Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: 10 Inning Win for Altoona, Johan Oviedo Strong Start

A wild extra innings win for Double-A Altoona, a strong start for Johan Oviedo and more from Saturday’s Pittsburgh Pirates minor league roundup

2022 has been a strong season for the Indianapolis Indians. Following a 5-3 victory over the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates are now four games over .500 on the season at 62-58.

Johan Oviedo made his second start for Indianapolis since being acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the José Quintana trade. Oviedo continued to pitch well as an Indian, allowing three hits, walking a batter and striking out four in 3.2 scoreless innings pitched. Oviedo now has an 0.79 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched for Indy post-trade. Hopefully, we will see him make a start or two with the Pirates in September.

John O’Reilly followed Oviedo and allowed two hits, while walking a batter and recording a strikeout in 2.1 scoreless innings pitched. Austin Brice allowed a run on a hit, two walks and a strikeout in 2 innings pitched. Eric Handhold pitched the 9th, allowing 2 runs on three hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

Jack Suwinski, who despite having been in the minors for over a month still leads all National League rookies in home runs while ranking 4th among all MLB rookies, had a big offensive night for the Indians. Suwinski was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, a run scored and three RBI. Every day he spends in the minors is a day wasted.

Mason Martin also hit a double, his 22nd of the season, as he went 1-for-4 with a RBI. Travis Swaggerty walked three times, drove in a run and scored a run, while Cal Mitchell was 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Altoona wins wild extra inning affair

Saturday night the Altoona Curve and Bowie Baysox played a wild extra inning affair. When the dust settled, the Curve emerged as 10-8 victors. With the win, the Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates are back to .500 on the season at 59-59.

Kyle Nicolas started for the Curve, allowing 3 runs, 2 earned, on three hits, three walks, and a strikeout in 4 innings pitched. All 3 runs allowed by Nicolas came in the 4th inning, a 4th inning that included a Liover Peguero error. If not for Peguero’s 29th error of the season, not only would the final line for Nicolas had looked better, he likely would have been able to pitch deeper into the game as well.

Brad Case followed, allowing 2 runs on two hits, a walk, and a strikeout in 1.1 innings pitched. Altoona’s strong left-handed duo of Nick Dombkowski and Tyler Samaniego both allowed a run. Dombkowski allowed a run on a hit, a walk and a strikeout in 1.2 innings pitched. Samaniego pitched 2 innings and only allowed one hit, but the hit was a solo home run.

Entering the 10th inning the game was tied at 7. With one out in the top half of the inning, Peguero singled home the extra innings runner to give the Curve an 8-7 lead. Connor Scott, Jared Triolo, and Nick Gonzales reeled off three consecutive one-out hits to give the Curve a 10-7 lead.

This was part of a 2-for-6 performance for Triolo. Designated hitter Endy Rodriguez remained red hot going 3-for-6 with two doubles, giving him six since he was promoted to Double-A, with a RBI and three runs scored. Rodriguez now owns a 1.156 OPS in 62 plate appearances at the Double-A level.

Malcolm Nunez started at third base and had a multi-hit performance including a double. Peguero and Scott each had multi-hit efforts in the victory as well.

After the Curve took the lead in the top of the 10th inning Austin Roberts took over on the mound in the bottom half of the inning. Roberts allowed a double to start the inning, cutting the Curve lead to 10-8, but he then struck out the next three batters to seal the deal.

Offensive struggles sink Bradenton

Following a 5-2 loss against the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Low-A Bradenton Marauders are now 60-58 on the season. Joelvis Del Rosario, who is developing into one of the most underrated pitching prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system, turned in a strong start in the loss. Del Rosario allowed eight hits and struck out just two batters, but issued just one walk and limited the Blue Jays to just 2 runs in 5 innings pitched. Del Rosario now owns a 3.69 ERA in 83 innings pitched across 17 outings, 16 starts, this season.

Wilber Dotel followed Del Rosario and struggled. Dotel allowed 3 runs on two hits and three walks in 2 innings pitched. This was Dotel’s first appearance with Bradenton after being promoted from the Florida Complex League. Wilkin Ramos pitched the final 2 innings for the Marauders. Ramos did not allow a run, issued two walks and struck out a pair.

The Marauders were held to just five hits in the loss. Both runs scored by Bradenton came in the 6th inning. The runs were cored after Tsung-Che Cheng and Jack Brannigan hit back-to-back one-out doubles, followed by a run-scoring hit from Juan Jerez.

Cheng finished the game 1-for-3 with a walk and the aforementioned double, his 22nd of the season. Brannigan’s double was already the 3rd for the 2022 draft pick. Bubba Chandler served as the team’s designated hitter and went 1-for-3, Termarr Johnson was 0-for-3 and Tanner Tredaway was 1-for-4.