Quinn Priester’s best Double-A start yet leads to the Curve to victory
Few pitching prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system are more highly regarded than Quinn Priester. Sunday afternoon the 21-year-old righty turned in his best start yet in four starts for the Double-A Altoona Curve.
Leading the way to a 11-1 victory that improved the Curve to 41-40 on the season. Priester pitched 5 shutout innings. He allowed 4 hits, did not walk a batter and struck out 6. Priester now owns a 2.18 ERA to go with 18 strikeouts in 16 innings pitched in four Double-A starts.
Priester continues to impress since debuting at the Double-A level. While his fastball could still use some more run and movement, the fact of the matter is he has been getting batters out and generating swings-and-misses. As Noah wrote about earlier this week, Priester could be in line for a September debut.
Nick Dombkowski was first up in relief of Priester. Dombkowski allowed the lone Akron RubberDucks run of the game when he walked a batter and allowed a pair of hits in the 6th inning. Tahnaj Thomas then struck out a pair in 2 scoreless, hitless innings of relief as he continues his recent hot stretch and appears to blossoming into a promising relief pitching prospect. Bear Bellomy pitched a scoreless 9th inning, picking up a strikeout.
For the Altoona offense utility man Andres Alvarez continued his strong season. Alvarez started in left field going 2-for-4 with two walks, two runs scored, his 12th home run of the season and his 10th double. He now owns an .891 OPS at Altoona and could earn a promotion to Triple-A soon.
Third baseman Jared Triolo went 1-for-3, walking twice, scoring a run, driving in a pair and hitting his 1st triple of the season. Catcher Blake Sabol went 3-for-5 with his 9th home run of the season, a walk and four RBI. Center fielder Matt Fraizer was 1-for-3 with a pair of walks, a run scored and his 14th double of the season. Claudio Finol and Fabricio Macias each drove in a run as well.