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.

Altoona walks off Erie in 11 innings

Double-A Altoona walked off the Erie Seawolves by a scored 7-6 on Wednesday. The walk off victory came after the Curve had to rally twice in extra innings. With the win, the Curve are now 37-39 on the season.

Twice in extra innings the Curve came back from trailing. Entering the bottom of the 10th inning the Curve trailed 5-3. Matt Gorski immediately tied the game with his 13th home run of the season.

Trailing 6-5, Tsung-Che Cheng stole third base in the 11th inning and scored the tying run on a throwing error by Erie catcher Dillon Dingler. After two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases with two outs in the inning, Mason Martin singled home the winning run for the walk off victory.

Nick Dombkowski started for Altoona, allowing 2 runs on two hits, a walk, a home run, and five strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched. Omar Cruz pitched 1.1 scoreless innings and Oliver Garcia pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

Tyler Samaniego took the ball in the 9th but failed to hold a 3-2 lead. The lefty allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, on four hits and two strikeouts in 2 innings pitched. Grant Ford pitched the 11th inning, allowing the extra innings runner to score on a hit and a strikeout.

9th inning rally falls short in wild game for Greensboro

In one of the crazier baseball games anyone will see this season, the High-A Greensboro Grasshoppers had a 9th inning rally fall short in a 16-14 loss against the Aberdeen IronBirds. With the loss, the Grasshoppers are now 38-37 on the season.

Greensboro scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning. This came after they scored 2 runs in the 6th, 4 runs in the 7th, and a run in the 8th. Despite a valiant late effort from the offense, the Grasshopper rally came up short.

Lead off man Mike Jarvis was 0-for-3 but did draw three walks. Tres Gonzalez was 2-for-5 with a double, walk, and a run scored. Jase Bowen was 2-for-4 with his 16th home run of the season, a walk, two runs scored, and five RBI.

Will Matthiessen also hit a home run, giving him 8 on the season. Matthiessen finished the game 4-for-5 with four runs scored and five RBI. Catcher Eli Wilson went 1-for-4 with a triple, run scored, and two RBI. Brenden Dixon was 1-for-3 with two RBI.

The Greensboro pitching staff? Well. It was a lot of bad. Grasshopper pitchers allowed 16 runs, all earned, on 20 hits, five home runs, four walks, three wild pitches, and a hit batter. Not good!