PIRATES PROSPECTSPITTSBURGH PIRATES MINOR LEAGUE NEWS, TRANSACTIONS, AND ARTICLES

The Indianapolis Indians took an early lead, then had to hold off the Toledo MudHens for the win. �Tribe 3B Chris Barnwell and DH Hector Gimenez both had 3 hits, with a double and two singles for each, to lead the offense. �Starter Daniel McCutchen (photo) earned his 6th win of the season with 5 innings of work, and closer Chris Bootcheck collected his 14th save of the season, second highest in the International League. �

The game started with a bang for the Indians. �The first four batters in the bottom of the 1st inning singled into center field: �2B Pedro Lopez, Chris Barnwell, CF Jeff Salazar, and RF Garrett Jones. �

Salazar's single scored Lopez from second base. �The throw in from MudHens' CF Brent Clevlen, who was getting a workout, got to C Dane Sardinha before Lopez reached the plate, but Sardinha was a few feet up the third base line and had to turn and try to swipe at Lopez. �Lopez avoided the swipe and slid across the plate with the first run of the game (photo). �

Jones' single brought in Barnwell, also scrambling around from second base. 3B Bryan Myrow made the first out with a fly to left field, but Hector Gimenez followed with another RBI single, bringing Salazar around from second base. �C Erik Kratz continued the parade with the first extra-base hit. �His long fly ball down the right field line landed on the warning track just inside the foul line, but then bounced into the stands for a ground rule double. �

Kratz (photo) had already rounded second base and was half way to third base, and had to be told to return to second base. �Gimenez would probably have scored, but he had to be held up also. �The inning ended with a strikeout by LF Chris Snelling and a ground out by SS Brian Bixler, and the Indians led 4-0.

The MudHens started chipping away at the lead in the next inning. �Daniel McCutchen gave up a single and a walk in the 1st inning, but CF Brent Clevlen lined out to RF Garrett Jones to end the inning and leave two base runners stranded. �In the 2nd inning, Hens' 3B Mike Hessman smashed a long fly ball to the deepest part of left-center field, near the 418' sign. �It would have been a home run in almost any park in the league but this one -- here it was just a triple. �LF Wilkin Ramirez singled into right field to plate Hessman. �The Hens couldn't get any more, though, as Erik Kratz made a perfect throw to Brian Bixler covering second base to catch Ramirez trying to steal second base. �Indians 4, MudHens 1.

[Photo: Hector Gimenez]

Toledo moved within one run in the 3rd inning. �McCutchen gave up hits to the first two batters: �a single by DH Will Rhymes and a double by 2B Scott Sizemore. �Sizemore's ball landed at the base of the wall in right-center field, and the fleet-footed Rhymes came around from first base to score. �Sizemore tagged up and advanced to third base on a fly out by RF Clete Thomas, and he scored when 1B Jeff Larish grounded to first base. �Indians 4, MudHens 3.

McCutchen kept the MudHens scoreless over the 4th and 5th innings. �He walked the lead-off batter in each inning, but Erik Kratz took care of Will Rhymes with another on-target throw to catch him trying to steal. �Brent Dlugach was also out at second base on a fluke play in the 4th inning. �Mike Hessman hit a towering pop up that came down just in front of the plate. �McCutchen started coming in to get it, then Kratz came out from behind the plate, and Chris Barnwell and Brian Myrow came in from the corners. �At the last second, though, everyone backed off, and the ball dropped to the ground in the middle of all four of them. �Kratz picked up the ball and fired it to second base, forcing out Dlugach, as Hessman was safe at first. �

[Photo -- Chris Barnwell]

McCutchen threw 88 pitches in his 5 innings, 51 for strikes. �He was responsible for those 3 runs, on 5 hits and 3 walks, with 3 strikeouts. �

Toledo starter Eddie Bonine settled down after the first inning, and allowed only two singles over the next three innings. �Pedro Lopez singled up the middle to begin the 2nd inning, but he was thrown out stealing on what might have been a missed hit-and-run play, and Bonine got out of that inning easily. �Hector Gimenez ran up Bonine's pitch count by running the count full and fouling off 5 more pitches before he singled into center field in the 3rd inning. �

Chris Barnwell and Hector Gimenez teamed up in another Indians' rally in the 5th inning. �Barnwell led off with a double off the left field scoreboard. �He tagged up and went on to third base on Jeff Salazar's fly out. �Garrett Jones (photo) was next up. �He took the first two pitches for balls, and at that point the MudHens decided to intentionally walk him. �Brian Myrow fouled off a few extra pitches, then struck out. �Then Gimenez doubled off the wall in right field, near the 362' sign, scoring both Barnwell and Jones. �That sent Bonine to the showers and brought in Matt Rusch from the Toledo bullpen. �Rusch struck out Erik Kratz to end the inning, and he also retired the Tribe in order in the 6th. �Indians 6, MudHens 3.

The Tribe threatened in the 7th, when Chris Barnwell recorded his third hit of the night, but was picked off first base. �Garrett Jones also singled into right field, and when RF Clete Thomas had the ball glance off his glove, Jones raced around to second base. �He was left there, though, when Thomas redeemed himself with a diving catch of a line drive off the bat of Brian Myrow. �Casey Fien pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning for Toledo.

The Indians' bullpen took care of the last 4 innings of the game after Daniel McCutchen exited. �Ty Taubenheim took the 6th inning. �He gave up a lead-off single to Jeff Larish, but got Brent Clevlen to bounce back to the mound, where Taubenheim started the 1-6-3 (Taubenheim to Bixler to Myrow) double play. �Brent Dlugach smashed the MudHens' second triple of the game off the base of the left field scoreboard, over the head of LF Chris Snelling, who was playing in. �But Taubenheim struck out Mike Hessman to end the inning and leave Dlugach standing on third.

Donnie Veal (photo) got the 7th inning, and he struggled. �He walked the first two batters he faced (Wilkin Ramirez and Dane Sardinha) on 10 pitches. �Then he gave up two singles. �Will Rhymes' single slipped between first and second bases to score Ramirez. �Scott Sizemore dropped down a bunt, which Veal fielded cleanly. �He took an extra beat before throwing to first base, and Sizemore reached the bag just before the throw from Veal slipped through Brian Myrow's hands -- it was ruled a single. �Clete Thomas grounded to first base, and Myrow started what looked like it would be a double play. �Sizemore was forced out at second base, but Thomas beat out the throw from SS Brian Bixler back to first base where Veal was covering, and that allowed Sardinha to score from third base. �The inning finally ended when Jeff Larish grounded to just about the same spot at first base. �This time the throw to second and the relay back to Myrow was in time and the double play ended the inning. �But the MudHens had again moved to within one run of the Tribe: �Indians 6, MudHens 5.

The 8th inning began with Denny Bautista on the mound. �He gave up two very long fly balls and a come-backer to the mound. �The first fly ball, by Brent Clevlen, sailed all the way to the wall at straight-away center field, where it found Jeff Salazar's glove waiting for it. �The come-backer, off the bat of Brent Clevlen, came back at Bautista so fast that he only had time to turn away. �The ball struck him in the back just about at the level of his bat and ricocheted all the way into center field, giving Dlugach a single. �Manager Frank Kremblas and trainer Jose Ministral hurried out to check on Bautista, who looked more surprised than anything. �Bautista declared himself to be ok and threw a test pitch to prove it. �Mike Hessman hit the next long fly ball, for the second time in the game, off the top of the left field scoreboard, for a double, sending Dlugach to third base. �So maybe Bautista was not so ok after all. �

Mike Koplove had been warming up in the bullpen, as if he was supposed to come in to pitch the 9th inning. �Instead, he entered the game in the 8th to relieve Bautista with one out and runners on second and third bases. �No problem for Koplove. �He coolly struck out Wilkin Ramirez looking, and got Dane Sardina to knock a routine grounder to short to end the inning. �

Chris Bootcheck finished things up in the top of the 9th. �He gave up a one-out double to Scott Sizemore (his 3rd hit of the game), but struck out Clete Thomas and got Jeff Larish to ground to first base to end the game and earn his 14th save. �

Indians' Hitting Gem of the Game: �Four straight singles into center field to start the bottom of the 1st inning. �All four of those batters, Pedro Lopez, Chris Barnwell, Jeff Salazar, and Garrett Jones, came in to score. �

Indians Defensive Gem of the Game: �For the second day in a row, Garrett Jones made a spectacular diving catch in right field. �Tonight's came with Jones running in to make the catch of Wilkin Ramirez's liner in the 4th inning. �

More photos:

Garrett Jones had to hustle back to first base to keep from being picked off, and he jumped so quick that he came out of his shoe ....... and an unusual guest was roaming the outfield during warm-ups.

NOTES:

Rowdie had a little trouble with this guest and his tail.

Check out this box score from Sunday's game between Lake Elsinore Storm and High Desert Mavericks in the California League. �Final score: �Lake Elsinore 33, High Desert 18. �They set California League records for length of the game (4 hrs, 10 mins for a 9-inning game), and runs in a game (51), and number of hits in a game for one team (Storm -- 32), and the Storm team record for RBI in a game. �High Desert put their catcher Jose Yepez in to pitch in the 9th inning, after he had already gone 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk, a homer, and 4 RBI. �On the mound, he gave up home runs to the first three batters he faced, then got a ground out, then gave up a fourth homer and a double. �His ERA? �It's 135.00. �Their DH, Deybis Benitez, got the last two outs of the inning. �

Go Tribe!

[Photos by Nancy Zinni -- MVN]