Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Big Day for Nick Gonzales, Jack Brannigan Grand Slam & More

Jack Brannigan grand slam, big day at the plate for Nick Gonzales, and more in Sunday's Pittsburgh Pirates minor league roundup

The top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, suffered a one run loss on Sunday. With the Pirate falling to the Minnesota Twins, the Indians fell to their top farm club the St. Paul Saints 7-6 to drop to 55-63 on the season.

Lefty Braeden Ogle was an opener for Indy. Ogle allowed a run on two walks, a hit batter, and a strikeout in 1 inning pitched. Roansy Contreras followed, allowing 2 runs on two hits, two walks, and two strikeouts in 4 innings pitched. Both hits he allowed were solo home runs.

John O'Reilly, who has pitched extremely well since June 1st, struggled with a rare poor outing. In 2 innings pitched, O'Reilly allowed 4 runs on four hits, a hit batter, and three strikeouts. Cody Bolton walked a batter and struck out two in a scoreless 8th inning.

Offensively, Vinny Capra had a three-hit night for Indy. Capra went 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored. Nick Gonzales was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, a run scored, and a RBI. Miguel Andújar was 1-for-5 with a RBI, Canaan Smith-Njigba was 1-for-4 with a walk, RBI, and a run scored, and Ryan Vilade was 2-for-4 with a RBI.

Curve get walked off in 13 innings

In was an extra innings war in Bowie on Sunday afternoon. When the dust settled, the Double-A affiliate of the Pirates, the Altoona Curve, were walked off by the Bowie Baysox 7-6 in 13 innings. With the loss, the Curve are now 52-59 on the season.

Two late inning rallies appeared to but the Curve over the top but were not enough.

Altoona trailed 3-1 entering the 9th inning. With two outs and two runners on base in the top of the 9th, Chavez Young launched a 3-run home run. His 2nd long ball of the season gave Altoona a 4-3 lead. This lead, however, was short lived as Bowie socred via solo home run off Tahnaj Thomas in the bottom half of the inning to send the game to extra innings.

Grant Ford walked two and struck a batter out in a scoreless 11th and 12th inning, leading to the Curve regaining the lead in the top of the 13th. The 3rd Double-A home run of the season from Juan Jerez made the score 6-4 Curve. But Oliver Garcia failed to hold the lead, allowing 3 runs as Bowie walked the Curve off 7-6 in the bottom half of the inning.

Sean Sullivan started for Altoona and pitched well. He allowed 3 runs on four hits, two walks, a home run, and six strikeouts in 5 innings pitched. Michell Miliano also pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing a hit and striking a batter out.

Blowout win for Greensboro

Sunday afternoon the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers improved to 61-50 on the season by rolling over the Bowling Green Hot Rods. The Grasshopper offense exploded for a 12-5 victory over the Hot Rods, led by a pair of home runs.

The home runs started early. With the bases loaded and no one out in the 1st inning. Jack Brannigan hit a grand slam. Brannigan's 10th home run with the Grasshoppers set the tone for Greensboro as they scored 6 runs in the 1st inning and never looked back.

Center field Luke Brown also hit a home run. Brown's solo shot came in the 6th inning and was part of a 2-for-3 game that say Brown score a run and drive in 4. The home run was Brown's 4th of the season.

Third baseman Francisco Acuna also had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with a double and a RBI. Sammy Siani was 1-for-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs scored. Jase Bowen went 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and a RBI. Termarr Johnson was 1-for-4 with a run scored.

Po-Yu Chen started for Greensboro and lasted just 3 innings. Chen allowed 3 runs on four hits, no walks, and two strikeouts. He threw 37 of 60 pitches for a strike and uncorked a wild pitch. Joshua Leoschorn followed with 3 scoreless innings, striking out two.

Lefty Julian Bosnic was next up and pitched 1.2 innings. Bosnic allowed 2 runs on two hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. Dante Mendoza allowed a hit, hit a batter, and struck a batter out in 1.1 scoreless innings to finish the game.