Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Poor Pitching, Defense Lead to Loss for FCL Pirates

A strong 1st inning from Jun-Seok Shim and an early RBI from Estuar Suero gave the FCL Pirates an early lead, but poor pitching and defense led to the team's undoing in a loss on Monday afternoon

Early in Monday afternoon's game, it appeared the FCL Pirates would be on their way to yet another victory. The Pirates jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the FCL Red Sox, but poor pitching and defense later in the game led to a 8-2 loss. Despite the loss, they are still one of the best teams in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system and remain in first place in the FCL South with a 29-20 record.

Highly touted international free agent addition Jun-Seok Shim started for the FCL Pirates. Shim pitched a scoreless 1st inning, walking a batter and striking a batter out. He now owns a 3.38 ERA with 3 walks and 12 strikeouts in 8 innings pitched in the FCL this season.

Estuar Suero continued to impress with the FCL Pirates by getting the Pirates on the board in the 3rd inning. Suero singled home Wesley Zapata, giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. The Pirate lead grew to 2-0 in the 4th inning when Eddy Rodriguez doubled and scored on a base hit by Ewry Espinal.

Suero also drew a walk later in the game, but was erased on a double play ball. Other than the run-scoring base hits from Suero and Espinal, as well as the Rodriguez double, singles by Zapata, Javier Rivas, and Jeral Toledo were the only other base hits the Pirates recorded on Monday.

Continuing his minor league rehab assignment, righty Carlos Jimenez followed Shim. Jimenez pitched 2.2 innings, allowing an unearned run on two hits, a walk, and three strikeouts. Keneth Quintanilla would get the final out of the 4th inning.

Quintanilla started the 5th inning but would run into trouble. After allowing a lead off single and a stolen base, a run scored when a Red Sox hitter reached on a strike three wild pitch which included a throwing error by catcher Axiel Plaz. After recording a strikeout and a ground out, Quintanilla was pulled after allowing a run-scoring single.

Enmanuel De Los Santos replaced Quintanilla, recording the final out of the 5th inning. This closed the book on Quintanilla who allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, in 1 inning pitched. De Los Santos would struggle in the 6th inning, leading to him allowing 4 runs in just 2/3 of an inning pitched. However, De Los Santos was hurt by an error, one of five on the day for the Pirates.

Kevison Hernandez got the final two outs of the 6th inning with a pair of strikeouts. Hernandez then pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning, recording two more strikeouts in the process. Hernandez then struck out a pair in the 8th inning but also hit a batter and walked a pair. Joaquin Tejada would get the final out of the 8th inning.