Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Blake Sabol, Matt Gorski Stay Hot & More
Recapping Wednesday’s action across the minor league affiliates of the Pittsburgh Pirates
The top farm affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, were rained out Wednesday night. Due to this the Indians will play a double header against the Toledo Mud Hens on Thursday.
At the Double-A level the Altoona Curve improved to 16-19 on the season with a 7-5 victory over the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Omar Cruz started for the Curve allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, a walk, a home run, and 3 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.
Enmanuel Media followed Cruz, striking out a pair in 2 scoreless innings pitched. J.C. Flowers pitched 3 innings, allowing a run on 5 hits to go with 2 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched. Colin Selby struck out a pair in a 1-2-3 9th inning.
Nick Gonzales continued is resurgence at the plate going 2-for-3 with a walk. Liover Peguero was 3-for-4 with his 3rd triple of the season and 3 runs scored. Like Peguero, catcher Blake Sabol continues to make a push for a promotion to Triple-A going 4-for-4 with a double, a triple and 3 RBI. Sabol now has a .940 OPS on the season.
High-A Greensboro records a blowout victory
The High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers took down the Bowling Green Hot Rods 7-3 on Wednesday. With the victory the Grasshoppers improved to 15-19 on the season. Leading the way for the Grasshoppers was center fielder Matt Gorski who is having one of the best seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.
Gorski was 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs and 4 RBI. Gorski now has 12 home runs and a 1.027 OPS on the season. It is going to be difficult for the Pittsburgh Pirates to go much longer without promoting Gorski to Altoona.
Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez was 2-for-4 with his 2nd home run of the season and 3 RBI. At the top of the lineup outfielder Hudson Head was 1-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and designated hitter Endy Rodriguez was 0-for-2 with 2 walks and a run scored.
Nick Garcia started for the Grasshoppers allowing 3 runs on 3 hits, 3 walks, a home run, and 5 strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched. Eddy Yean struck out 3 batters in 1.1 scoreless innings pitched, while Cam Junker pitched a scoreless 7th inning.
Nick Dombkowski pitched the 8th inning and continued his strong start to the season. The lefty struck out a pair in a scoreless inning of work, lowering his ERA on the season to 1.08 to go with 33 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched between Low-A and High-A. Fellow lefty Tyler Samaniego also continued his strong start, lowering his ERA on the season to 0.63 to go with 20 strikeouts in 14.1 innings pitched.
Low-A Bradenton was the lone Pittsburgh Pirates minor league affiliate to play on Wednesday and suffer a loss
Following a 4-2 loss to the Palm Beach Cardinals on Wednesday the Bradenton Marauders fell to 16-19 on the season. Infielder Brenden Dixon was 2-for-5 at the top of the Marauder lineup, while tow-hole hitter Tsung-Che Cheng was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.
Jase Bowen was 2-for-4 with a run scored and a RBI. Alexander Mojica was 2-for-3 with a walk and a double. Juan Jerez, Mike Jarvis, and Geovanny Planchart each had a hit for the Marauders as well.
Righty Valentin Linarez started for Bradenton and turned in his best start of the season. Linarez allowed 1 unearned run on just 3 hits in his 5 innings of work. Linarez did not walk a batter and he struck out 6.
Wilkin Ramos struggled out of the Marauder bullpen, allowing 2 runs on a walk, a strikeout, and 3 hits allowed in just 1/3 of an inning pitched. Johan Montero struck out both batters he faced, Jake Sweeney then struck out 4 while allowing an unearned run on 2 innings pitched.