Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Home Runs for Lover Peguero, Canaan Smith-Njigba, & More

Liover Peguero and Matt Gorski homered at Double-A, Triple-A Indy split a doubleheader, and more Pittsburgh Pirates minor league action

Game one of Wednesday's doubleheader saw Triple-A Indianapolis fall to the Toledo Mud Hens 4-3. In the loss, lefty Kent Emanuel started for the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2.2 innings pitched, Emanuel allowed 2 runs on a hit, two walks, and two strikeouts.

John O'Reilly was summoned to get the final out of the 3rd inning but ran into trouble. O'Reilly faced five batters and recorded just one out. The righty allowed 2 runs on a pair of hits and a pair of walks. Following O'Reilly, the bullpen pitched well. Chase De Jong continued his rehab assignment and allowed a hit and walked a pair but also struck out a pair in a scoreless inning. Yerry De Los Santos and Carmen Mlodzinski each pitched a scoreless inning as well.

Canaan Smith-Njigba was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored in game one. Serving as the designated hitter Endy Rosriguez was 1-for-3 with a RBI. Josh Palacios and Aaron Shackelford each hit a triple and drove in a run.

In game two, Indy was victoirous by a score of 9-0. With the win they improved to 11-17 on the season. Leading the way to the shuout victory was veteran lefty Caleb Smith. Smith struck out five, allowed three hits, and did not walk a batter in a complete game 7 inning performance.

Much of game two was tight knit. Indy took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning when Grnat Koch grounded into a run-scoring double play and the lead grew to 2-0 with a Smith-Njigba solo home run in the 5th inning. Indy then scored 7 runs in the top of the 7th inning to bust the game wide open.

Koch doubled to start the inning, Josh Bissonette walked, Cal Mitchell singled, Smith-Njigba walked, Vinny Capra singled, and just like that it was 4-0. The lead grew to 5-0 on a one-out base hit by Palacios. After Malcolm Nuñez walkd and Shackelford was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Koch singled home a pair to set the final at 9-0.