Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Strong Starts From Braxton Ashcraft & Thomas Harrington, More

Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington turned in strong starts, a big night at the plate for Liover Peguero, and more Pittsburgh Pirates minor league action

Friday got off to a poor start for the top farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates when the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians placed outfielder Travis Swaggerty and catcher Endy Rodriguez on the injured list. Their bad day continued with an 8-4 loss against the Memphis Red Birds, falling to 7-12 on the season.

Quinn Priester started for Triple-A Indy and things did not go well. Priester's fastball issues continue to plagued him as he got sheleld on Friday night. Priester allowed 4 runs on five hits, a walk, and three striekouts in 1.2 innings pitched. He threw just 36 of 61 pitches for strikes.

While Priester is a name many Pirate fans are excited about he has a lot of work to do. Priester's fastball simply is not good enough. If the pitch does not improve drastically, he will struggle to find any sort of succes if/when he reaches the major leagues.

Lefty Cam Alldred followed Priester and the pitching woes continued. Alldred allowed 3 runs on four hits, three walks, three strikeouts, and two home runs allowed in 2.1 innings pitched. Colin Selby then allowed a hit while striking out a pair in a scoreles 5th inning.

In the 6th inning Yerry De Los Santos got the ball and continued his slow start to the season. De Los Santos allowed three hits and issued a walk, while surrendering a run. To be honest, De Los Santos was lucky to allow just the 1 run. While he issued a walk and allowed a double, De Los Santos also struck out a pair while pitching a scoreless 7th inning.

At the top of the Indy lineup Nick Gonzales was 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. Cal Mitchell and Malcolm Nuñez both went 0-for-4, while Ryan Vilade was 1-for-4 with a 2-run home run. Miguel Andújar started in left field and went 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk, a run scored, and he drove in a run.