Pittsburgh Pirates: Minor League Roundup May 12th

The Pittsburgh Pirates had 3 of their 4 minor league affiliates in action yesterday. Low-A West Virginia had their game postponed due to weather.

Triple-A Indianapolis played against the Norfolk Tide of the Baltimore Orioles’ organization. Norfolk has a pretty solid lineup made up of a lot of former big leaguers like Michael Bourn, Johnny Giavotella, and former Pittsburgh Pirates player Pedro Alvarez. The Indians had a tough game on the mound, and used an assortment of pitchers to get through the 11 runs against them. Starting was lefty Cody Dickson, who has mostly pitched out of the bullpen this year. Dickson only lasted two-thirds of an inning and gave up two earned runs. Brett McKinney relieved Dickson with 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball. However, it just got worse, as Angel Sanchez was tagged for seven runs in two innings of work. In addition to the nine runs scored, Pat Light came on to give up two more runs. A.J. Schugel and Dovydas Neverauskas each threw a scoreless inning to end the game.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Triple-A affiliate was able to accumulate four runs in the game. Austin Meadows had two of those hits as he was 2-4 in the game. Both hits for Meadows were doubles, and he scored runs both times on base. His average is now up to .217 on the season, which is good considering his start. Recently demoted Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Phil Gosselin was 1-2 with a walk, a RBI, and a run scored. Lastly, Eric Weiss was 3-4 in the game. Weiss had two RBIs to go along with a double. The Indians are now 14-17 for the year after losing 11-4.

Double-A

Double-A Altoona faced off against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Toronto Blue Jays organization. The Curve won by a score of 7-1. One note of interest in terms of the Fisher Cats lineup was that former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Harold Ramirez was in it. Ramirez was 2-4 and raised his average to .222 for the season. Meanwhile, starting for the Curve was top 20 Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Yeudy Garcia. Garcia threw a solid five innings of one run baseball. Following Garcia was Buddy Borden and Jared Lakind, both of them threw two innings of scoreless ball. The Curve’s pitching staff actually gave up 10 hits, but they were able to limit the Fisher Cats run production.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates Double-A affiliate was able to connect for nine hits and seven runs in the game. Leading the offense was catcher Jackson Williams who was 3-3. Williams had a run scored, a RBI, and a walk as well. In addition to Williams, Chase Simpson had a multi-hit game going 2-4 with two RBIs. One other note from the game was that Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Kevin Newman returned to action after suffering a head contusion when he was hit in the head by a pitch. Newman was 1-5, and he did strike out three times. Still, it was good to see Newman return quickly. The Curve now own a record that consists of 20 wins to 12 losses.

High-A

The Bradenton Marauders matched up against the Palm Beach Cardinals of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. The Marauders put together a huge game as they won by a score of 20-2. Starting for Bradenton was 2015 draft pick Logan Sendelbach. The tenth round pick went five innings of scoreless baseball. Bret Helton followed Sendelbach, and he was able to throw three innings while only yielding one run. Closing the game out was Jake Brentz who gave up one run and saw his ERA go up to 1.38 for the season.

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On the offensive side, the Pittsburgh Pirates High-A affiliate obviously put together a big night. The Marauders had 13 hits and scored 20 runs. The top five hitters for the Marauders made up 12 of the hits. Cole Tucker led the team in hits going 4-6 with two home runs and seven RBIs. His other two hits were also for extra bases, one being a double and the other a triple. Another first round pick in Will Craig had a solid game also going 2-4 with three runs scored and a walk. Outfielder Logan Hill was 2-3 in the game and hit a three run home run in the ninth inning. Logan Ratledge and Jordan George were the other two hitters with two hits each, and Mitchell Tolman made up for the lone other hit. The unique thing about the Marauders offense is they actually walked more than they hit in the game as they earned 14 bases on balls in the game. The Marauders are now 23-13 this season.

*All stats are courtesy of Baseball Reference and milb.com

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