Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Nick Gonzales Hits Another Home Run, Triple-A Indy Wins 8-7

Nick Gonzales hit another home run as he remains red hot at the plate in an 8-7 victory for Triple-A Indianapolis

Friday night the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians started their final weekend of the 2023 season. In a high scoring affair, the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates improved to 69-77 on the season with an 8-7 victory over the Rochester Red Wings.

Earlier this week, Noah wrote about Pirate prospects who had strong second halves this season. One of the players he wrote about was infielder Nick Gonzales. Friday night, Gonzales remained red hot at the plate for the Indians going 2-for-5 with a solo home run and two runs scored. Gonzales now has 14 home runs at Triple-A this season.

Joe Perez went 2-for-4 with a solo home run, while Ryan Vilade went 3-for-4 with a solo home run, a double, and 3 RBIs. Chris Owings went 2-for-5 with a double and 3 RBIs. Canaan Smith-Njigba continues to swing a good bat as well, going 1-for-5 with a double and a run scored.

Wil Crowe started for Indy and turned in a great start. In 6 scoreless innings pitched, Crowe allowed four hits, walked a batter, and struck out two. He threw 49 of 82 pitches for strikes and had nine ground ball outs to go with five fly ball outs.

Lefty J.C. Flowers followed Crowe and failed to get out of hte 7th inning. Continuing his season long struggles, Flowers allowed 6 runs on four hits, two walks, and a strikeout. He threw a wild pitch and just 16 of his 32 pitches were strikes. With this outing, Flowers now owns a 9.39 ERA on the season.

Travis MacGregor followed Flowers allowing a run on two hits and a strikeout in 1.2 innings pitched. Osvaldo Bido then got the ball in the 9th looking to close things out. Bido allowed a hit, but pitched a scoreless 9th to pick up his 3rd save of the season.