Morning Rundown: Thomas Harrington strikes out 11, Esmerlyn Valdez goes deep, Pirates lose

Thomas strikes out 11 for Altoona, Valdez continues to hit for power, Pirates drop game to Milwaukee

Jul 11, 2024

Thomas Harrington had a career outing for the Altoona Curve with Jared Jones, who is no stranger to dominating pitching performances, in the stands while the Pirates were in Milwaukee.

The righty out of Campbell tied career-highs in innings pitched (seven) and strikeouts (11) as the Curve defeated the Bowie Baysox 5-1.

Of the 95 pitches Harrington threw, 63 were for strikes, picking up 13 swinging strikes along the way.

It’s been a good year for Harrington, who missed the first part of the season due to a shoulder injury. In 11 games with the Curve, Harrington has posted a 2.54 ERA, 59 strikeouts, and just eight walks over 56.2 innings pitched.

Harrington and Bubba Chandler are slowly starting to find another gear in Altoona.

After missing more than a week with an injury, Esmerlyn Valdez has returned with a vengeance for the Marauders.

He hit a home run in each of the first two innings on Wednesday and has three across seven at-bats since returning from his IL stint.

Valdez has had some strikeout issues but has shown some serious power in Bradenton. He has 12 home runs on the season and is currently tied for third in the Florida State League in home runs.

Share Bucs On Deck

Axiel Plaz also hit a home run, his 11th since being promoted to Bradenton. He easily has the fewest games played (38) among players in the FSL with double-digit home runs.

Just a day after the offense exploded for 12 runs in a win against Milwaukee, it fell silent on Wednesday, getting shut out 9-0.

The Pirates picked up four hits on the day, with only Rowdy Tellez sending one for extra bases (double). Martin Perez didn’t make it out the fifth inning, allowing five earned runs on nine hits and three walks.

Paul Skenes will make his last start before the All-Star break on Thursday as the Pirates still look to clinch a key series against a divisional opponent.

Some site maintenance stuff, as things have continued to be brought to my attention. I’m here to write and talk about baseball, and I didn’t want to get into a position where I needed to babysit the comment section.

A few guidelines now going forward;

No personal attacks. We are all grown-ups here, and we don’t always agree with everything. Approach things civilly. If you don’t have anything nice to say to/about someone, leave it be. I’ve found it’s pretty easy to ignore some of the comments on here, so just move on to a different conversation.
We are adults, so I’m not going to say any cursing, but there are certain words/phrases that don’t need to be said. If you have to use ‘the word’ in its place, it’s probably something you don’t need to say, period. Hiding around this with ‘slang’ that alludes to something else offensive/vulgar is a no-go too. Anything racist, homophobic, etc, is obviously a no-go.
No political talk. This is a baseball site. Let’s talk baseball. In fact, I don’t even mind off-topic stuff; I encourage it to an extent. And that extent is political-related stuff. There are thousands of other places where you can talk about that kind of stuff. Not here.

I’ve had a few people either unsubscribe or threaten to do so over some of the stuff in the comments as of late.

People are going to unsubscribe, that’s the nature of this, and some may be upset by these new guidelines. I’ll say this, I’d rather those people unsubscribe than the ones coming here just looking to talk about baseball without seeing some of the stuff in the comments or dealing with personal attacks.

So, I’ll be monitoring the comments more often, which is unfortunate because the more I have to do that, the less time I spend writing and trying to bring everyone the best content I can provide.

I'll start deleting the posts if I see anyone crossing the line and send a warning. We’ll look further into what’s next if you can't get the hint. I don’t want to get to a point where I’m banning people.

I’ve told Nola and WTM to do the same, and then I'll pass along anyone who doesn't get the hint/warnings.

Anyway, we are just a few days away from celebrating one year at Bucs on Deck; I can’t express how grateful I am for everyone's support of the site and for giving me this platform to talk about the game we all love.

Remember why we are here, be decent to each other, and have a good time.

Bradenton Marauders placed LHP Magdiel Cotto on the 7-day injured list retroactive to July 8, 2024
SS Alika Williams roster status changed by Indianapolis Indians (Taxi Squad)
FCL Pirates placed SS John Zorrilla on the 7-day injured list
FCL Pirates placed OF Tony Blanco Jr. 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 video breakdowns, which come out weekly.

It will also give access to my player feature articles from on-site trips.