Morning Rundown: Mike Burrows strikes out 10 in last Triple-A game, Paul Skenes gets 11th win of the season
Burrows strikes out 10 in Triple-A finale. Skenes wins 11th game
The Pittsburgh Pirates avoided a sweep against the Cincinnati Reds with a 2-0 win on Sunday. Paul Skenes pitched five shutout innings, striking out nine and allowing just two hits on the night.
Rookie Nick Yorke went 1-3 with a walk and his first major league home run. It was a solo home run that traveled 108.7 mph off the bat. Oneil Cruz provided the other run for the Pirates as he hit his 21st home run of the season.
Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski, Dennis Santana, and Aroldis Chapman pitched scoreless innings out of the bullpen to close things out. Chapman picked up his 11th save of the season.
Pittsburgh has the day off before beginning their final home series against the Milwaukee Brewers. They will then travel to New York to face the Yankees in the final series of the season.
Mike Burrows struck out 10 batters in five innings pitched for the Indianapolis Indians in the final day of the Triple-A season. He threw 91 pitches and generated 21 whiffs on 48 swings.
The fastball wasn’t getting a lot of whiffs as he worked back from Tommy John, which is expected. On Sunday, he got nine whiffs on 21 swings (43%) with his four-seamer. He had at least a 30% whiff rate on all four pitches.
Making his first appearance with Indianapolis, Brandan Bidois struck out a hitter while allowing a hit in his only inning pitched.
Eddy Yean also pitched and struck out two. He got five whiffs on 10 swings.
Pittsburgh Pirates sent RHP Jake Woodford outright to Indianapolis Indians
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Top Exit Velocity
Oneil Cruz - 109.7 mph - Groundout
Matt Gorski - 109.2 mph - Home Run
Nick Yorke - 108.7 mph - Home Run
Billy Cook - 107.8 mph - Single
Oneil Cruz - 106.9 mph - Home Run
Top Pitch Velocity
Aroldis Chapman - PIT - 102 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.2 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.1 mph
Aroldis Chapman - PIT - 99.8 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 99.8 mph
Most Whiffs
Mike Burrows - IND - 21
Paul Skenes - PIT - 16
Eddy Yean - IND - 5
Josh Walker - IND - 4
Justin Bruihl - IND - 4
Indianapolis Indians - 9 vs St. Paul Saints - 4
Top Hitter - Tsung-Che Cheng: 3-4, 2 R, BB, SB
Top Pitcher - Mike Burrows: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K
So David Bell has a .473 W/L% and three winning seasons out of six, and he's gone. Shelton has a .415 W/L% and never comes closer than ten games to .500, and he's safe.
I'm not really one to get involved in the front office shenanigans, but I believe they will clean house.
A good GM with a full off-season should have no problem with getting this team in real contention for '25.
Cruz & Skenes are animals - Cruz coming back from the broken leg, struggled with this slash line in the 1st half - .246/.299/.439. 2nd half - .302/.378/.507. He plays plus defense and hits like he did in the 2nd half, he's a 7-war player getting MVP votes.
Skenes is the best pitcher on the planet and will be even better next year. He could also post up a 6-7 war season as well.
There's a foundation in place, get someone in here to finish the job.