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.

Greensboro keeps battling back in 1-run, extra innings victory

The High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers had to work hard for their victory on Thursday night. They rallied multiple times on their way to defeating the Greenville Drive 8-7 in 10 innings. With the win, the Grasshoppers are now 55-47 on the season.

Things started poorly for the Grasshoppers. Bubba Chandler, who had been pitching much better of late, allowed 2 runs in the 1st inning and another run in the 2nd. This put Greensboro in an early hole as Chandler allowed 3 runs on four hits, three walks, and two strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings all saw the Grasshopper offense score runs.

Jase Bowen led the 2nd inning off with his 21st home run of the season. I will continue to beat the drum for him to be promoted to Double-A. Tres Gonzalez walked in the 3rd inning and scored on a 2-run home run by Jack Brannigan, his 7th since being promoted to Greensboro and 3rd in the last two days.

Shawn Ross also homered, hitting a 2-run shot in the 4th inning. This was not it for Ross. In the 6th inning, he tied the game at 6 when he hit a solo home run to give him 10 long balls so far this season.

Yunior Thibo pitched the 4th inning, allowing 3 runs on five hits. After Greensboro had battled back to take a 5-3 lead, this put them in a 6-5 hole. To their credit, the Grasshoppers would battle back once again.

Jake Stevenson pitched 2 scoreless innings and Eddy Yean pitched a scoreless 7th. Josiah Sightler hit a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning putting the Grasshoppers back in front by a score of 7-6. However, the Drive would tie the game at 7 with a sacrifice fly off of Yean in the bottom half of the inning.

The game went into extra innings still tied at 7. Brannigan hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th to give Greensboro an 8-7 lead and Brannigan 3 RBI on the night. Cy Nielson struck out a pair and got a ground out in the bottom of the 10th inning, capping off 2.1 scoreless innings from him, to close out the game.

Big 8th inning powers Bradenton to victory

Low-A Bradenton fell in an early hole on Thursday night. However, an offensive explosion, especially in the 7th inning, would help lead to a comeabck victory for the Marauders. Following a 15-8 victory over the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels the Marauders are now 60-44 on the season.

Dominic Perachi started for the Marauders, allowing 4 runs in 4 innings pitched. Perachi allowed five hits, walked two, gave up a home run, and struck out three. Sergio Umana followed Perachi, and, well, things went very poorly. Umana allowed 4 runs on three hits, a walk, and home run in the 5th inning.

After Jorge Ramos pitched 2 scoreless innings the Marauders entered the 8th inning trailing 8-5, but this was about to change.

With the bases loaded and no one out Jesus Castillo drew a walk and Lonnie White Jr. doubled. Rodolfo Nolasco hit a sacrifice fly in the inning and the Marauders scored three times on wild pitches. This made the score 12-8 Marauders.

Brandan Bidois got the first two outs of the 8th inning, both via strikeout, but was lifted for Elijah Birdsong after issuing two walks. Birdsong recorded a strikeout to end the 8th inning. Birdsong also pitched the 9th inning to finish off the game.

White Jr. finished the game 3-for-4 with his double, a walk, two runs scored, and 3 RBI. Mitch Jebb was 1-for-4 with two walks, a run scored, and a RBI. Nolasco was 1-for-4 with a double, walk, RBI, and two runs scored.

Yordany De Los Santos started at third base and went 1-for-3 with two walks and a run scored. Catcher Geovanny Planchart was 2-for-4 with a walk, his 3rd home run of the season, two walks, and 4 RBI.