Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Multi-Home Run Game for Rodolfo Nolasco & More

Two home run game for Rodolfo Nolasco, walk off extra innings victory for Altoona, and more Pittsburgh Pirates minor league action

A poor starting pitching performance and poor offense sunk the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. The Triple-A Indianapolis Indians suffered a 4-1 loss against the Memphis Redbirds, dropping the Indians to 38-44 on the season.

Kyle Nicolas started for Indy and continues to struggle at the Triple-A level.

Nicolas pitched just 1.2 innings and allowed just one hit, however, he walked five batters and was charged with 2 runs. He threw just 20 of 48 pitches for strikes. Honestly, Nicolas is lucky things were not worse.

Believe it or not, this outing actually lowered his ERA at Triple-A. In 12.2 innings pitched since being promoted to Triple-A, Nicolas now owns a 12.08 ERA to go with 12 walks, he's hit three batters, and struck out 22.

John O'Reilly relieved Nicolas and got the final out of the 2nd inning. Rob Zastryzny pitched a scoreless 3rd inning and Duane Underwood Jr. allowed 2 runs in the 4th inning. Chase De Jong allowed a hit and walked three batters, but pitched 2 scoreless innings. Cody Bolton allowed a hit and struck a batter out in 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. Juan Minaya got the final out of the 9th.

Indy's offense was held to just three hits. Chris Owings and Canaan Smith-Njigba were both 1-for-4, while Miguel Andújar went 1-for-3 with a walk. Ji Man Choi was 0-for-3 with a walk, as was Liover Peguero who scored the lone Indy run.