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.