Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Multi Home Run Game for Tsung-Che Cheng & More

Tsung-Che Cheng has a multi home run game, Bradenton sweeps a Sunday doubleheader, and more in Sunday's Pittsburgh Pirates minor league roundup

Sunday was an all-around poor day for the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. The top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates struggled offensively, committed an error that led to an unearned run, and did not pitch the ball well in an 8-3 loss against the Buffalo Bisons to fall to 59-71 on the season.

Designated hitter Domingo Leyba had a 3-for-4 performance, Chris Owings hit a 2-run home run (11) and Nick Gonzales hit a solo home run (9th), but that was about it for the Indy offense. The only other hit was a Dom Nuñez single, Nuñez also drew the only walk of the day for the Indians.

Lefty Cam Alldred started for the Indians and pitched 4 innings. He allowed an unearned run, due to a throwing error by Nuñez, on two hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. Fellow lefty Nick Dombkowski followed Alldred and struggled mightily. Dombkowski allowed 6 runs on 10 hits in 3 innings pitched in his Triple-A debut. Kyle Nicolas pitched the 8th inning, allowing a run on a hit, a walk, and two strikeouts.

Disastrous starting pitching leads to lopsided loss for Altoona

Recently, Aaron Shortridge had been pitching much better for the Altoona Curve. Sunday afternoon, however, Shortridge turned in the worst start of his professional career as the Cruve suffered a 13-5 loss against the Erie SeaWolves to fall to 58-65 on the season.

Shortridge lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing 13 runs on 12 hits, two walks, two home runs allowed, and four strikeouts. He threw 48 of 70 pitches for a strike and recorded just one ground ball out. This outing is certainly one that he is going to want to flush.

Outside of Shortridge, the Curve pitching staff was terrific. Noe Toribio allowed a hit, walked a batter, and struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings pitched. Grant Ford walked the bases loaded while getting the first two outs of the 6th inning, but Justin Meis helped pick him up on his way to pitching 1.1 scoreless innings. Tahnaj Thomas pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning, striking out a pair.

Tsung-Che Cheng had a huge day at the plate going 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs scored, and a pair of home runs. This now gives him 4 home runs on the season at Double-A. Eli Wilson also went deep, leading the 7th inning off with his 2nd home run with Altoona.

High-A Greensboro gets shutout

The High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers allowed 4 runs in the 1st inning on Sunday afternoon and never recovered. This poor 1st inning led to a 9-0 loss against the Hickory Crawdads, dropping the Grasshoppers to 65-58 on the season.

Greensboro had just four hits and they were all singles. Termarr Johnson went 1-for-4, Brenden Dixon was 2-for-3 with a walk, and Francisco Acuna was 1-for-3. Walks by Luke Brown and Hudson Head were the only other base runners of the day for Greensboro.

Derek Diamond started for Greensboro and struggled in 4 innings of work. Diamond allowed 5 runs on five hits, two walks, two strikeouts, and a home run. Yunior Thibo walked a batter and allowed a 2-run home run in the 5th inning, Jorge Ramos allowed a run in the 6th inning, and Brad Case allowed a run on a hit and two walks while recording just one out in the 7th inning.