Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Roansy Contreras, Anthony Solometo Toe the Rubber
Roansy Contreras and Anthony Solometo both turned in promising starts as part of Thursday's Pittsburgh Pirates minor league action
The Triple-A Indianapolis Indians fell to the Toledo Mud Hens by a score of 7-2. With the loss, the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates is now 60-72 on the season. Despite the loss, there was an encouraging starting pitching performance.
Returning to the mound after a minor injury scare, Roansy Contreras pitched 4 innings for Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday night. Contreras allowed 2 runs on four hits, no walks, a home run, and four strikeouts. He threw 35 of 56 pitches for a strike.
Contreras has now pitched 20 innings for Indy since returning to the Triple-A level. In those 20 innings he's posted a 3.15 ERA while allowing 14 hits, he's walked 6, and struck out 19. It would not be a shocker to see him return to the majors once the Triple-A season ends.
John O'Reilly followed Contreras by pitching 2 innings. O'Reilly allowed a run on 2 hits, a solo home run, no walks, and 4 strikeouts. Beau Sulser then allowed 4 runs on 5 hits, a home run, and 3 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.
For the second time this week both Chris Owings (12th) and Nick Gonzales (10th) hit a home run in the same game. Owings finished 2-for-4 with a walk and Gonzales was 1-for-4 with a walk. Domingo Leyba was 1-for-2 with a double and a pair of walks, Mason Martin was 1-for-3 with a walk, and Canaan Smith-Njigba was 1-for-4.
Anthony Solometo turns in a strong start in a Curve win
Thursday night Double-A Altoona also got a strong starting pitching performance. However, their strong starting pitching performance helped fuel a victory. A 5-4 victory over the Harrisburg Senators to prove to 59-66 on the season.
Lefty Anthony Solometo started for the Curve and turned in a needed strong start. Solometo pitched just 4.1 innings but allowed just 1 run on 2 hits, no walks, and 3 strikeouts. Solometo fired 46 of his 65 pitches for strikes.
Since July, Solometo had been struggling for Altoona. Seeing him turn in a strong start was an encouraging sign for the top 100 prospect. Even with some struggles at Double-A this season the future remains bright for Solometo.
Tsung-Che Cheng was 0-for-3 but drew a walk and scored a run. Matt Fraizer was 2-for-4 with his 8th home run of the season, 3 RBI, and he scored twice. Lolo Sanchez was 1-for-3 with a run scored and Joe Perez was 1-for-3 with a walk, a home run, and 2 RBI.