Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Cal Mitchell Hits Two Home Runs & More

Pittsburgh Pirates Double-A affiliate also picks up a 10 inning victory

Like Triple-A Indy, Double-A Altoona picked up a 10 inning victory on Friday night. For the Curve, however, it was a walk off victory. With Connor Scott starting the inning on second base, Andres Alvarez singled to start the bottom of the 10th inning. This was followed by a walk off single by Aaron Shackelford. Shackelford also drew a walk in the victory.

The Curve only collected 4 hits outside of the back-to-back 10th inning base knocks by Alvarez and Shackelford. Scott had a single, as did Jared Triolo who started at shortstop. Catcher Blake Sabol continued his tremendous season going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a run scored. On the season Sabol has now hit  doubles to go with a .777 OPS.

The big story for the Curve was their pitching staff. Zach Matson started, issuing a walk and striking out a pair in 2 innings pitched. Travis MacGregor then followed with 4 scoreless innings of relief, punching out 8. Colin Selby struck out 5 batters in 2 innings of relief, while Enmaneul Mejia and Will Kobos each struck out a pair in 2 innings pitched.

All in all Cruve pitchers struck out 19 batters while allowing just 5 hits and issuing 5 walks in 10 innings pitched. 63% (19 of 30) of the outs recorded by the Altoona pitching staff on Friday night came via the strikeout, while they struck out 19 of 38 batters faced. A 50% strikeout rate will usually get the job done. The pitching staff also induced a pair of double play balls.