strikeouts.� Powell had trouble in two innings, one with trouble of his own making, and one with trouble that was foisted upon him.� After giving up a double off the top of the right field wall to Bats' lead-off batter CF Dave Sappelt, Powell retired the next three batters, including back-to-back strikeouts of RF Danny Dorn and 1B Todd Frazier, to get out of the inning.

The first bit of trouble came in the 2nd inning.� C Devin Mesoraco led off with a line drive into right field, going right toward RF Brandon Moss. But with a 6 pm start to the game, the sun was directly in Moss' eyes, and he had no idea where the ball was until it dropped to the ground about 15 feet in front of him and to his left for a single.� Powell got 3B Mike Costanzo to pop out to Pedro Ciriaco (photo below), then LF Michael Griffin singled into short center field.� 2B Kris Negron followed with another single, going over the left side of the infield into the outfield.� That brought up the Bats' pitcher Matt Klinker.� Powell got Klinker to tap back to the mound, where he snatched up the ball and returned it to the plate.� C Jason Jaramillo stepped on the plate to force out Mesoraco, then fired to first base for the double play on Klinker.

Powell allowed only one hit over the next three innings.� Dave Sappelt led off the 3rd with a single through the right side of the infield.� 2B Brian Friday took care of Sappelt when SS Zach Cozart lined sharply straight to Friday, who then took three steps forward and tagged out Sappelt, who was nearly at second base, for the unassisted double play.

Sappelt collected his third hit of the game when he led off the 6th inning with a single into center field.� Zach Cozart next bounced to third base, where 3B Akinori Iwamura made the scoop and turned to throw to second base to begin a double play.� He got the force out of Sappelt at second, but Brian Friday's throw on to first was rushed and it went to the outfield side of the bag.� 1B Mitch Jones couldn't make the catch, and Cozart was safe at first on a fielder's choice (no error because you can't assume a double play), with one out.� Danny Dorn was next, with a high pop at short.� This time, Pedro Ciriaco had to battle the wind, and instead of making the catch, a last-second gust pushed the ball away from him and it dropped to the ground.� That might not have been too much of a problem, since Ciriaco was able to quickly find the ball about 2 feet away and toss to second base to force out Cozart.� But Brian Friday could not keep hold of the toss, and when he tried to swipe at Cozart as he momentarily came off the bag, he missed that too.

That gave the Bats runners on first and second, with one out.� Todd Frazier gave the Indians another try at the double play that would end the inning with a grounder to third base.� Aki Iwamura again made the scoop and threw to second base to start a double play -- but this time, Iwamura's throw skittered into the outfield.� Frazier was safe at first on the fielder's choice, Dorn was safe at second on the throwing error, and Cozart raced around third base to score an unearned run.� Powell took a deep breath, bore down, and ended the mess by striking out both Devin Mesoraco and Mike Costanzo to end the inning.

The Indianapolis Indians have announced their End of Season Awards for 2010:

�

MVP:� Brandon Moss

�

�

With two games to go, Moss is leading the International League's active players with 95 RBI.� He has the team-best 22 home runs (4th in the league) and 31 doubles in 134 games for the Tribe, with a .265 batting average.� He also leads the team in games played, as well as runs (72), hits (131), and total bases (232).� The 22 homers is his personal best for a season.� Moss was also the team's Player of the Month for July, when he hit .315 with 8 doubles, 8 homers, and 31 RBI, and reached base in 24 of his 28 games.� He had a 12-game hitting streak in mid-July.

�

.

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

.

�

�

Rookie of the Year:� Alex Presley

�

Presley joined the Indians at the end of June.� He had been hitting .350� for the Altoona Curve prior to his promotion, with13 doubles, 7 triples, 6 homers, and 47 RBI.� He also had a 21-game hitting streak while with the Curve.� Since joining the Indians, Presley has barely slowed down.� He is hitting .300 with 15 doubles, 6 triples, 6 homers, and 37 RBI, with 2 games to go.� He hit .346 in June and .330 in July.

Presley's most exciting game with the Indians was only his third after joining the team.�� In that game, he went 5-for-6 and hit for the cycle -- the first time an Indians' player has done so at Victory Field.� He also had a long hitting streak (13 games) in mid-July, and had 5 hits in the July 19th game.

�

.

Losses for all of the Pirates' affiliates on Friday night:

Reading Phillies� 9,� Altoona Curve� 4 ...������� (box)

The R-Phils attacked Curve starter Jared Hughes early, and the Curve bats could not keep up.� Hughes retired the side in order in the 1st inning, but gave up 3 unearned runs on a walk, a single, and two errors in the 2nd inning -- the throwing error was by Hughes.� A walk, a double, and a single added 2 more runs in the 3rd inning.� In the 4th inning, Hughes gave up another 3 runs on two singles, a triple, and a double by former Indy Indian Tagg Bozied.� Hughes was done after those 4 innings, having allowed 8 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks, though he struck out 6 batters.

The Curve hitters were hitless in the first 4 innings.� The only batter to get on base was CF Anthony Norman, who reached in the 3rd on Bozied's fielding error at first.� Two home runs, one by C Kris Watts in the 5th, and one by 2B Chase d'Arnaud in the 6th, got the Indians onto the scoreboard, but they were still trailing 8-2.

Each team scored in the 7th.� Tom Boleska had relieved Hughes to begin the 5th inning, and he retired the first 7 batters he faced in order.� Then in the 7th, he walked Bozied, then gave up a single and a double, allowing Bozied to score.� In the bottom of the frame, 1B Matt Hague led off with a single, then scored on singles by Watts and Norman, to make it 9-3.� The Curve added one more run in the bottom of the 9th, when SS Jordy Mercer, Hague, and RF Miles Durham led off the inning with three consecutive singles to load the bases.� Watts' sacrifice fly plated Mercer, but two ground outs ended the inning without any further scoring.� Bryan Morris pitched two perfect innings to wrap it up for the Curve.

The Curve have won the Eastern League's Western Division title, and will begin the first round of playoffs on Wednesday.� None of the other playoff slots have been settled yet.� The Bowie Baysox and the Harrisburg Senators are tied for second place in the Western Division.� The Trenton Thunder are in first place in the Eastern Division, with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 2.5 games behind, with 3 games left to play.

�

�

�

�

The wind had the flags doing this, and the flag poles swaying, all evening.

�

�

�

�

�

�

Louisville Bats� 16,� Indianapolis Indians� 6 ..���� (box)

�

It got ugly early at Victory Field tonight, and it didn't get much better as the game went on.� The Louisville Bats clobbered the Indianapolis Indians 16 - 6, and the two teams combined for a total of 30 hits.

�

The Ugly:

* Starter Mike Crotta (photo) lasted only one inning.� The first four batters in the top of the 1st reached base:� a slow roller single to short that CF Dave Sappelt beat out for a single, double down the left field line by SS Zach Cozart, four pitch walk to RF Danny Dorn, and a bases-clearing triple to the 418' mark in left-center by 1B Todd Frazier.� Tribe SS Pedro Ciriaco made a diving stop and great throw to first base to make the first out of the inning on C Devin Mesoraco, then Crotta walked 3B Mike Costanzo.� 2B Eric Eymann hit a little dribbler just a few feet in front of home, but when C Jason Jaramillo had to leave the plate to field the ball, since he had a better angle than Crotta did for the throw to first, then Frazier took the opportunity to break for home and score.� LF Michael Griffin capped the inning with a wind-aided 2-run homer over the right field wall.� Crotta struck out Bats' pitcher Tom Cochran to end the inning.� The Bats had a 6 run advantage before the Indians came to the plate.

*After two scoreless innings and just one walk, reliever Corey Hamman (photo) got into trouble in the 4th.� With one out, Michael Griffin drove another triple to the 418' sign in left-center.� Hamman struck out Cochran again, for the second out of the inning, but he had trouble finding that third out.� The next four batters reached base -- an RBI double into center field by Sappelt, a walk to Cozart, a 2-RBI double that rattled around in the right field corner by Dorn, and an RBI double out of CF Alex Presley's reach in center by Frazier.� Bats lead, 10-3.

�

*Anthony Claggett gave up another 2-run homer to Griffin in the 5th inning, for a 12 - 3 lead.� Then he gave up 3 more runs in the 7th.� With one out, he surrendered a double to Eymann, singles to Griffin and pinch-hitter Sean Henry (RBI), then after a ground out, another RBI single by Cozart.� Claggett was relieved by Brian Bass, who gave up another single to Dorn, driving in the third run of the inning.� Bats up 15-6.

�

.