Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Roansy Contreras Pitches 3 Scoreless for Indy & More

Roansy Contreras pitched 3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Indy, Jase Bowen and Jack Brannigan homer again at High-A, a poor start from Jared Jones, and more in today's Pittsburgh Pirates minor league roundup

The highlight of the day in the minor leagues for the Pittsburgh Pirates was the debut of no. 1 overall pick Paul Skenes. Skenes made his FCL debut and pitched a 1-2-3 inning. For more on the Skenes outing, Nick has you covered.

As for other minor league action, one day after Double-A Altoona played a doubleheader it was Triple-A Indy's turn. Game one went to extra innings scoreless before a disaster top of the 8th inning led to an 8-0 Indy loss. Game two saw the Indians fall to the Sounds 7-1, dropping them to 50-59 on the season.

In game one of the doubleheader Roansy Contreras started for the Indians. This was his first appearance in game action at a level higher than the FCL since July 5th. While his fastball velocity was still down, sitting around 93 MPH, his offspeed pitches worked well and helped him pitch 3 scoreless innings.

Contreras allowed a hit, walked a pair, and struck out two in his 3 scoreless innings. You want to see the fastball velocity return for Contreras, but it's very much baby steps for him right now. Firing 3 scoreless at Triple-A is, hopefully, a launching point toward a step in the right direction.

John O'Reilly and Rob Zastryzny followed Contreras. They each pitched 2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits, walking none, and striking out two.

Even though the Indians had pitched lights out through 7 innings, their lineup had recorded just four hits. Ji Hwan Bae doubled, Chris Owings hit a triple, and Miguel Andújar and Canaan Smith-Njigba each singled. This lack of offense sent game one of the twin bill to extra innings.

Yohan Ramirez started the 8th inning for the Indians. After retiring the first two batters of the inning, an intentional walk was issued to Rowdy Tellez. Ramirez then uncorked a wild pitch, walked three straight batters, hit a batter, and allowed a single, making it 5-0 Nashville Sounds. Braeden Ogle relieved Ramirez, walking back-to-back batters to bring in another run before allowing a single. When the dust settled, it was 8-0 Nashville.

Indy went down in order in the bottom half of the 8th to end the game.

Jared Jones started in game two and struggled mightily. Jones allowed 5 runs in the 1st inning on his way allowing 6 runs on four hits, four walks, a home run, and six strikeouts in 3 innings pitched. He threw 42 of 70 pitches for strikes and was called for a balk.

The only Indy run in game two came when Mason Martin doubled to start the 5th inning and came around to score on a Grant Koch single. A double by Owings and a single by Vinny Capra were the only other hits in the game for Indy.