Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Liover Peguero Stays Red Hot, Ji Man Choi Homers on Rehab Assignment, More

Pair of 3-run innings sink Altoona in 1-run loss

Braxton Ashcraft started for Altoona and fired 3 scoreless innings. In his 3 scoreless innings pitched Ashcraft allowed a hit, did not walk a batter, and struck out three while firing 27 of his 37 pitches for strikes.

Justin Meis replaced Ashcraft and pitched a scoreless 4th inning before running into trouble in the 5th inning. Meis allowed a base hit, issued a walk, and then surrendered a 3-run home run. In fact, the 5th inning could have been even worse as Meis walked a batter and hit a batter following the home run, but did not allow any further damage.

Cam Junker took the mound in the 6th inning with the game tied at 3 and proceeded to allow 3 runs on four hits and a walk while recording just two outs. Tahnaj Thomas retired all four batters he faced while recording a strikeout and Tyler Samaniego struck out a pair in a scoreless 8th inning.

Lead off man Liover Peguero continues to lead the way for the Altoona offense. Peguero went 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs to give him 11 on the season. He also hit his 20th double and scored three runs. Peguero continues to push for at least a promotion to Triple-A, if not the majors.

Shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng was 1-for-5, while Matt Fraizer and Jacob Gonzalez both went 1-for-4. Andres Alvarez was 2-for-4 with a 2-run home run, his 6th of the season. Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez was 1-for-3 with a RBI and a run scored.

Poor 4th inning defense plays a big role in Greensboro loss

A poor 4th inning proved to be the undoing for High-A Greensboro in a 6-2 loss against the Hickory Crawdads. Following the loss against a former Pirate minor league affiliate, the Grasshoppers are now 37-32 on the season.

Po-Yu Chen started for Greensboro and pitched 6.2 innings. Chen allowed 6 runs, only 3 earned, on seven hits, three walks, a home run, and six strikeouts. The righty threw 58 of 95 pitches for a strike, induced five ground ball outs, and picked a batter off first base.

Most of the damage done against Chen came in the 4th inning. With one out in the inning and two runners on base, Brenden Dixon committed a fielding error on a ground ball that could have been an inning ending double play. This sparked a 4-run inning for the Crawdads that was not completely on Chen and could have been avoided with better defense.

Jack Carey was the only other pitcher that Greensboro used on Wednesday night. Carey allowed a hit in 1.1 scoreless innings pitched, striking out three batters.

As for the Greensboro offense, the top four hitters in the lineup all went 0-for-4. This is not a recipe for success. Greensboro collected just a pair of hits, which included a 2-run home run by Ernny Ordonez. The 5th home run of the season by Ordonez accounted for the only runs of the night for the Grasshoppers.

9th inning rally falls short for Bradenton

Suffering an 8-5 loss against the Clearwater Threshers the Low-A Bradenton Marauders are now 38-31 on the season. The loss came despite the Marauders loading the bases and brining the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning.

An Omar Alfonzo walk to start the inning, a one-out double by Jack Brannigan, and a two-out Rodolfo Nolasco walk loaded the bases for the Marauders in the bottom of the 9th. This brought the slugging Shalin Polanco who already had a home run on the day to the plate as the winning run, but Polanco struck out to end the game.

That Polanco home run was his 12th of the season and his lone hit of the night. Brannigan finished 3-for-4 with a walk, a double, and two runs scored. Nolasco was 0-for-2 with three walks and Termarr Johnson was 1-for-5 with a run scored.

Dominic Perachi started for Bradenton and turned in a tremendous start. Perachi allowed three hits, walked three, and struck out five in 5 scoreless innings pitched. However, after Perachi's night ended the Bradenton bullpen would implode.

Yoldin De La Paz faced three batters. De La Paz issued two walks, hit a batter, and was charged with a run without recording an out. Elijah Birdsong pitched 2 innings allowing a run via a solo home run, a walk, and no strikeouts.

Geronimo Franzua recorded two outs while allowing 3 runs on two hits. Darvin Garcia got the final out of the 8th inning, but allowed 2 runs on a hit, a walk, and he hit a batter. Miguel Fulgencio pitched the 9th inning, allowing a run on a hit batter and two walks.