Morning Rundown: Pauls Skenes gets first major league win, Axiel Plaz home run, Bubba Chandler leaves early
Morning Rundown: Pauls Skenes gets first major league win, Axiel Plaz home run, Bubba Chandler leaves early
Paul Skenes picks up first major league victory. Axiel Plaz homers in his first Bradenton game and Bubba Chandler doesn't make it out the first.
In his second start, Paul Skenes picked up his first big league victory on Friday and did so in grand fashion.
The 2023 first overall pick pitched six no-hit innings while striking out 11 Chicago Cubs.
Throwing 100 pitches for the first time in a professional outing, Skenes averaged 99.3 mph on his fastball, getting whiffs on 12 of 27 swings. Nearly half of his fastballs (46%) were either whiffs or called strikes (CSW%).
He got all of his secondary pitches involved with each recording either a called strike or whiff. The other four pitches combined for 10 whiffs on 27 swings (37%).
Of the 100 pitches he threw, 67 went for strikes, with the lone runner to reach in the first six innings was Michael Busch on a walk. It was an eight pitch at-bat, where you could make a case ball three hit the bottom of the strike zone, which would have been a called strike three.
It was a brilliant performance, and now the Pirates two prized young pitchers have recorded wins on consecutive days.
With Garret Forrester already on the injured list, the Bradenton Marauders were down to two healthy catchers heading into Thursday game against the Tampa Tarpons.
Justin Miknis would leave that game in the first inning with an injury, and was later put on the injured list.
That forced the Pirates to reach down to the complex and bring up Axiel Plaz from the FCL team.
Plaz burst on the scene a few years back for tearing up the Dominican Summer League as a 16 year old. He came statestide last year and struggled in the FCL and started again this season at the same level.
Getting a shot to catch on Friday, it didn’t take long for him to make an impact. He picked up a hit in his first at-bat, a single that was hit 94.8 mph off the bat.
His next at-bat was just a groundout, but he also hit the ball 112.2 mph. In the seventh inning, Plaz picked up his first home run, 110.6 mph off the bat. That’s three batted balls with an average exit velocity of 105.8 mph
Not a bad start.
For the second time in his last five starts Bubba Chandler failed to make it out of the first inning. On Friday against Akron he walked five batters in two-thirds of an innings before leaving the game with a trainer in the middle of an at-bat.
He was replaced by Justin Meis, who allowed a grand slam with those runners Chandler walked on base.
In the end it was five runs on five walks in two-thirds of an inning.
Attention will turn to figure out exactly what happened to cause Chandler to get pulled from the game while the trainer was out there. Whatever it was could likely have something to do with the extreme case of him missing the zone.
It hasn’t exactly been an ideal start to the season for Chandler, especially with how he closed out 2023. He’s still showing the stuff, just having a really hard time locating things.
Bradenton Marauders activated C Axiel Plaz
Bradenton Marauders placed C Justin Miknis on the 7-day injured list
C John Lopez assigned to FCL Pirates from Bradenton Marauders
Indianapolis Indians activated RHP Kade McClure from the 7-day injured list
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Top Exit Velocity
Axiel Plaz - BRD - 112.2 mph - Groundout
Axiel Plaz - BRD - 110.6 mph - Home Run
Javier Rivas - BRD - 109 mph - Single
Oneil Cruz - PIT - 108.9 mph - Lineout
Matt Fraizer - IND - 106.5 mph - GIDP
Top Pitch Velocity
Paul Skenes - PIT - 101.2 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.3 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.3 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.3 mph
Paul Skenes - PIT - 100.3 mph
Most Whiffs
Paul Skenes - PIT - 22
Michael Kennedy - BRD - 17
Drake Fellows - ALT - 16
Hunter Furtado - BRD - 9
Wily Peralta - IND - 6
Justin Meis - ALT - 6
Indianapolis Indians - 3 vs Toledo Mud Hens - 8
Top Hitter - Canaan Smith-Njigba: 1-2, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 3B
Top Pitcher - Connor Sadzeck: 1.2 IP, 3 H, ER, 5 K
Altoona Curve - 3 vs Akron RubberDucks - 6
Top Hitter - Tsung-Che Cheng: 2-4, 2 R, RBI, HR
Top Pitcher - Drake Fellows: 4 IP, 2 H, BB, 7 K
Greensboro Grasshoppers - PPD
Bradenton Marauders - 2 vs Tampa Tarpons - 5
Top Hitter - Axiel Plaz: 2-4, R, RBI, HR
Top Pitcher - Hunter Furtado: 2 IP, H, 4 K
FCL Pirates - 5 vs FCL Orioles - 2
Top Hitter - Carlos Tirado: 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI, R, 2 BB
Top Pitcher - Inmer Lobo: 2 IP, H, 3 K
I wonder if Chanlers is injured. It'd be a shame if he was.
5 walks in 1st inning and then being removed in the middle of an AB. Really raises a question about what the manager, pitching coach and trainer ( and catcher) were all doing in the first inning. This doesn't sound good for Bubba.