Thursday 8/30 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 4 Toledo 5
In light of Alex Presley and McEffect favorite Kyle McPherson getting promotions to join the Pirates in Milwaukee tomorrow, the Indians still had matters to tend to in what was a tight knit game against Toledo. Despite only having six hits, with all of them coming from three guys, the Indians got the ball rolling early as ultra white hot Brock Holt lead off with his seventh two-bagger of the season and Matt Hague bringing him in two batters later. Toledo then countered with a two-run shot by Jerad Head in the third off of Indians starter Jo-Jo Reyes to tie the game up at two all. Down one, the Indians were able to tie it in the top half of the ninth with a clutch two out base hit by Christian Marrero to tie the game at four apiece. But the Mud Hens had their own answer with a crushing blow off the bat of Audy Ciriaco (YES he is the younger brother of current Red Sox and former Indianapolis/Pirates shortstop Pedro Ciriaco!!); a solo shot to give the Mud Hens the 5-4 victory in walk-off fashion. Now back to Brock Holt, who just continues to make Triple-A pitching look easy and dazzle at the plate, finished his night going 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Tonight was Holt's FOURTH STRAIGHT three-hit performance as he is an godly 12 for his last 18 at-bats. He has put up unfathomable hitting numbers in 23 games as a member of the Tribe: .440 (40-for-91)/.480/.549 with an unheard of 1.029 OPS. Duke Welker threw a scoreless fourth and fifth only allowing two hits and striking out two. Bryan Morris, who could be in line for a promotion come September first, got the ball in the sixth and allowed two unearned runs thanks to a Tony Sanchez throwing error to first on a dropped third strike. Justin Wilson threw a perfect seventh as he was very efficient striking out the side on only 11 pitches. trying to notch a rare six out save, Doug Slaten was pegged with his fourth loss of the season as he was the victim of Ciriaco's walk-off home run.

AA Altoona | Altoona 6 Akron 4
Altoona used a five-run second inning to get an early start on rival Akron and held on for dear life and withstood a late-inning rally to emerge victorious. Matt Curry was the Curve's offensive star in this one. Curry went 2-for-4 with an RBI and his 34th double of the season. Curry has a .832 OPS with 11 home runs and 76 RBIs as he rounds out his solid first full season in AA. Backup catcher Charlie Cutler also went 2-for-4, he's hitting .293 in 140 at-bats. Andrew Lambo hit his first triple of the year, Adalberto Santos singled, walked and stole his 16th base, and Jeremy Farrell added a double and a walk for Altoona. Santos has fallen off slightly in August after his flaming return from the disabled list in July, but "falling off" to Santos means only hitting .300 for the month. On the season, Santos is hitting .347 with an .878 OPS in 219 at-bats. Kris Johnson led the Curve pitching staff in averting trouble despite dealing with three errors by the defense, two on second baseman Kelson Brown. Johnson allowed two unearned runs and seven hits over five innings of work for his third Altoona win. Johnson walked two and struck out four. Hunter Strickland allowed two runs in 2.1 innings thanks to serving up five hits. He did fan two. Jeff Inman got out of a Strickland jam in the eighth and Victor Black struck out two in the ninth to earn his 11th save. Black did walk one, but his strikeout-to-walk ratio is still 85:29 for the year.

A West Virginia | Game 1: West Virginia 2 Charleston 7 | Game 2: West Virginia 7 Charleston 1
Game 1:

The Power split a doubleheader with Charleston in games that were nearly carbon copies of each other but flipped so that each team got a turn at winning. In Game 1, which was a continuation of a suspended game from Wednesday night's doubleheader, Charleston hurler Philip Wetherell combined with Brett Gerritse (who started the game Wednesday night) to no-hit the Power through six innings. But Jose Osuna singled to break up the no-hit bid, and Taylor Lewis later singled to drive in both Osuna and Dan Gamache. That's all West Virginia could muster offensively. Alen Hanson stole his 33rd base of the season. Zach Fuesser had pitched three shutout innings on Wednesday night as the starter and he was strong, striking out three and allowing two hits and one walk. But Pat Ludwig started today's action and allowed his first runs as a member of the Power. Ludwig gave up two runs in two innings, and Joan Montero blew the game open by giving up five runs and six hits in the bottom of the sixth. That rendered Lewis' two-RBI single useless in the seventh. As a funny side note, old McEffect alum Casey McGehee took part in this game, as he was demoted by the Yankees a two days ago for Steve Pearce and New York sent him all the way to Low-A. McGehee went 2-for-2 in the first game.

Game 2:

The second game however was a complete 180, as Power starter Mike Jefferson only allowed one hit through five innings against Charleston. However, Charleston's only run came on a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth that ruined Jefferson's shutout. Jefferson still finished with his best start of the season, as he went six innings and gave up just two hits, one run and two walks with four strikeouts. The southpaw picked up his seventh win and lowered his ERA to 4.67 in the process. The powerful West Virginia tandem showed up in the nightcap, as Hanson and Gregory Polanco each produced a huge performance. Hanson went 2-for-2 with two walks, his 34th steal, 33rd double and 13th triple on the year. Polanco finished 2-for-4 and homered for the first time since missing two weeks with an ankle injury. The blast was Polanco's 16th for the Power. Hanson's OPS now stands at .922 while Polanco is just behind at .905. Lewis mirrored Hanson's output with a double and triple of his own in four at-bats. Eric Avila and Francisco Diaz also doubled for West Virginia, as seven of the team's eight hits in Game 2 went for extra bases. McGehee didn't have as much luck in the second game, he finished 0-for-2 with a walk for Charleston.

A Bradenton | Bradenton 1 St. Lucie 5
The Marauders played sloppy in the field and looked sloppy at the plate in a listless loss to St. Lucie. Bradenton committed four errors that led to four unearned runs that the pitching staff couldn't overcome. Kenn Kasparek allowed the only earned run over six innings and gave up three total. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out one. Aaron Pribanic followed with his first rehab outing in Bradenton after missing most of Altoona's season. Pribanic was wild with the GCL Pirates during the first part of his rehab and that continued tonight over his 1.2 innings. Pribanic walked four and gave up two hits, but both of the two runs he allowed were unearned. Andy Vasquez, who started in right field and collected two of the Marauders' six hits, pitched and recorded the final out on the mound. Carlos Paulino's fourth home run of 2012 accounted for Bradenton's only run and extra-base hit. Vasquez stole his seventh base of the year, but two other Marauders were thrown out trying to steal. Alex Dickerson went 0-for-4.

A State College | Game 1: State College 4 Jamestown 2 | Game 2: State College 1 Jamestown 2
Game 1:

In what was a shaky start for the young Mexican phenom Luis Heredia, the Spikes hitters were able to establish an early lead and later tack on enough insurance. It all started with Jesus Vazquez's big two-out, two-run single that plated Walker Gourley and Jacob Stallings. The Jammers were able to get a run off the big young righty Heredia in the first on a two-out double by Sharif Outman. Then the Spikes raised the Jammers with a two-bagger of their own off the bat of Jared Lakind that scored the Pride of Peters Township Jimmy Rider and made it a 3-2 game. That ended being all the Spikes needed as Josh Smith notched his second win and Kyle Haynes his seventh save. Heredia finished his night not being able to get through five full innings and earn the win as he exited the game with two outs and runners on the corners. His final line in four and two-thirds was two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out only two.

Game 2:

Now Game 2 was not as magical and jolly for the boys from Happy Valley. Just like their parent club the Pirates had done A LOT in April, May and most of August, they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Game 2. Despite a fantastic start by Dalton Friend, only allowing one hit in the third, the lineup could not come up in big situations. The Spikes had key opportunities early on such as Eric Wood striking out looking with runners on first and second in the first inning. Then in the second, Walker Gourley struck out swining with Jesus Vazquez on third and Jared Lakind on first. Their only run was weak and came via a wild pitch by Jamestown reliever Beau Wright. That is when you know you did not do enough offensively when your only run came on a wild pitch and you still could not win even with a great pitching performance. Friend's only blimp on the radar was the two unearned runs he allowed in the fifth after shortstop Chris Diaz committed his 16th error of the season. The top of the order in Walker Gourley, Chris Diaz, D.J. Crumlich and Samuel Gonzalez each had one hit. Eric Wood and Dilson Herrera made their Spikes debuts tonight after being called up from the recently crowned Gulf Coast League Champion Pirates. Both went 0-for-3 in their debuts.

Greg Brown Calls Alvarez's 26th Homer

Got a request for this audio today, so here it goes:

Pirates Tiebreaker Records

I detailed a bit of the playoff tiebreaking scenarios yesterday in this post. Now that the Pirates have completed their season series with the Cardinals, I wanted to update everybody on our head to head record with some of the teams we are competing or playoff spots with:

Team	Wins	Losses	Games Left
Cardinals	8	7	0
Dodgers	1	6	0
Giants	3	3	0
Braves	2	2	3
Reds	6	6	3

As it stands right now, the Reds are pretty much out of reach. The Pirates are nine games back with just 32 games left to play, so unless the Reds really collapse the Pirates will have to hope for a Wild Card spot.

Right now the Braves have the first Wild Card spot and are 3.5 games ahead of the Pirates. The Cardinals have the second spot and they are just 1 game ahead of us. The Dodgers are 1.5 behind the Pirates and 3.5 behind the Giants for their division lead. They play the Giants six more times this year, so that division is still very much up for grabs.

The Pirates will end the season tied with the Giants in terms of head-to-head record. If that tie needs to be broken, the Giants will have the edge over the Pirates because they have a better record against the National League. The only way it would come down to that is if there is a three way tie for a Wild Card spot, or if there is a two way tie for the first Wild Card spot.

As you can see, the final series of the year against the Braves could be a big one since the two teams are tied in the head-to-head records. What we do right now is that the Pirates have the tiebreak over the Cardinals, and don't have it over the Dodgers and Giants.

The ideal situation is for the Pirates to win enough down the stretch to win the first Wild Card spot and not have to worry about any tiebreaking situation, so let's just hope that happens.

8/29 Recap | Pirates 5 Cardinals 0

Huge win on Wednesday night for the Pirates as they completed a their series and season series win over the division rival St. Louis Cardinals.

For the second night in a row the Pirates were led by dominant pitching and Pedro Alvarez’s home run stroke. Alvarez went 2/4 and hit a three run bomb in the 3rd inning to put the Pirates up 4-0, a lead which Wandy Rodriguez and company would hold easily.

Rodriguez went six innings and gave up no runs on three hits. He walked three and struck out the same number. Tony Watson, Jason Grilli, and Joel Hanrahan all pitched scoreless innings to finish out the game with ease.

8/29 Wandy Rodriguez Pitch F/X

6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strike%
4-Seam	89.3	4.63	10.95	40	60.00%
Change	83.5	7.80	6.71	10	50.00%
Curve	75.5	-4.04	-8.11	19	63.16%
Cutter	89.1	1.20	11.21	4	25.00%
2-Seam	89.1	9.13	7.59	23	65.22%

Wednesday 8/29 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 4 Toledo 3
Coupled with a small control problem by issuing three free passes on the night, Jeff Locke still tossed an outstanding game and now has a 2.48 ERA on the season. But oddly enough, the southpaw Locke threw 78 pitches in four and two-thirds shutout innings while only allowing three hits and striking out seven. The decision for Indianapolis manager Dean Treanor to pull the dominant Locke after only 78 pitches and four and two-thirds could mean a promotion for Locke any day now. Fellow southpaw and now Pirate fan favorite Justin Wilson came into the fifth in relief for Locke and struck out his only batter. Bryan Morris made an appearance in the six but managed to only get two outs, allowing a run on two hits while only going two-thirds on . Jose Diaz and Evan Meek helped bridge the gap to recently announced International League Postseason All-Star closer Tim Wood for his 21st save. Now don't be in awe for what happened offensively tonight as it was like the ol' broken record. Surprise surprise, Brock Holt continues to tear apart International League pitching and leaving off where he left off while with the Curve! After going 3-for-5, his THIRD STRAIGHT three-hit game, Holt is now hitting a mind boggling .425 (37-for-87) in only 22 games with Indianapolis. Jeff Larish hit a clutch three-run shot in the Indians big four-run fifth inning that ended up being just enough to notch the victory. Anderson Hernandez also added two hits while the big monster and McEffect favorite Dallas McPherson actually looked human with one hit and two strikeouts.

AA Altoona | Altoona 2 Akron 1
Don't ask us how this was even possible, but the Zips collected 14 hits as a team tonight and managed to score only one run and lose. Yes, very awkward. Their ability with runners in scoring position was a woeful 3-for-16 with ten runners left on base. But credit that to the man that has had a great year and could be in line for a promotion to Triple-A; starter Brandon Cumpton. His pitching line noticeably shows the 11 hits allowed in 7 innings, but his ability to limit Akron to only one run shows he was a warrior on the hill. Tim Alderson came in and threw a scoreless eighth and ninth to notch his fifth win of the season. Tied after 1-1 after eight and a half, the Curve walked it off in crazy fashion as my favorite, the big Aussie Stefan Welch, drew a bases loaded walk for the 2-1 win. Gustavo Nunez, Adalberto Santos, and Stefan Welch each added two hits apiece. Santos, along with teammates Brandon Cumpton, Matt Curry, and Tyler Waldron will represent the Pirates organization in the prestigious Arizona Fall League for the Scottsdale Scorpions.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 0 Charleston 3
With offensive catalyst Alen Hanson with the night off, Ashley Ponce took his spot at shortstop and the offense only managed to squeak together two hits against RiverDogs pitching in a shortened game. Those lone two hits came on the shoulders of Taylor Lewis and Gregory Polanco in the first and fourth, respectively. The story of the night for the Power was the high number of ground outs induced by Charleston starter Bryan Mitchell. In his six innings, Mitchell was able to get nine Power hitters out via the ground out. Obviously Power starter Zach Von Rosenberg was not able to enough help offensively by his teammates. The young right hander managed to give up only three runs (two earned) and kept his team in the game unlike most of his starts this season.

A Bradenton | Bradenton 8 Fort Myers 9
After being rained out twice because of Hurricane Issac coming through the Gulf Coast, it felt like the hurricane was still in full force. In an offensive barrage where 17 runs and 26 hits were generated between the two teams in a tightly contested game. The story of the night offensively for the Marauders was the toolsy Mel Rojas Jr., who probably had his best overall game as a professional and was a double away from the cycle. He finished his magnificent night going 4-for-5 with an early two-run blast in the the first; his sixth of the season. His next at-bat in the third, he added a run-scoring "trip, trip, triple"; his 12th of the season. With that, Rojas now leads the Florida State League in triples. Recently announced Florida State League Player of the Year Alex Dickerson went 2-for-5 with two RBI and two strikeouts. Andy Howard, Justin Howard, and Benji Gonzalez each had two hits. Then on the day of being announced to represent the Pirates in the prestigious Arizona Fall League with Matt Curry, Brandon Cumpton, Aldaberto Santos, and Tyler Waldon, the Pride of South Africa Gift Ngoepe went 1-for-3 with two strikeouts. Starter Elicer Navarro allowed three earned runs on six hits and four walks in four innings of work on the bump. But Emmanuel De Leon was the Bradenton arm that was touched up the most, being held responsible for the huge six-run inning for Fort Myers in top half of the six. Quinton Miller and Zach Foster both made appearances in the game and went scoreless in their outings.

A State College | State College 4 Auburn 6
In a game where the Spikes got off to an early lead after three, being the owners of a 4-1 lead with the young righty Adrian Sampson on the hill for them. Then, the wheels started to come off in the fourth as the 2012 Fifth Round pick Sampson allowed two more runs to make it a 4-3 game after his five innings. From then on out, it was all Auburn as they touched up Spikes reliever Issac Sanchez for three runs on two hits and two walks. The big blow in the inning was the two run, two-out triple by Auburn lead-off man Mike McQuillan. With the sticks, Walker Gourley went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two strikeouts. Chris Diaz also went 2-for-5 and Peters Township native Jimmy Rider got the start at second while going 2-for-3 with a walk.

For those who did not pick it up in the roundups or have not already heard, here are the players that were selected to represent the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in the Arizona Fall League:

Brandon Cumpton: 11-11, 4.07 ERA

Tyler Waldron: 1-2, 4.01 ERA in Double-A; 7-8, 5.09 ERA in Single-A

Aldaberto Santos: .344/.433/.439, 2 HR, 25 RBI

Matt Curry: .285/.351/.481, 11 HR, 75 RBI

Gift Ngoepe: .236/.333/.345, 9 HR, 36 RBI

Who Should Replace Bedard in the Rotation?

The Pirates cut Erik Bedard this week after another rough start from the left-hander. We're past that now and on to trying to figure out who should take his spot in the rotation.

After the Pirates conclude their series with the Cardinals tonight, they have an off day on Thursday before going to Milwaukee for a three game set. Because of the off day, the Pirates are going to roll with a four man rotation. So here's the pitching probables:

Wednesday vs. Cardinals: Wandy Rodriguez
Friday at Brewers: Jeff Karstens
Saturday at Brewers: A.J. Burnett
Sunday at Brewers: James McDonald
Monday vs. Astros: Wandy Rodriguez

Tuesday is when the problem comes in. Karstens will have only had three days rest, so the Pirates will need someone else to make the start.

Kevin Correia is still in the bullpen and he immediately became the front runner to fill the void. I'm not so sure the Pirates will go that direction though. Here are your other options with their 2012 stats:

Kevin Correia: 25 G, 22 GS, 4.53 ERA, 4.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 1.344 WHIP
Justin Wilson: 27 G, 25 GS, 3.82 ERA, 9.0 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 1.169 WHIP
Jeff Locke: 23 G, 23 GS, 2.56 ERA, 8.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.190 WHIP
Kyle McPherson: 12 G, 12 GS, 3.22 ERA, 8.5 K/9, 1.2 BB/9, 1.104 WHIP (9 starts in AA)
Chris Leroux: 22 G, 8 GS, 3.10 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 1.035 WHIP

Note that Leroux isn't currently on the 40 man roster, but there is a spot available after the release of Bedard.

Correia is by far the worst pitcher up there by statistics, obviously he's been pitching at a higher level the entire year so you would expect that, but I still don't think anybody would argue that he's not the best pitcher listed. Management has been pretty consistent this year in showing that they would rather play veterans instead of rookies, and that could factor into the equation here.

Leroux has some major league experience. In his career he's pitched 54.1 innings in the show, however he's never made a major league start. He had a lot of success last year in the Pirates bullpen, putting up a 2.88 ERA while striking out 8.6 batters per nine. That could give him a leg up on the competition.

Wilson and Locke have an advantage because they are both left handed. Typically, big league rotations want to have at least two lefties in the rotation, although just having one isn't uncommon either. If the Pirates want to keep the two lefty look, they'll have to pick one of these guys. Both of them have been up for brief periods of time, but only because the Pirates had a tired bullpen and needed some innings from them to help everyone else get rested. The Pirates had opportunities to get these two guys starts earlier in the year when Brad Lincoln was spot starting and Correia was pitching poorly, but they elected to keep them in the minor leagues. That doesn't bode well for them. If the Pirates weren't comfortable with them in a May game, why would they be comfortable with them in one of the season's final 30 games when the team is in contention for a playoff spot?

If it is one of these two, I would expect it to be Wilson. He has a better arm and a better fastball, which is what you would look for with a guy that you need immediate success from. Locke may be a better pitcher and a better bet down the line, but Wilson seems to give you a better chance to win games right now.

McPherson is a guy that I don't really think has much of a chance. He's only made three starts above the AA level along with two innings of major league relief after that 19 inning game when the Pirates had to burn the next day's starting pitcher. They probably really didn't want to call him up then, and I'm sure they don't want to rush him up now. There are other options, so I really don't think McPherson should even be considered here.

If it were my choice to make I'd take Wilson, but I really do think it's going to be either Leroux or Correia. Leroux isn't a bad option, he has a good arm and has had big league success before. We know what we're going to get from Correia and honestly it's not a whole lot better than what we were getting from Bedard.

We've got some time to speculate and talk about it, as the Pirates won't need to make this decision until Monday or Tuesday sometime. Let me know what you think.

Massive Game in Pittsburgh Tonight

Winning a baseball game means the same thing in the standings regardless of whether it's in April, August, or September. However, tonight's late August contest against the Cardinals means more to the Pirates than any game has meant all year. That's not to say that there won't be a more important game coming soon, but for right now we are patiently awaiting the biggest game that our hometown baseball team has played in quite some time.

The season series with the St. Louis Cardinals will be wrapped up tonight. Right now, the series is tied at seven wins a piece and the Cardinals lead the Pirates by two games in the Wild Card standings. The Reds are running away with the division and have a seven game lead on the Cardinals (which means they are nine games up on the Pirates). These two teams have only Wild Card hopes for the postseason, which means games they play against other Wild Card contenders are of elevated importance.

That's not the only reason this game is as big as it is. With the new Wild Card spot, new Wild Card tiebreaking rules came. If two teams are tied for a division lead or the second wild card berth, they will still play a one-game playoff to determine who makes the postseason. However, if two teams are tied for the first wild card spot, the tiebreaking procedures go like this:

1. The team with the best record in head to head play.
2. The team with the best overall record ignoring interleague play.
3. The team with the best record in the final 81 games of the season, ignoring interleague play.
4. The team with the best record in the final 82 games of the season, extending backward until the tie is broken (since teams in the same division play each other as many as 19 times, this step is guaranteed to break the tie. Interleague games are skipped and ignored in this process.)

If the Pirates win tonight and end up in a tie with the Cardinals for the first Wild Card spot, they will host the one game Wild Card series. That automatically makes them the favorite.

Now if there is a three way tie for the Wild Card (which very well could happen as the Dodgers and Giants are both very close to the records of the Cardinals and Pirates), there is an even more complex tiebreaking system. The three tied teams would be ranked by head-to-head record, and then the following would happen: Team A hosts Team B, winner gets first Wild Card spot, loser plays Team C the next day and the winner gets the second Wild Card spot. So having the better head-to-head record against your Wild Card competition is incredibly important.

Right now the Pirates are tied with the Cardinals, that tie will be broken tonight. The Dodgers beat the Pirates six of the seven times they played, so they would be ranked ahead of the Pirates. The Pirates and Giants are tied at 3 in the season series with no games left to play. My guess would be that the tie would be broken by the above procedures there. The Giants went 7-8 in interleague play, and the Pirates went 10-8, which would give the Giants a better record against the National League and give them the higher seed or home field advantage in an event of a tie that isn't broken by a one game playoff.

This whole new playoff system wasn't thought out as well as it probably should have been. Right now the season ends on Wednesday, October 3rd. The Wild Card game is schedule to be played on Friday the 5th. That leaves one day to break ties. In the event of a three-way tie, you'd have to play two games in one day. Ummm? Al Yellon wrote this article about some of the complications that may happen.

I kind of got away from the point a little bit here, but it still stands: the Pirates would really be put in a better spot by winning tonight's game, and it goes beyond being either one or three games behind the Cardinals in the standings tomorrow morning.

Tuesday 8/28 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 5 Toledo 0
Another night, another dominating performance by Indianapolis' pitching and offense combined. Today, it was Phil Irwin and Brock Holt (again) leading the charge. Irwin pitched six shutout innings and gave up three hits, walked two and struck out seven. Irwin lowered his ERA to 1.69 with his third high-quality Triple-A start. Duke Welker, Jo-Jo Reyes and Doug Slaten each pitched an inning of scoreless relief. Holt meanwhile continued his otherworldly prowess at the plate. Holt went 3-for-4 with his sixth double for the Indians. Holt is now hitting .415. Alex Presley went 3-for-5, Matt Hague was 2-for-5 and Anderson Hernandez finished 2-for-4. Indianapolis finished with 14 hits.

AA Altoona | Akron 3 Altoona 1
Despite a solid effort from starter Tyler Waldron, the Curve offense mustered only three hits and didn't score until down 3-0 in the ninth. Waldron hurled seven innings and gave up just one run on six hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Nathan Baker couldn't keep the deficit at one run however and gave up two runs in 1.1 innings. Victor Black came in and gave up a hit but struck out the other two batters he faced as part of his regular routine. Ramon Cabrera doubled and walked for Altoona, the double was his 22nd of the season. Oscar Tejeda and Andrew Lambo recorded the only other Curve hits, both singles.

A West Virginia | West Virginia did not play
West Virginia's game was postponed due to weather.

A Bradenton | Bradenton 11 Fort Myers 10 (Game 1) Fort Myers 4 Bradenton 2 (Game 2)
The offense showed up for both teams in Game 1 of this doubleheader after Hurricane Isaac caused the last two games to be postpones. Justin Howard went 2-for-3 and his his second home run of the season on his 25th birthday. Dan Grovatt slammed his ninth homer of the year and finished 2-for-2 with his 23rd double as well and a sacrifice fly. Carlos Paulino went 3-for-4, Andy Vasquez went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and four RBIs and Gift Ngoepe doubled for his only hit. Casey Sadler struggled on the mound and may be running out of steam in his first season as a starter. He lasted only 3.2 innings and allowed four runs on three hits but with five walks. Sadler fanned two. Zach Foster gave up five runs, four earned in the top of the seventh inning to make it an 11-10 game but Doug Salinas cleaned up the mess for his 11th save. The Marauders lost Game 2 despite out-hitting Fort Myers 9-6 but the Bradenton pitchers walked six. Kyle Kaminska couldn't maintain his recent success and suffered the loss by giving up two runs on four hits and a walk in three innings. Matt Benedict was hit with the loss by allowing a run in 2.1 relief innings and Josh Poytress allowed a run as well. Howard kept his birthday a happy day with another 2-for-3 game, this time with a triple to move him up to a 4-for-6 day. Vasquez connected for two more hits in this one, and Kirk Singer also singled twice in three at-bats. Ngoepe hit his second double of the day and 11th on the year in the nightcap.

A State College | Auburn 16 State College 4
State College's late-season free-fall continued as it was blown out in all aspects by Auburn. Joely Rodriguez had his worst outing of the year in giving up six runs, four earned, on seven hits in just 2.2 innings. Rodriguez walked one and struck out three. The bullpen didn't keep the Spikes close in any respect, giving up 10 runs, seven of them earned in the final 6.1 innings. Ryan Hafner was the main culprit, as his atrocious season between West Virginia and State College only got worse with five runs allowed in one inning tonight. 2012 draftee and shortstop Jimmy Rider actually pitched the ninth inning and didn't allow a run on just one hit. Rider had one hit offensively also, and so did eight of his teammates. Not one Spike had more than one hit as the team collected nine in the losing effort. Samuel Gonzalez and Jesus Vasquez doubled, while Jacob Stallings singled and walked twice.

8/28 Recap | Pirates 9 Cardinals 0

The Pirates got one of the more satisfying wins they've had in quite some time on Tuesday night with a 9-0 shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals.

There were a few big stories, but the two big contributors were James McDonald and Pedro Alvarez. It would be tough to say which performance was bigger for the Bucs. McDonald pitched seven scoreless innings walking just one batter and striking out six. Alvarez went four for five and hit two homers, also doubling. He drove in four runs. Travis Snider also had an RBI triple in the game and had two hits. Michael McKenry and Andrew McCutchen both added two hits and the Pirates have 14 hits total on the night.

Chris Resop and Hasanori Takahashi pitched the eighth and ninth innings to wrap up the Pirates 69th win of the year.

8/28 James McDonald Pitch F/X

7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB,6 K

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strike%
4-Seam	91.6	-2.28	10.33	53	73.58%
Slider	79.7	1.28	0.35	7	71.43%
Curve	76.44	4.85	-6.67	23	60.87%
2-Seam	91.2	-6.79	7.51	14	57.14%

You can view all the season's pitch f/x posts by clicking here

Erik Bedard Stayed Healthy

When the Pirates signed Erik Bedard in the offseason, everybody's hope was simply that he would stay healthy. The belief was that if he stayed healthy, he wouldn't have much trouble pitching well, especially in the National League Central.

Bedard did what we wanted him to do by staying healthy, the problem was that he just didn't get too many batters out.

The Pirates will officially release Erik Bedard today after another bad start raised his season ERA to 5.01 on the year. He gave up 9.2 hits per nine this year, one of them being a home run. He walked 4.0 per nine, and posted 8.5 strikeouts per nine. Those numbers are surprisingly bad for a guy that has posted a career 3.85 ERA and 8.4 hits per nine. All of that despite starting the year very well. Since May 16, Bedard has a 5.96 ERA and the Pirates have gone 6-11 in games he's started.

So now the question becomes who will replace him. The options seem to be Kevin Correia, Chris Leroux, Justin Wilson, and Jeff Locke. Wilson and Locke are left-handed, which could help their case. Correia has made a bunch of starts for the Pirates this year and has done an overall decent job with them, which might make him a front runner when we consider how the Pirates have dealt with these kinds of things so far this year (Daniel McCutchen/Chad Qualls over Bryan Morris in the bullpen). Leroux and Wilson have the best arms of the group, so I personally am hoping the Pirates give the job to one of those two.

Wilson is the one I want to see. Right now the Pirates have just one lefty in the rotation in Wandy Rodriguez, so adding another southpaw would be beneficial. Wilson throws the ball hard and has had a very nice year in AAA Indianapolis. I would be okay with Leroux making some starts as well. He's pitched from the bullpen in the major leagues and is doing a nice job in Indy's rotation. In 21 appearances (seven starts) Leroux has a 3.11 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9.

I would almost be surprised if it's not Correia who makes the starts, but either way I'll be pretty upset if that's what the Pirates choose to do.

8/27 Recap | Cardinals 4 Pirates 3

The Pirates lost again on Monday night, this time to the division and wild card rival Cardinals. They took a two run lead in the fourth inning when Jose Tabata, Travis Snider, and Andrew McCutchen opened the inning with singles and then Josh Harrison hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

A.J. Burnett couldn’t hold the lead for long, as the Cardinals answered with two runs the very next inning. Burnett would give up two more in the sixth as his recent stretch of mediocrity continued. Jared Hughes, Jason Grilli, and Tony Watson shut the Cardinals out over the final 3.1 innings.

< Clint Barmes doubled in a run in the seventh to get his team within one but they couldn’t do anything else the rest of the night and they lost again.

8/27 A.J. Burnett Pitch F/X

5.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strike%
4-Seam	91.9	-5.72	4.50	53	64.15%
Sinker	92.3	-8.38	4.13	14	85.71%
Change	86.8	-5.81	1.53	3	66.67%
K-Curve	80.8	6.61	-6.76	23	47.83%

You can view all the season's pitch f/x posts by clicking here

Monday 8/27 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 8 Columbus 5
The Indians' offense exploded for 15 hits, led by Chase d'Arnaud and Brock Holt at the top of the order to blow past Columbus despite an average night on the mound. d'Arnaud and Holt combined for seven hits as d'Arnaud went 4-for-5 with his 24th double, three runs scored and two steals (33 on the season) while Holt went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. To say that d'Arnaud has had a good week would be putting it lightly, in the past week he's hitting .500 (in 30 at-bats) with three home runs, two doubles, three steals and 11 runs. His OPS for the season has finally crept up to .701 after an awful first two months. Holt's three-hit night upped his average to .397. Not to be outdone, Dallas McPherson homered and doubled and drove in three runs while walking twice. McPherson has mashed since he was picked up two weeks ago; he has five home runs in 52 Indianapolis at-bats and is OPSing over 1000 in that time. Tony Sanchez also went yard for his eighth AAA homer, and he walked as well. Alex Presley added two hits and a double and Matt Hague doubled. The Indians needed all that offense because Chris Leroux pitched a decent game but kept managing to give up runs. Despite working with a low pitch count for most of the night, Leroux let Columbus' offense nip away at him for 6.2 innings. Leroux gave up four runs on six hits and two walks. Leroux did strike out seven and earned the victory to raise his record to 4-0 in Indianapolis. Leroux is likely to get called up to the Pirates (he's not currently on the 40-man roster) in September and he has been impressive in the Indians' rotation. Daniel McCutchen pitched the final 2.1 innings and gave up a sole run on three hits without walking a batter and striking out one. McCutchen was credited with the McSave, his third of the year.

AA Altoona | Game 1: Altoona 1 Akron 4 | Game 2: Altoona 7 Akron 1
Game 1: The Curve and Zips had themselves a great 1-1 duel going into the seventh, but the wheels came off for the Zips as they plated three unanswered unearned runs. With a rather lackluster defense behind him coupled with control issues, top prospect Gerrit Cole mucked it out through six and third innings en route to his sixth loss with the Curve. All four of the Zips' runs were unearned as the Curve made three errors on the night, two of them coming in the three run seventh inning. Cole came out in the seventh after allowing only one unearned run, but gave up back-to-back singles and then walked the next batter to load the bases up. With Head Coach P.J. Forbes seeing enough of Cole after issuing his sixth walk of the game, he summoned Jeff Inman to keep the game at 1-1. Inman did his job and was able to get the big time ground ball, but an error by the big Aussie Stefan Welch allowed two runs to score. Jarek Cunningham, Oscar Tejada, Andrew Lambo, and Quincy Latimore collected the only hits for the Curve with Latimore's plating the only run; his 86 RBI of the season. Adalberto Santos, the man who dominated the Eastern League in July, continues to be cold at the plate as of late. In the past six games, Santos is 3-for-19 (.158) after hitting a torrid .393 in the month of July.

Game 2: Although Gerrit Cole couldn't match Jameson Taillon's Sunday outing in Game 1, the offense made up for its lack of run support for Cole in Game 2 by wiping out Akron early. The Curve scored all seven of their runs in the first three innings. The dagger was a grand slam by Andrew Lambo in the second, his third home run for Altoona. Although Lambo's blast off of lefty starter Mike Rayl was the Curve's only extra-base knock of the game, the offense made the most of their other seven singles and Akron's three errors. Adalberto Santos singled, walked and stole his 15th base, Drew Maggi slapped two singles out of the leadoff spot, and Oscar Tejada, Matt Curry, Kelson Brown and Quincy Latimore all added hits. Meanwhile, Altoona's pitching succeeded where Akron's failed in getting out of jams. Spot starter Mike Colla got into trouble in the second and third innings but escaped with only allowing one run. Colla gave up three hits and two walks while striking out one in his three innings. Newly recalled Jason Townsend pitched his second lengthy relief outing as a member of the Curve, grabbing the victory by hurling four shutout innings. Townsend gave up four hits and walked three but didn't strike anyone out, but averted damage. Townsend now has an ERA of 1.99 combined between Bradenton and Altoona on the year, although he has a substandard 44 strikeouts in 77 innings overall. A West Virginia
The 57-76 Power had a much needed off-day as they ended their 14 game stretch and finished with a 7-7 record. They will send southpaw Zach Fuesser to the hill against the Charleston RiverDawgs for a three-game series in Charleston. Fuesser has a 3-6 record on the season and a 4.15 ERA. As mentioned yesterday, uber talented star outfielder Gregory Polanco was activated from the disabled list and started in the cleanup spot as the designated hitter. But in other news, today Marauders first baseman Alex Dickerson was named the Florida State League Player of the Year.

A Bradenton | Bradenton vs. Fort Myers (PPD due to rain)
The Minor League teams down South have been trying to do the rain dance and avoid Hurricane Issac from dropping a big one on their fields. But Hurricane Issac does continue to rip through the Gulf Coast and cause extreme weather conditions. That in turn has led the Marauders to have their second straight game cancelled due to rain. Bradenton will still call on the big righty Casey Sadler to the hill for Game 1 of the doubleheader against Fort Myers starting at 5 P.M. Sadler brings his 4-5 record and 3.62 ERA to the mound as the Marauders sit within 2.5 games of first place in the Florida State League South Division standings.

A State College | State College 1 Auburn 12
To put it lightly, it was a bad day all around for the Spikes tonight. The Spikes and Doubledays did the rain dance also and played through some light showers, but the was not enough to stop Auburn from ripping Spikes starter Jason Creasy to shreads. They came at him early and often, plating five runs on two hits and two free passes as Creasy was only able to record two outs in the first. Reliever Clario Perez came in help soften the blow, but had very little success himself stopping the Auburn dominance. At the end of probably the worst inning of the season for State College, the Doubledays plated seven runs on six hits and two walks as 12 Auburn hitters stepped into the box in the first inning. Offensively, D.J. Crumlich, Jesus Vazquez, and Yhonathan Barrios had the only hits as Vazquez's fifth inning ground-rule double plated the only Spikes run.

Did the 19 Inning Win Hurt the Pirates?

Last year the Pirates got ripped off by Jerry Meals in the 19 inning game and then proceeded to watch their season absolutely fall apart in the span of about two weeks. Everyone jumped at the opportunity to blame the 19th straight losing season on that game. They claimed that if Meals would have made the correct call and the Pirates would have gone on to win the game, things would have gone down differently.

Does that make any sense? No. Does that mean it's completely wrong? Not necessarily. My belief was that if the game had anything to do with the collapse, the outcome of the game had nothing to do with it. Playing 19 innings in one night can really exhaust a team and have a pretty bad effect on them the next few days, there's no questioning that. What I can question is that losing a tough game like that has an effect the next few days or weeks. I always believed that the season would have turned out that exact same way if the Pirates would have won that game.

Now fast forward to last week when the Pirates beat the Cardinals in a 19 inning game. A lot of people were thinking that was going to propel the Pirates to have another stretch of wins and get them back into the Wild Card picture. Well since that game the team is 1-5 and pitching extremely poorly. Why isn't it possible that the 19 inning game took a toll on them even though they won? They still played the same amount of innings as last year's marathon, does the outcome really matter? There's no way to know.

What we do know is that the Cardinals were the losing team in that game and they are 5-1 since then. THey were fortunate enough to have an off day directly after the game and then get a three game set with the Astros to boot. Things seemed to work out perfectly for the Cardinals, and they really didn't seem to work out at all for the Pirates.

All of that said, I still don't put any stock in the 19 inning game. These are professional athletes who are all in fantastic shape. The pitchers weren't really affected thanks to Kevin Correia, Kyle McPherson, and Justin Wilson pitching eight and a third of the nine innings the next game. Everybody but Wandy Rodriguez stayed on their normal rest schedules. The offense hasn't been great since that day, scoring just 17 runs in six games since, but I'm not ready to say that has anything to do with playing more than two games worth of baseball one day.

We're simply looking at a Pirates team that just isn't all that great. It's hard to get full seasons out of unproven players. Andrew McCutchen is proving that himself right now. Nobody was even close to as good as him in the first four months of the season, but the season is taking a toll on him and he's struggling big time now. The rest of the team has been following him and just not doing much of anything. The pitching has been much more like what we thought it would be when the season began, Jeff Karstens is the only one pitching well at all this month.

Despite all the negativity, the Pirates are still nine games over .500 and just two games out of the playoffs with 35 games left to play. It's still a positive season, and if they can just get their stuff together for the last month of baseball, this could still turn into a magical season that ends in a playoff berth. Just don't jump off the ship before it sinks entirely.

Sunday 8/26 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 3 Columbus 5
The Indians' three-run sixth inning rally wasn't enough to overcome an early 4-0 deficit as they lost to Columbus. Chase d'Arnaud kickstarted the Indianapolis offense with a home run leading off the sixth to cut the deficit to 4-1. The blast was d'Arnaud's sixth of the season and third in the last week. d'Arnaud finished 2-for-4 but no one else had an extra-base hit. Alex Presley and Matt Hague both went 2-for-4 with two singles. Anderson Hernandez, Dallas McPherson and Brandon Boggs also singled. Brock Holt had a rare hitless game, going 0-for-4 to drop to .384. The Pirates' top two relief prospects and likely September callups both pitched and gave up runs in relief of Rick VandenHurk. Bryan Morris gave up two runs, one earned, in the sixth inning, while Justin Wilson followed by allowing a run over two innings. Wilson allowed a home run but did strike out three. VandenHurk allowed five hits, two runs and one walk over five innings with five strikeouts, but his offense and bullpen failed to help him so his record dropped to 12-5.

AA Altoona| Altoona 7 Richmond 0
We all thought Jameson Taillon had a fantastic outing against the offensively talented Trenton Thunder in his Altoona Curve debut on August 21st, right? Well think again because tonight's start, his home debut, against the Richmond Flying Squrrels (I know, right? How funny of a name is that?) was just plain domination by Taillon. If he did not give up his lone hit, an infield single in the fifth, the start would have been perfect. This still was probably Taillon's best start of his professional career at it being in Double-A makes it even more impressive. He ended up going six innings while striking out seven and walking none. With the help of the offense and a strong three innings of relief by Hunter Strickland, Taillon was able to earn his second win in as many starts. So far with Altoona, Taillon was pitched 11 innings of shutout ball only allowing five hits, walking none, and striking out 13. To quote the late Ronnie James Bio of Black Sabbath in their famous song "War Pigs": "Treating people like pawns in chess!"

Offensively, Ramon Cabrera had himself a night going 3-for-4 and his 21st two-bagger of the season. Jarek Cunningham had a big one out two-run "trip, trip, triple" in the second that plated the first two Curve runs of the game. Gustavo Nunez continues his rehab assignment going 2-for-4 with a double tonight. Matt Curry also kept up his fantastic season belting a two-run shot in third; his 11th on the season. Curry now has a .291 batting average and 74 RBI on the season and may be in line for a call-up to Indianapolis once MLB rosters expand in September.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 0 Hickory 7
The offense and pitching failed all-around for the Power today in a 7-0 blowout where the team mustered only three hits and gave up 15 of them. But the positive story out of this one was star Gregory Polanco returning to the field. Polanco was activated from the disabled list and started in the cleanup spot as the designated hitter. Even though Polanco went 0-for-4, it was his first action since getting hurt in a two-home run performance on August 9. Fellow top prospect Alen Hanson had the day off, and only Alex Fuselier, Chris Lashmet and Ashley Ponce recorded hits for West Virginia. Lashmet hit his 15th double of the year. The Power lineup struck out 12 times. Robby Rowland has had an effective year in low-A, and today was one of his stranger starts as he only allowed one run in 4.2 innings but gave up nine hits. Rowland walked one and struck out four and suffered the loss. Orlando Castro, who had also been effective of late since his promotion from State College, had a bad outing and gave up four runs, three earned, in 1.2 innings. Rinku Singh allowed two runs in 1.2 frames also. Pat Ludwig was the only pitcher not to allow a run, and kept his ERA perfect in his first three outings for West Virginia.

A Bradenton | Bradenton vs. Fort Myers (PPD due to rain)
Just like their game against the Jupiter Hammerheads last night, the Marauders battle royale against Fort Myers was postponed due to rain with Hurricane Issac ripping through the Gulf Coast. Bradenton will send the big righty Casey Sadler to the hill for Game 1 of the doubleheader against Fort Myers starting at 5 P.M. Sadler brings his 4-5 record and 3.62 ERA to the mound as the Marauders sit within 2.5 games of first place in the Florida State League South Division standings.

A State College | State College vs. Jamestown (PPD due to rain)
Just like Bradenton, the Spikes had their game tonight against the Jamestown Jammers postponed due to rain. Tonight's rained out game will be made up as part of a doubleheader against the Jammers on August 30th. Jason Creasy was slated to start for State College tonight and instead will take the ball tomorrow as the Auburn Doubledays come to town. Creasy is win-less on the season with a 0-4 record and a 4.99 ERA. The Spikes are riding a 5-0 win against Jamestown and a great pitching performance by Clay Holmes on Saturday night.

Pirates Starters in August (Updated Monday Morning)

The Pirates are 9-14 in August and are making Pittsburgh very frustrated as they see their playoff chances seem to drift away. Obviously the Pirates are still very much in the Wild Card race, but they need to start playing better baseball to stay in the race.

Your Bucs are scoring 4.4 runs per game this month, so the offense really hasn't been a big problem. The starting pitching has been the issue. Here's a breakdown of the Pirates six starting pitchers and what they've done in August:

Jeff Karstens: 32 IP, 2.81 ERA, 27 H, 10 ER, 3 BB, 20 K
Kevin Correia: 18.1 IP, 4.91 ERA, 22 H, 10 ER, 5 BB, 10 K
Wandy Rodriguez: 27.1 IP, 4.94 ERA, 31 H, 15 ER, 8 BB, 13 K
A.J. Burnett: 27.1 IP, 5.27 ERA, 31 H, 16 ER, 11 BB, 31 K
James McDonald: 21.1 IP, 5.91 ERA, 21 H, 14 ER, 10 BB, 20 K
Erik Bedard: 21.1 IP, 5.91 ERA, 22 H, 14 ER, 9 BB, 18 K

Karstens is the only one with good numbers there. Burnett was in the Cy Young conversation before August started, but he's made three bad starts in a row now. Correia is no longer in the rotation, so that's not much to talk about, but Rodriguez, Bedard, and McDonald have also all struggled this month. The staff has a 4.81 ERA for the month.

We got a scare last night when Karstens left the game with a groin injury. It doesn't look like it's a very serious injury, but it would be really tough for the Pirates for Karstens to miss even a single start. He's the only guy going good right now, and the team could really feed off him going forward. You can't win baseball games unless you have a solid starting rotation, and right now the Pirates don't have that.

The good news is that these names still look good on paper. They all have good stuff and experience in the big leagues, so you can expect them to pitch better down the stretch. Fatigue might be a problem, but I'm not sure you can chalk all of this up to that. Who knows what's going on with the Pirates right now, but we do know that if the Pirates are going to make a playoff push, these pitching numbers better improve in a hurry.

Jameson Taillon Dominates the Flying Squirrels

Jameson Taillon entered the 2012 season with some pretty lofty expectations for his development. He started the year in Bradenton and had some good patches and some bad. In the 23 starts he made before his promotion he had a 3.82 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. Those are pretty solid numbers, but not quite the domination many people expected from him. A strong month of July helped him get bumped up to AA Altoona, where he has now made two starts.

In his first start he pitched five innings allowing just four hits and not letting a single run cross the plate. He struck out six and didn't walk anybody. That was a tough start to top, but he managed to do it in his second start, which he made tonight.

The Curve hosted the Richmond Flying Squirrels and Taillon put up another zero in the runs column through six innings. He allowed just one hit and struck out seven. Hunter Strickland pitched the final three innings to complete the shutout.

So that's 11 innings for Taillon, no runs allowed, no walks, and 13 strikeouts. I'm not sure if you could ask for 11 better innings. All of this is extremely encouraging because he showed some inconsistencies in single-A. Obviously two starts isn't going to prove anything, but it sure is nice to see from Taillon. He was frankly making some people a bit nervous with his inability to stay consistent in such a low level of the minor leagues, and a strong finish to the season in AA could really send his prospect stock soaring.

8/26 Erik Bedard Pitch F/X

4.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strike%
4-Seam	88.8	5.47	9.78	22	63.64%
Change	77.0	9.47	4.31	11	81.82%
Curve	75.2	-4.73	-7.02	22	72.73%
Cutter	88.3	1.87	6.75	1	100.00%
2-Seam	88.8	9.25	8.24	28	60.71%

8/26 Recap | Brewers 7 Pirates 0

Erik Bedard had an awful start for the Pirates this afternoon. He pitched 4.2 innings and allowed six runs. His ERA is now in the fives and it was his fourteenth loss of the season. Kevin Correia relived Bedard and threw 2.1 innings, while allowing one run. Hisanori Takahashi pitched the eighth, making his Pirates debut, and had a perfect inning. Chris Resop threw a scoreless ninth.

The offense had a chance to put runs on the board in the early innings, on multiple occasions. There wasn't much help and at all from the first five batters, who combined to go 1-19, with seven strikeouts. Andrew McCutchen's batting average has dropped to .343, which is second in the league, and the first time in months he isn't leading the league in batting average.

The Pirates stay in Pittsburgh and open up a do-or-die three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals starting tomorrow night.

Prospect Breakdown: Clay Holmes 8/25 start vs Jamestown Jammers

Holmes, the Pirates ninth round selection of the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Slocomb High School in Alabama, continued his phenomenal first year of professional baseball with the Pirates short season Single-A affiliate the State College Spikes. He had just come off his worst outing as a professional on August 19th after having a month of July for the ages. In those four starts on July 8th, July 14th, July 19th and July 25th, Holmes threw a combined 25 shutout innings (five in all four starts) while only giving up six hits and striking out 11. I got to watch Holmes take the hill for the Spikes tonight while sitting in some great seats two rows behind the Spikes dugout.

Against his first batter of the night, Jamestown right fielder Michael Main, Holmes fell behind 3-0 as it was clearly noticeable he was attacking the outer half of the plate. Unfortunately he was missing low with his fastball and was not able to get some close calls on the outside black of the plate. This was clearly evident by his battery mate Jacob Stallings' body language. Holmes gutted it out to fill up the count with two fastballs on the low outside corner and eventually got Main to fly out deep to left on a fastball high in the zone. Holmes continued that trend of falling behind in the count 2-0 against his other two hitters in the first. In the first situation, Jamestown left field Cody Keefer sat on a 3-1 fastball on the low outer half and poked a base hit (the only to get hits against Holmes) to Spikes right fielder Jesus Vazquez. Then he mucked it out in a great seven pitch at-bat by Jamestown second baseman Anthony Gomez after falling behind 3-1 again. Holmes ended up getting Gomez to line out to left fielder Jon Schwind on a lower half fastball and double off Keefer at first. He finished the first throwing 18 pitches, nine of them for strikes.

In the second Holmes was the polar opposite of his first inning. He worked quickly ala Pirates starter Jeff Karstens and was very efficient with his pitches, only needing 8 pitches (5 strikes, 3 balls) to get out of the second. His first batter, Jamestown first baseman Viosergy Rosas, was pounded on the low inner half with the first signs of off-speed stuff from Holmes. He ended up getting the big first baseman Rosas to softly ground out to second baseman Jodaneli Carvajal on a well placed changeup on the lower half of the zone.

After the big four-run offense outburst by his teammates in the bottom half of the second and a commanding 5-0 lead, Holmes could have pretty much went in cruise control. He started off the third walking Jamestown backstop Sharif Othman on four straight balls with back-to-back pitches nearly hitting Othman. Holmes immediately turned the cheek and got scrappy shortstop Yeison Hernandez to ground into a double play. He worked quick like in the second and had great location sitting in the low outside corner during the entirety of the four pitch at-bat. Then he left a fastball a little bit up in the inner half but was thankful to get Juancito Martinez to ground out on a missile to third baseman D.J. Crumlich.

In his second time through the Jammers order, Holmes started off the fourth keeping the ball low in the zone to get lead-off hitter Michael Main to roll over and ground out on a change up. Then Cody Keefer connected on his second hit of the game with a fastball in the low inner half of the zone. Holmes then got Anthony Gomez to ground out to shortstop Chris Diaz on a perfectly placed fastball on the low outside corner. Then he finished the inning with a bang by getting Anthony Gomez swinging on a perfectly placed changeup. He threw 15 pitches in the fourth, nine for strikes and six for balls, and was good at locating pitches down in the zone early in counts.

Now the fifth went by so fast that I was just barely able to get a quick enough breakdown. He was so quick and efficient that he only threw six total pitches in the fifth; five of them for strikes. He got Michael Vaughn to fly out to right fielder Jesus Vazquez on two pitches for the first out. Then, he got Pedro Mendoza to also fly out to Jesus Vazquez on a ball he left too high in the zone but got caught at the warning track. Sharif Othman then hit a slow dribbler back to Holmes in two pitches for Holmes' final out of the game.

Holmes finished his night going five scoreless innings only allowing two hits and walking one while striking out one to notch his 5th win of the season. He threw 59 total pitches in his five innings of work with 32 strikes and 27 balls. Most importantly, he only faced one batter over the minimum for five innings. If you looked at his pitching line, you would not be able to see his control issues he had tonight. I counted two uncorked wild pitches and then two back-to-back high and inside pitches he almost hit Juancito Martinez with. But it is definitely evident the young righty Holmes has the talent to be one of the best pitching prospects in the Pirates system. He uses his large six foot five frame to get on top of hitters and his knack of keeping most of his pitches down in the zone allowed him to get seven of his 15 outs via the ground ball.

Saturday 8/25 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 8 Columbus 6
The Indians received great contributions from their starting pitching and offense today, but the bullpen nearly ruined it until a heroic showing in the team's final at-bat outlasted rival Columbus. It was a good day for McEffect overall in Indianapolis, as the non-brothers McPherson earned the gold stars for the day. Starter Kyle McPherson was splendid in his third start in AAA and should've earned the win, but a bullpen blowup tied the game going into the bottom of the ninth when Dallas McPherson blasted his second home run of the game to walkoff with an 8-6 triumph. Dallas' bombs were his 15th and 16th of the year and capped a 3-for-5 performance with four RBIs. Kyle meanwhile lowered his ERA in three starts to 0.98 by throwing seven shutout innings and allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out five. The Pirates' big league rotation could be in good shape in the next few years with the promise shown by McPherson, Jeff Locke and Justin Wilson this year. Dallas McPherson wasn't alone as his teammates provided more offensive fireworks. Yamaico Navarro, who started in his first game since his demotion from Pittsburgh, smashed his ninth home run of the season during a 2-for-3, one-walk day, and Brandon Boggs also connected for his ninth homer of the year. Boggs' and Navarro's homers were back-to-back in the first inning as the Indians jumped to an early 5-0 lead after one. Alex Presley went 2-for-5 with his fourth triple. Brock Holt stayed on absolute fire with a 2-for-4 night to hike his average to .406, and his buddy Tony Sanchez joined in the fray with a two-hit night. The bullpen made it interesting after McPherson's scoreless outing, as Duke Welker allowed a run in the eighth and neither Evan Meek or Doug Slaten could finish the win in the ninth. Meek allowed two runs in a third of an inning and Slaten didn't retire a batter and gave up three runs on two hits and a walk. Tim Wood recorded the final two outs but not until Columbus tied the game. That is, until the offensive McPherson came to the plate in the ninth.

AA Altoona | Altoona 3 Richmond 0
Minor league veteran Kris Johnson has bounced between Altoona and Indianapolis this season, but he's done a nice job since rejoining Altoona's rotation and he hurled a solid game against Richmond for his second AA win. Johnson pitched seven innings and didn't allow a run (similar to McPherson) and gave up just three hits and two walks while fanning five. And unlike Indianapolis' bullpen, Altoona's held steady. Tim Alderson pitched a scoreless inning and Victor Black recorded his 10th save by shutting out Richmond in the ninth. Black did walk a batter but also struck out one, so his ERA now stands at 1.76. Oscar Tejeda paced the hitters with a 3-for-4 game, including a double. Rehabbing Gustavo Nunez had a pinch-hit, two-RBI single in the eighth to widen the Curve's lead to three runs. Drew Maggi singled and walked twice, while Adalberto Santos and Charlie Cutler walked twice as well. Tejada and Maggi each stole a base.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 4 Hickory 3
Eric Avila failed to pick up a hit for the first time in 13 games, but the Power still found enough offense elsewhere to knock off Hickory. Speedy Taylor Lewis replaced a resting Alen Hanson in the leadoff spot and went 2-for-3 with his fifth triple of the season and a walk. Lewis also stole his 20th base, and he wasn't even recalled from extended Spring Training until June when the State College season started. Dan Gamache went 2-for-3 with his 37th double and a walk, and Chris Lashmet had two hits and his 14th double. Mike Jefferson had the Pirates affiliates' worst start of the night and still allowed just two earned runs over six innings. He improved his record to 6-7 by giving up seven hits without walking a batter and he finished with five strikeouts. Like the new non-brothers McPherson, old non-brothers Kilcrease (Robbie and Nathan) finished the victory with a combined three shutout innings. The duo gave up just two hits, no walks and fanned five.

A Bradenton | Bradenton 4 Jupiter 1
The Marauders scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning off Pittsburgh native Scott McGough to come back from a late 1-0 deficit to top Jupiter. McGough, who went to Plum High School, allowed three of Bradenton's four runs to score, including one on a double steal when Carlos Mesa stole home while Kawika Emsley-Pai swiped second. Andy Vasquez went 2-for-4 with an RBI triple in the deciding eighth inning. Emsley-Pai and Kirk Singer also notched two hits. Jhonathan Ramos started for the Marauders and lasted six innings and allowed just one run. Ramos, who has shuttled between Bradenton and Altoona's bullpens most of the season, gave up three hits and walked none while striking out three. Quinton Miller threw two shutout innings to earn the win and Doug Salinas picked up his 10th save.

A State College | State College 5 Jamestown 0
On the back of a phenomenal start by Clay Holmes and very timely hitting in the four-run second inning, the Spikes cruised to an easy 5-0 win against the Jammers after a brutal 1-0 loss last night. Holmes lowered his ERA down to 1.99 and notched his fifth win of the season. Walker Gourley’s leadoff two-bagger in the 2nd, his 10th of the season, got the crooked second inning going and was followed by D.J. Crumlich’s 17th double of the season. Crumlich finished his night 2-for-4 with two RBI and is now hitting .287 on the season. He also was rock solid at third base defensively as the left side of the Spikes infield with shortstop Chris Diaz was busy tonight. Catcher Jacob Stallings did struggle at the plate tonight, striking out three times. But one positive for Stallings was he did a great job handling the young righty Holmes on the mound and has an incredible arm and quick release behind the plate. He picked off Michael Vaughn at second base in the seventh with an absolutely perfect missile of a throw. McEffect Minor League Writer Ross Insana attended the State College victory tonight and broke down Holmes' excellent start further in an article you can read here.

Friday 8/24 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 4 Louisville 2
The only Pirates affiliate to win tonight was the one who clinched a playoff berth already yesterday. Today's result followed a regular theme, with Jeff Locke's sterling pitching leading the way. Locke shut down Louisville over six innings of scoreless ball. He gave up just four hits, walked only one and struck out six. The gem lowered Locke's ERA to 2.56 on the season. It remains to be seen if Locke will be called up to the Pirates in September or if he'll anchor Indianapolis' rotation for its playoff run first. Bryan Morris pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning with no hits, walks or strikeouts. His ERA is now 2.48. Daniel McCutchen shook off his infinity Major League ERA after Tuesday's debacle in San Diego and pitched a clean ninth with a strikeout for his second save of the season. McEffect favorites produced all around, as Dallas McPherson slammed a two-run home run in the fifth inning to push the Indians' lead to 4-0. The blast was McPherson's 14th of the season and second for Indianapolis. Brock Holt just continues to impress at the AAA level, as he went 3-for-4 with two stolen bases. He's now hitting .400 with a .960 OPS in 65 at-bats for the Indians. He did commit an error at second base however. McPherson finished with two hits on the night, and Anderson Hernandez was a perfect 3-for-3. Brandon Boggs hit his 24th double of the year immediately ahead of McPherson's fifth-inning homer.

AA Altoona| Altoona 1 Richmond 2
Altoona only recorded hits in two innings against Richmond, and the first hit didn't come until a relief pitcher entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Richmond lefty Michael Kickham didn't allow a hit in six innings of work, but he was removed far before getting a shot at a complete-game no-hitter. Why? Because Kickham walked five Curve hitters and he threw 103 pitches in those six innings. Reliever Chris Wilson entered the game in the seventh and Altoona's Jeremy Farrell hit a double to lead off the frame and the no-hitter evaporated. Jarek Cunningham followed with a bunt single, but Kelson Brown grounded into a double play that scored a run but killed the rally and the Curve couldn't score again. Oscar Tejeda singled in the ninth and was bunted over by Farrell, and pinch-hitter Matt Curry (who didn't start against the lefty Kickham) walked with two outs, but Charlie Cutler lined out sharply to left field to end the threat and the game. Farrell had the best offensive game for Altoona, getting a double in his only official at-bat and walking twice. Farrell's repeat AA season has been heavily disappointing, as he's only hitting .218 with four home runs and a .638 OPS. Brandon Cumpton suffered the loss, pitching six innings and allowing two runs on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Nate Baker and Jeff Inman were sharp in relief. Baker struck out the side in the seventh and Inman fanned four in two shutout innings.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 0 Hickory 6
The story tonight for the Power was the clear lack of offensive production as evidence by the zero runs scored. But the most agonizing part of the loss was the sub-par defensive performance behind starter Nick Kingham. Kingham, who allowed four runs (only one of them earned) on three hits in five innings, tossed a solid start if it was not for the three defensive miscues by his teammates behind him. Two of them, one from Chris Lashmet and another from Alen Hanson, came in the big fifth inning where the Crawdads plated three runs. Speaking of Hanson, he had himself a night to forget in all facets of the game. At the plate he went 0-for-3 with a walk and was caught stealing once. Defensively, he was responsible for two of the errors on the night, one in the fifth and one in the eighth. Taylor Lewis, Eric Avila, Willy Garcia, and Elias Diaz has the only hits for the Power tonight.

A Bradenton |Bradenton 2 Jupiter 6
Only three Marauders recorded a hit and the bullpen couldn't keep the game close late as Bradenton fell on the road to Jupiter. Mel Rojas led the effort with a 3-for-4 evening and two doubles, putting him at only 12 for the season. Rojas is now hitting .252 and it'll be interesting to see if management believes he's done enough to earn a promotion to Altoona next season. Kirk Singer and Gift Ngoepe had two hits apiece, with Singer adding his sixth double as a Marauder. The rest of the Bradenton lineup outside of Ngoepe, Singer and Rojas went a combined 0-for-21. Miami top prospect Jose Fernandez started for Jupiter and kept the Marauders mostly off balance. Kenn Kasparek received another start and had an okay outing. He didn't walk a batter or strike anyone out over six innings, and gave up two runs on seven hits. Josh Poytress gave up a run in the seventh, and Emmanuel De Leon gave up three runs on four hits in an inning for his high-A debut. De Leon hadn't allowed an earned run in West Virginia in 11 August innings after he was promoted from State College and he was promoted again to Bradenton just a few days ago. But his first outing didn't go so well. Before tonight's game, he had struck out 59 in 51.2 innings between State College and West Virginia, but the downside is that he's walked 33.

A State College | State College 0 Jamestown 1
The prized 17 year old right hander Luis Heredia had the starting nod tonight and did not disappoint like he's done a lot in his first professional season. But the bats of his Spikes teammates were not alive as Jamestown starter Mason Hope dominated in seven innings, striking out nine Spikes hitters. This lack of offensive production by the Spikes has been on display quite a few times this season as the Spikes are towards the bottom of the New York-Penn League in team runs and hits. The only hits tonight came of the bats usual suspects in D.J. Crumlich and Jacob Stallings. Crumlich went 2-for-4 and Stallings 1-for-4 with three strikeouts of his own. The big Mexican Heredia earned his second loss of the season going five fantastic innings allowing one earned run on three hits and no walks while striking out four. Lance Breedlove threw three scoreless innings of relief and Josh Smith one scoreless himself. Back to Heredia, who in his first professional season, has allowed 20 runs in 56.2 innings and now owns a 2.86 ERA with a 33:16 strikeout to walk ratio.

Thursday 8/24 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 6 Louisville 1
The Indians not only beat up on the Bats but they popped the bubbly and clinched the International League division title and a playoff spot with still almost two weeks left in the season. There were several key contributors to the clinching victory tonight, with hurler Phil Irwin topping the list. Irwin, making just his second start in AAA, gave up a run in the first inning and then kept Louisville off the board for the following five frames. Irwin's final line stands at six innings, five hits, one run, one walk and nine strikeouts. Irwin has a 2.70 ERA in those two starts and he's fanned 17 and walked three in his 10 innings thus far. Justin Wilson finally had his first outing in relief and pitched a scoreless eighth inning with a hit allowed, a walk and a strikeout. Tim Wood didn't get a save but did pitch the ninth without letting a run score. He did give up a hit and two walks. The offense provided enough thunder throughout the lineup to keep the Bats far away from a comeback. Chase d'Arnaud paced the club by hitting his fifth home run, his second in three nights, as part of a 2-for-3, one-walk day. d'Arnaud's main value this year has come from the stolen base with 31 in 35 attempts, so he's likely to see a September callup to the Pirates despite a disappointing offensive campaign as a whole thanks to a .237 average and .681 OPS. Tony Sanchez went 2-for-4 with a double, his 10th, and two RBIs, and Matt Hague also collected two hits. Sanchez threw out a runner stealing as well. Brock Holt, who has been on fire since his promotion from Altoona, did not start but did pinch-hit and went 0-for-1.

AA Altoona| Altoona 2 Richmond 1
Tyler Waldron made his fourth start as a member of the Curve since being promoted from Bradenton. He gave up his one and only earned run early in the first, but settled down the rest of game. He pitched a scoreless four and two-thirds before handing the ball over to Mike Colla in the sixth. Waldron finished his night only allowing one earned run on six hits and two walks while striking out five. Mike Colla then bridged the gap to closer Vic Black by tossing a scoreless sixth, seventh, and eighth. Then Black drove the nail in the coffin like usual with two strikeouts to pick up his ninth save. Black, the power righty, has dominated out of the pen this season with 80 strikeouts in 55.1 innings.

In what was a real nail-biter, both Altoona and Richmond were scattering base runners instead of getting them in bunches. Ramon Cabrera's clutch two-out game tying double in the fifth helped get Tyler Waldron off the hook after his great outing. Then to begin the sixth, Matt Curry came up big with a lead off two-bagger; his 33rd of the season. Oscar Tejada followed Curry with a base hit and the big Aussie Stefan Welch fundamentally put the ball in play to vault the Curve to a 2-1 lead.

Pirates Rule Five pick Gustavo Nunez continued his rehab assignment after being on the 60-day DL due to an ankle injury. He made his first appearance as a member of the Curve in the lead-off spot but finished his night 0-for-4 at the dish. Nunez currently sits at a .269 average (7-for-26) during his rehab assignment with the GCL Pirates, Bradenton Marauders, and now the Curve.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 3 Hickory 4
Eric Avila and Elias Diaz were the only noteworthy stories offensively for the Power as they combined to strikeout ten times as a team. The third baseman Avila, who's currently swinging a hot stick as of late, went 2-for-4 tonight with his tenth blast of the season. In his last five games, Avila is hitting 8-for-20 (.400) with three home runs and nine RBI. Avila's recent production offensively has helped to slightly close the void left without Gregory Polanco in the lineup. Backstop Elias Diaz also added two hits tonight, adding his 14th double of season.

The big righty Zack Von Rosenberg had a solid outing on the hill but the big error and eventual turning point in the game by Dan Gamache in the fourth led to three unearned runs by the Crawdads. Von Rosenberg ended his night only allowing one earned run on seven hits and two walks while striking out only two. Joan Montero threw a scoreless three innings of relief as did Pat Ludwig in the ninth.

A Bradenton |Bradenton 3 Fort Myers 7
Marauders starter Eliecer Navarro was shelled for five runs on eight hits and two walks in four innings as Bradenton dropped the rubber match against the Miracle. Fort Myers got to Navarro right off the bat as they put a crooked three runs on the board in the first. Matt Benedict also continued his struggles out of the pen as he surrendered two earned runs in four innings of long relief and now owns an abysmal 9.29 ERA. Kirk Singer had himself a night as he went 3-for-4 at the plate. Benji Gonzalez hit his 11th two-bagger of the season while Alex Dickerson went 1-for-4 and is now hitting .302.

A State College | State College 3 Auburn 6
The Spikes' freefall rolled on as they could not hold an early 2-0 lead earned on the heels of a two-run first inning. State College was actually up 3-0 after scoring an additional run in the top of the fourth, but starter Adrian Sampson allowed two runs in the bottom of the inning. Sampson held Auburn in check from there, but Thomas Harlan blew up in the seventh inning and allowed three runs on five hits after Kevin Kleis walked a batter with one out and that run came across as well. Sampson had an average start, allowing two runs, four hits, two walks and four strikeouts in 4.1 innings. Kleis pitched two hitless innings but his walk after getting the first batter of the seventh to ground out proved to be his only earned run. Jesus Vasquez hit his fifth home run of the State College season in the top of the fourth. The solo job pushed the Spikes ahead 3-0. Vasquez went 2-for-4 and he's now hitting .241 as a Spike. Samuel Gonzalez and Chris Diaz each had two hits, while Jodaneli Carvajal, Walker Gourley and Jared Lakind all doubled. Every Spikes starter had at least one hit except for the ninth batter, Yhonathan Barrios. State College had been having trouble recording hits of late so this was a surge in the right direction, but nonetheless not enough runners crossed the plate.

Wednesday 8/22 Minor League Roundup

AAA Indianapolis | Indianapolis 7 Louisville 5
This game was as great as it could pitting two teams that are having polar opposite seasons. The International League's best Indians and the struggling Louisville Bats went back and forth with a rediculous six different lead changes tonight. The Tribe found ways to capitalize on Louisville's four errors in the field and never rolled over when being behind. The "Hit Collector" Matt Hague's game tying seventh inning solo shot was the key turning point in the game. His fourth home run of the season made it 5-5 and the Indians would then tack on two more runs in the eighth to secure the win. The offensive star for the Indians was Chase d'Arnaud with a 4-for-5 night and his 23rd two-bagger of the season. This is coming at a time where d'Arnaud was hitting below the infamous Mendoza Line at .167. Recently acquired Dallas McPherson continued to get on base since joining the Indians, going 2-for-3 with two RBI. He's now 9-for-31 (.290) as a member of the Indians and will be a pivotal key to the Indians playoff push. The white hot Brock Holt actually showed his first signs of being human tonight as he went a depressing 0-for-4 with a walk. After tearing up the Eastern League with Altoona most of the season with a .322 average, Holt is now hitting .383 as a member of the Tribe.

As Pirates fans continue to clamor for his services, Chris Leroux, like Holt, showed that he is in fact human after being unhittable in early August. Tonight Leroux went only five and third innings and allowed five earned runs and struck out nine. This was by far his worst outing in the past two months. But the trio of Duke Welker, Jo-Jo Reyes, and Doug Slaten combined to have Leroux's back and throw five scoreless innings of relief. Reyes earned his sixth win of the season in two innings of relief and Slaten notched his 10th save on the season.

AA Altoona| Altoona 14 Trenton 2
The story tonight for Altoona was the performance of top prospect Gerrit Cole after the magnificent Double-A debut of Jameson Taillon last night. Cole struggled right from the get-go as he allowed two runs on three hits and a walk in the first inning. He labored the entire inning as the Trenton hitters were either getting on or working the counts, leading to Cole throwing 34 pitches. He did not allow another run for the rest of his three and a third innings of work, but his control was spotty with four free passes. He finished his night allowing those only two earned runs on five hits and four walks while striking out four. But luckily for Cole, Jason Townsend came in an locked down the Thunder lineup in four and a third flawless innings of long relief.

As Townsend grinded it out to help Cole, the Curve offense did the same and went on an absolute POWER SURGE with 14 runs on 14 hits. Every hitter in the Curve lineup but Drew Maggi managed to collect a hit. Surprisingly, the only home run hit for the Curve was Quincy Latimore's two-run shot in the fifth; his 15th on the year. Latimore finished his night 3-for-4 with a walk and four RBI. The other big offensive nights came on the shoulders of Ramon Cabrera, Stefan Welch, and Charles Cutler. The backstop Cabrera went 2-for-6 with two RBI and collected his 19th two-bagger of the season. Cutler also had himself a night going 2-for-6 with a two-bagger and his first "trip, trip, triple" on the season. The big Aussie Welch followed suit with two hits and joined the club with his 10th two-bagger on the season.

A West Virginia | West Virginia 5 Charleston 4
Jose Osuna helped walk it off in the ninth with a clutch one out base hit to score Alen Hanson to give the Power the 5-4 victory tonight. Power starter Zachary Fuesser struggled mightily in the sixth inning after breezing through his first five innings. But with the help of a big Taylor Lewis triple in the bottom half of the inning followed immediately by a Willy Garcia sac fly, Fuesser was let off the hook. Just like their fellow Pirates affiliates in the Curve and Indians, Rinku Singh and Orlando Castro saved the night with scoreless innings of relief. Jose Osuna collected his 35th double of the season and two RBI to go with his 3-for-4 night at the dish. Alen Hanson and Eric Avila each added two hits apeice as Hanson added his 32nd double of the season.

A Bradenton |Bradenton 2 Fort Myers 1
Kyle Kaminska, acquired from the Miami Marlins at the deadline with Gaby Sanchez, followed up his phenominal six inning no-hit shutout in his debut on August 17th with a brilliant follow-up outing. Tonight, he pitched seven innings and allowed just one run on six hits. As a member of the Marauders, the big righty has thrown 13 innings while allowing only six hits and one run with an 11:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Like a broken record, the Bradenton bullpen did their job as Jhonathan Ramos pitched a scoreless eighth and Doug Salinas picked up his ninth save of the season. The big moment for the Marauders came in the top half of the sixth, when Alex Dickerson added a big two-out base hit followed by a Justin Howard double. Then, Carlos Paulino's slow dribbler back to Fort Myers pitcher Tom Stuifbergen was a powder keg for a subsequent chain of events. Stuifbergen's throw pulled his first baseman off the bag and then the first baseman's throw to catch Justin Howard at third sailed by the third baseman. After being given a HUGE gift of two big errors by Fort Myers, the rest was history as Bradenton notched the nail-biting win.

A State College | State College 5 Auburn 4 (12 innings)
The Spikes completed the Minor League sweep for all of the Pirates affiliates and it did not come easy or was gift wrapped like Bradenton's victory. Starter Clario Perez put the boys of Happy Valley in an early rut, giving up four runs in the first three innings. On the other side of the ball, the Spikes bats could not figure out Auburn starter Nicholas Lee as they were held scoreless through seven. But the magical four-run crooked inning for the Spikes came in the eighth when Lee was gone. The always reliable top of the order trio of Jodaneli Carvajal, Walker Gourley, and D.J. Crumlich added consecutive base hits and Jacob Stallings drew a bases loaded walk to score Carvajal. Then, Samuel Gonzalez clubbed a clutch one out bases-clearing double to tie the game up at four. Logan Pevny, Josh Smith, Kyle Haynes, and Dalton Friend teamed up of the bullpen to hold down the fort during the extra innings to continue to system's trend of solid relief efforts.