Morning Rundown: Pirates losing streak reaches five games, strong pitching performances in minors
Morning Rundown: Pirates losing streak reaches five games, strong pitching performances in minors
The Pirates have now lost five games in a row. Strong night of starting pitching in the system
The Pirates were able to pick up nine hits on Saturday but still were only able to score twice, as their losing streak now sits at five games.
Bryan Reynolds picked up three hits, and six other hitters pitched in, but it wasn’t enough to muster much offense. That’s now eight runs during the five-game losing streak.
The Red Sox scored a pair of runs in the first and sixth innings, which is all that they needed.
Mitch Keller allowed four runs on five hits and five walks while striking out four across six innings pitched.
Pittsburgh will look to avoid a second straight sweep on Sunday with Martin Perez on the mound.
Saturday was a solid night of pitching in the Pirates’ system, especially in the starting rotation.
Collectively, the four starters of the four affiliates allowed two earned runs on 13 hits and two walks while striking out 19 across 18.1 innings pitched.
Michael Plassmeyer pitched four innings, not allowing an earned run while striking out five for Triple-A Indianapolis. Pitching for Altoona, Braxton Ashcraft pitched 4.1 innings, allowing an earned run but not walking a hitter and striking out three.
Down in Greensboro, Wilber Dotel continued his strong start to the season, pitching five shutout innings while striking out three. After control got the best of him this past Sunday, he only walked a single batter.
Finally, for Bradenton, Michael Kennedy punched out a career-high eight batters over five innings of one-run ball. Despite throwing around 88-92 with the fastball, he picked up a 50% whiff rate with it (10/20), mainly due to some strong carry at the top of the zone.
LHP Nick Dombkowski assigned to the Altoona Curve from the Indianapolis Indians
Bradenton Marauders placed RHP Luigi Hernandez on the 7-day injured list
Support the site by becoming a paid member, and get access to all of our premium content, including our Top 25 list with complete player write-ups and my video breakdowns, which come out weekly.
It will also give access to my player feature articles from on-site trips.
We have monthly and yearly plans available, with the latter coming out to an average of $4.16/month.
Top Exit Velocity
Carter Bins - 107.8 MPH - Double
Matt Gorski - 107.2 MPH - Groundout
Dustin Peterson - 105.9 MPH - GIDP
Omar Alfonzo - 104.7 MPH - Single
Bryan Reynolds - 104.7 MPH - Single
Top Pitch Velocity
Colin Holderman - PIT - 98.1 MPH
Colin Holderman - PIT - 97.9 MPH
Colin Holderman - PIT - 97.6 MPH
Luis Ortiz - PIT - 97.4 MPH
Luis Ortiz - PIT - 96.8 MPH
Most Whiffs
Michael Kennedy - BRD - 11
Michael Plassmeyer - IND - 9
Peyton Stumbo - BRD - 7
Eddy Yean - ALT - 7
Darvin Garcia - GBO - 7
Indianapolis Indians - 4 vs St. Paul Saints - 12
Top Hitter - Carter Bins: 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Top Pitcher - Michael Plassmeyer: 4 IP, 5 H, BB, 5 K
Altoona Curve - 2 vs Bowie Baysox - 6
Top Hitter - Tres Gonzalez: 3-5, R, 2B
Top Pitcher - Braxton Ashcraft: 4.1 IP, 4 H, ER, 3 K
Greensboro Grasshoppers - 8 vs Hickory Crawdads - 0
Top Hitter - Charles McAdoo: 2-4, R, 2 RBI, HR
Top Pitcher - Wilber Dotel: 5 IP, 2 H, BB, 3 K
Bradenton Marauders - 3 vs Daytona Tortugas - 4
Top Hitter - Shalin Polanco: 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Top Pitcher - Michael Kennedy: 5 IP, 2 H, ER, 8 K
Probable Pitchers
Pittsburgh Pirates - Martin Perez
Indianapolis Indians - Eric Lauer
Altoona Curve - Anthony Solometo
Greensboro Grasshoppers - Alessandro Ercolani
Bradenton Marauders - Khristian Curtis
Strong pitching performances in minors? What good is that when no one threw more than 5 innings and we have no hitters in our system.
3, 0, 1, 2, 4, 0, 1, 0, 2, and 2…this is the number of XBH’s per game over the last ten games. Not a coincidence that this has translated into a whopping two wins. Last five games, only five XBH’s, that’s pathetic! Same trend as last year, yet the process and philosophy remain the same with the FO expecting different results.