Pittsburgh Pirates: Minor League Roundup April 18th

Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Pittsburgh Pirates minor league affiliates were all in action on Tuesday.  This is the first time since before the Easter holiday that all four teams were in play.  They were 2-2 on the day.

Triple-A Indianapolis took on the Durham Bulls of the Tampa Bay Rays’ organization.  Starting for the Indians was Drew Hutchison.  After not making the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Spring Training, Hutchison has had a rough start to his Triple-A season.  However, yesterday he had his best start of the year.  The former Blue Jay went 6 innings and only allowed one run, which was earned.  In addition to the one run he gave up five hits, three walks, and only struck out one hitter.

Speaking of early season struggles, A.J. Schugel continued his poor start of the season.  Schugel only threw two-thirds of an inning and was tagged for two earned run on one walk and two hits.  It did not get much better after that.  Pittsburgh Pirates top 30 prospect Dovydas Neverauskas followed Schugel, and he was on the mound for two unearned runs.  The two runs caused the game to go into extra innings.  Angel Sanchez threw a scoreless tenth frame.  Then in the eleventh, Brett McKinney was charged with the loss as he gave up one earned run.

On the offensive side of things, Triple-A Indy put up 10 hits and five runs in the game.  Three players had two hit games.  Max Moroff was 2-4 with a double and a base on balls. Elias Diaz saw his average creep north of .300 after his 2-5 day. Also, Diaz contributed a double, two runs scored, and a RBI. Furthermore, Joey Terdoslavich was 2-5 with a double, three RBIs, and one run scored.  Austin Meadows struggles continued, as he went 0-4 with three strikeouts and a base on balls. Along with Meadows in the hitless column was another Pittsburgh Pirates top 30 prospect Eric Wood.  Wood was 0-5 in the game.  Along with Meadows, he too is hitting below .200, hitting just .158 on the season.

Double-A

The Altoona Curve took on the Erie SeaWolves of the Detroit Tigers’ organization.  The Pittsburgh Pirates Double-A affiliate was victorious by a score of 6-3.  Alex McRae was the starter for the Curve, and he threw 5.2 innings of solid baseball.  McRae was charged with three earned runs, which came on five hits and two walks.  Following McRae were four different pitchers who all pitched scoreless frames. The four pitchers were Tate Scioneaux, Jared Lakind, Austin Coley, and Montana DuRapau.  DuRapau was credited with his fourth save of the season.

The Curve posted six runs on just eight hits.  They were actually out hit by the SeaWolves, who had 10 hits in the game.  Kevin Newman provided two of the hits, as he was 2-5 in the game.  Newman collected a double, a RBI, and scored one run.  He is now batting .310 in the early going.  Also, Edwin Espinal was 2-5 on the night.  Espinal had a double and was also credited with two RBIs. Michael Suchy‘s slump continued, going 0-4 with three strikeouts in the game.  After a hot start to the season, Suchy’s batting average is now down to .231 for the year.

High-A

The Bradenton Marauders dropped to 9-4 on the year as they received the loss to Clearwater.  The Clearwater Threshers of the Philadelphia Phillies organization won by a score of 4-2.  The Marauders sent Pedro Vasquez to the mound for the start.  Vasquez threw five innings and was charged with two earned runs, both coming on two solo home runs.  Furthermore, Vasquez struck out six hitters while walking three.  Following Vasquez was Brett Helton.  Helton was charged with two earned runs in his two innings pitched.  Jake Brentz and Daniel Zamora threw back-to-back scoreless innings.

The Marauders offense was stymied most of the game by the Threshers.  The Pittsburgh Pirates High-A affiliate only put together six hits and scored two runs.  Will Craig was 1-2 in the game with a double and two walks.  Cole Tucker was 0-3 in the game.  He did reach base once on a successful sacrifice bunt, where there was a throwing error.  Tucker promptly stole second base for his 10th stolen base of the season.  He then was thrown out for the first time all season when he tried to steal third.  In his three registered at-bats, he struck out all three times. In addition, Ke’Bryan Hayes was 1-3 with a base on balls and a run scored. Also, catcher Christian Kelley and outfielder Casey Hughston each had a hit, and Hughston also provided a RBI.

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Low-A

The West Virginia Power’s offense kept rolling along last night.  Three days ago, the Power put up 13 runs. Two days ago they scored 19 runs.  Last night, they put up an eight spot on the Hickory Crawdads of the Texas Rangers’ organization.  The Power improved to 6-7 on the season winning by a score of 8-3. Four pitchers threw for the Power.

The starter was Oddy Nunez.  Nunez threw four innings and did not allow a run while walking one and striking out two.  He did not allow a hit.  In fact, the first hit was off reliever Blake Cederlind in the 6th inning.  Although the Crawdads only registered one hit up until this point, they did have two runs on the board.  Hickory posted an unearned run in each the 5th and 6th inning.  Following Cederlind was another 2016 draft pick in Dylan Prohoroff.  The former 8th round pick threw two innings and gave up one earned run on 2two hits and two walks.  Matt Frawley finished the game with a scoreless ninth.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates Low-A affiliate put up eight runs on ten hits against Hickory.  The offense was led by Carlos Munoz who was 2-4 with a two run home run.  This gives Munoz home runs in back-to-back nights. Ty Moore has been the team’s best hitter, and he continued that last night.  The former 12th round pick was 2-4. Also, he hit his 4th and 5th double for the season, and recorded a RBI giving him a total of 8. Moore has an impressive .447 batting average in the early going. Pittsburgh Pirates 2016 9th round draft pick Clark Eagan was also 2-4 giving him three straight multi-hit games.  Leadoff hitter Logan Ratledge was 1-4 with a stolen base.  Furthermore, he is now batting .292 on the season.

*Also, All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference and milb.com