Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Strong Pitching in Salt River Rafters Victory

Two Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitching prospects fired scoreless innings of work and more from Wednesday night's Salt River Rafters victory in the Arizona Fall League

Wednesday night in the Arizona Fall League, the Salt River Rafters defeated the Glendale Desert Dogs by a score of 7-2. With the win, the Rafters are now 10-11 on the season. A trio of Pittsburgh Pirates prospects appeared in the game for the Rafters.

The lone Pirate position player prospects to play in the game was Jack Brannigan. Brannigan started at shortstop and batted 9th, going 0-for-2 with a walk. Brannigan is hitting .189 with a .713 OPS thus far in the AFL.

The first of two Pirate relief pitching prospects to appear in the game was lefty J.C. Flowers. He took over in the 4th inning and got into trouble. Flowers allowed a hit and walked two batters while throwing just 12 of 22 pitches for a strike. To his credit, Flowers danced around the raindrops to pitch a scoreless inning.

This outing lowered his ERA to 4.00 in 9 innings pitched. He's allowed 6 hits, including a home run, while walking 9 batters, but has struck out 8. So despite having a respectable ERA, Flowers has not pitched as well as his ERA indicates.

Tyler Samaniego took the ball with two outs in the 7th inning. The lefty got the final out of the 7th inning and then pitched the 8th inning. Samaniego threw 15 of 20 pitches for strikes, retired each batter he faced, and struck out 4 batters in 1.1 scoreless innings pitched.

Samaniego has now pitched 6.1 innings in the AFL, posting a 4.26 ERA to go with 4 walks and 8 strikeouts.