Morning Rundown: Pirates home opener, Indianapolis doubleheader, rest of full season affiliates begin play
Chandler walks three, strikes out four in 2025 debut
After concluding their seven-game road trip to start the season on Wednesday and a day off on Thursday, the Pittsburgh Pirates are set to play their home opener on Friday, facing off against the New York Yankees.
Mitch Keller gets the nod for the Pirates, with a scheduled first pitch of 4:12 pm ET.
The Pirates also optioned Ji Hwan Bae to make room for Alexander Canario, whom they recently acquired in a trade.
They also announced that they have traded catcher Jason Delay to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash considerations.
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Wednesday represented the third postponement already for the Indianapolis Indians this season, with their schedule beginning a week ago. Due to that, they played a pair of games on Thursday___
Bubba Chandler started game one, struggling with his control, but still flashed his near-unhittable stuff. He walked three batters and allowed a hit over 2.2 innings pitched, striking out four.
He originally loaded the bases with two walks and a hit, but nearly worked out of it himself before Drake Fellows came in to face the last batter of the inning.
Despite what the line says, Fellows pitched well, especially when the focus was on his slider. He kicked up 12 whiffs on 19 swings (63%) with the pitch in his 2.2 innings of work.
A late error by Liover Peguero eventually led to the tying run to score, forcing extra innings. Ryder Ryan escaped a bases loaded jam in the top of the eighth, giving the Indians a chance to win it in the bottom of the frame.
A wild pitch allowed Henry Davis to move from second to third and then later scored when a throw home on a groundball got away from the catcher before he could put the tag on.
The second game pitted two top 100 pitchers against each other, Cade Horton and Braxton Ashcraft. Not only did they match up against each other, they had to face the elements, as it was pouring down rain for most of the game.
Horton struggled with his control, walking four, but was mostly unhittable, allowing just a walk while striking out six over 3.1 innings pitched. Ashcraft completed five innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out five.
Owen Caissie and Jonathan Long recorded back-to-back RBI hits in the fifth to open up the scoring.
Nick Yorke finally put Indianapolis on the board with an RBI double—his third two-bagger of the doubleheader—pulling the home team within one.
Things fell apart after that, with JC Flowers and Fineas Del Bonta-Smith allowing four more runs as Indianapolis lost 6-1.
The rest of the full-season affiliates will get their season underway today, and over the past couple of days, WTM has been rolling out his season previews for each team. If you haven’t had a chance to look over them, here they are:
Altoona Curve
Greensboro Grasshoppers
Bradenton Marauders
Top Exit Velocity
Nick Yorke - IND - 109.3 mph - Double
DJ Stewart - IND - 107.8. mph - Home Run
Matt Gorski - IND - 105.4 mph - Home Run
Nick Solak - IND - 105.3 mph - Home Run
Liover Peguero - IND - 101.7 mph - Lineout
Top Pitch Velocity
Bubba Chandler - IND - 98.7 mph
Bubba Chandler - IND - 98.6 mph
Bubba Chandler - IND - 98.2 mph
Bubba Chandler - IND - 98.1 mph
Bubba Chandler - IND - 98 mph
Most Whiffs
Drake Fellows - IND - 12
Braxton Ashcraft - IND - 10
Ryder Ryan - IND - 9
Bubba Chandler - IND - 6
JC Flowers - IND - 6
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Indianapolis Indians - 7 vs Iowa Cubs - 6
Top Hitter - DJ Stewart: 1-3, R, HR, 3 RBI, BB
Top Pitcher - Ryder Ryan: IP, BB, 2 K
Indianapolis Indians - 1 vs Iowa Cubs - 6
Top Hitter - Nick Yorke: 1-3, 2B, RBI, BB
Top Pitcher - Braxton Ashcraft: 5 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, BB, 5 K
Baseball America with a '50 more prospects scouts were raving about' during spring. Konnor Griffin were mentioned in the first article.
Richard Ramirez, Khristian Curtis, Mueth, and Carlos Castillo all mentioned in the follow up article
https://youtu.be/UvDZvpNb_lM?si=AcLbDOPVz9vDnruY
Konner Griffin greeting his former and hopefully future teammate at home after the youngster hit a no doubter.
https://youtu.be/bw-Kd0cahWs?si=AX-gW8lQ41ctn6sI