Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Joelvis Del Rosario Stays Hot & More
Leading the way for the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system on Wednesday night was a blow out victory for Triple-A Indianapolis
Wednesday night the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, improved to 25-24 on the season with a 13-3 blow out victory over the Omaha Storm Chasers.
Osvaldo Bido started for the Indians, pitching 5 innings. Bido allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, a walk, a home run, and 5 strikeouts. Cam Alldred, Nathan Kirby, Zach Matson, and Blake Weiman followed Bido. Each of these four pitchers fired a scoreless inning of relief, while not allowing a hit and combing to strikeout 3 batters.
Canaan Smith-Njigba was at the top of the Indian lineup, and stayed hot going 2-for-6 with his 13th double of the season, 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. Travis Swaggerty was 2-for-4 with a walk and his 3rd home run of the season.
Shortstop Ji-Hwan Bae, catcher Jamie Ritchie and designated hitter Carter Bins all had a pair of this as well. This included Bins hitting his 2nd Triple-A home run. Bligh Madris recorded a hit as well, while Taylor Davis was 1-for-5 at third base.
The Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates fall once again
Double-A Altoona fell to 22-25 on the season after suffering a 5-3 loss against the Bowie Baysox. In the loss Mike Burrows turned in his first poor start of the season. Burrows allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, 4 walks, a home run, and 3 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.
Despite the poor start Burrows still owns a 2.36 ERA to go with 57 strikeouts in 45.2 innings pitched this season. Burrows is still deserving of a promotion to the Triple-A level and reaching the majors by the end of the season should still 100% be in play.
Tahnaj Thomas followed Burrows, striking out 3 batters in 2 scoreless innings pitched. Travis MacGregor had a poor outing allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, a walk and 5 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched. Austin Roberts then pitched a scoreless 9th inning.
Offensively, Andres Alvarez was 0-for-5 at the top of the Curve lineup. In the two-hole Jared Triolo was 2-for-4 with a RBI. Liover Peguero was also 2-for-4, while Matt Fraizer was 1-for-3 with his 2nd triple of the season and 2 runs scored.
Matt Gorski was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks and a RBI. He now has a .701 OPS since being promoted to the Double-A level. Designated hitter Brendt Citta was 2-for-4 with his 4th double of the season.
Rough night for Greensboro’s pitching staff
The Pittsburgh Pirates High-A affiliate, the Greensboro Grasshoppers, fell to 20-26 on the season after being blown out by the Wilmington Blue Rocks 10-4. Adrian Florencio started for the Grasshoppers, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, a home run, and 3 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.
Logan Hofmann followed Florencio, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and a home run in 2 innings pitched. After Hofmann, Garrett Leonard entered the game and allowed a run in 2 innings pitched. Eddy Yean and Oliver Mateo then each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.
At plate, Jackson Glenn was 0-for-4 at the top of the lineup while Dariel Lopez was just 1-fir-4 out of the two-hole. Having the top two hitters in a lineup go 1-for-8 is never a recipe for success.
Endy Rodriguez was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Hudson Head was just 1-for-4 while Abrahan Gutierrez went 0-for-4 as the team’s designated hitter. Left fielder Ernny Ordonez was 1-for-4 with a 3-run home run, his 4th of the season.
Low-A Bradenton gets a shutout victory
Following a 4-0 victory over the Lakeland Flying Tigers the Low-A Bradenton Marauders improved to 21-26 on the season. Leading the way for the Marauders in their victory was another shove session by starting pitcher Joelvis Del Rosario.
Del Rosario did not walk a batter, allowed 5 hits and struck out 7 in 6 scoreless innings pitched. On the season Del Rosario now owns a 2.78 ERA to go with 36 strikeouts in 35.2 innings pitched. Del Rosario is quickly become a person of interest in the Pirate farm system.
Cristian Charle, Dante Mendoza and Nick Mears each followed Del Rosario with a scoreless innings pitched. Mendoza and Mears each struck a batter out, it was good to see another strong rehab outing from Mears as he works his way back from starting the season on the injured list.
Center fielder Sergio Campana was at the top of Bradenton’s lineup, going 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Rodolfo Nolasco was 2-for-3 with his 3rd home run of the season, 2 walks and 3 RBI to raise his OPS on the season to .626.
Jase Bowen, Alexander Mojica and Juan Jerez were all 0-for-4. Meanwhile, Mike Jarvis, shortstop Deivis Nadal and catcher Grant Koch were all 1-for-4. This included Koch scoring a run for the Marauders.