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Pirates' Minor League Roundup: Six Shutout Innings for Phil Irwin; Dilson Herrera Misses a Cycle by a Single

The Tuesday roundup includes some playoff action, but not West Virginia, which got rained out.

-P- Indianapolis shut down Toledo, 5-0, as Phil Irwin appears to be trying to match Kyle McPherson. Irwin, in his third AAA start, went six, allowing three hits and two walks, and striking out seven. Duke Welker, Jo-Jo Reyes and Doug Slaten each threw an inning to finish the shutout. Brock Holt went 3-4 with a double and a walk. He's hitting .415 for now. Alex Presley went 3-5, and Anderson Hernandez and Matt Hague each had two hits.

-P- Altoona lost to Akron, 3-1. Tyler Waldron allowed just one run over seven innings. Vic Black got the last two outs in the 9th via strikeout, but also let two inherited runners score. The Curve had only three hits.

-P- Bradenton split a doubleheader with Fort Myers. The Marauders barely hung on in game one, giving up five in the 7th before closing out an 11-10 win. Andy Vasquez went 2-3 with a double, a triple and a walk, and drove in four runs. Dan Grovatt went 2-2 with a double, his 9th HR and three RBIs. Carlos Paulino went 3-4 with three runs scored. Justin Howard went 2-3 with a walk and his 2nd HR. Starter Casey Sadler struggled, walking five and allowing four runs in three and two-thirds. Zach Foster allowed the first five batters in the 7th to reach and score before Doug Salinas got three outs for the save. Bradenton dropped game two, 4-2. Vasquez, Howard and Kirk Singer each had two hits, including a triple by Howard.

P- State College got destroyed by Auburn for the second night in a row, losing in a 16-4 rout. Joely Rodriguez got knocked out in the third, Ryan Hafner had another bad outing, and not much good happened. The Spikes are five games under .500 and out of the playoff hunt. It remains to be seen whether the team's GM will follow through on his silly ultimatum to find a different affiliation. The team has been handicapped by getting only half a season each out of its two best offensive players, Tyler Gaffney and Barrett Barnes. It also had Raul Fortunato, a potentially interesting outfielder who had a huge year in the DSL last year (although he was overaged), for only four games. Recently the Spikes have been playing backup catcher Jonathan Schwind and organizational catcher David Valesente in left, and organizational infielder Walker Gourley in center.

-P- The GCL Pirates won the opener of their best-of-three series for the league title, 5-2 over the Red Sox. Dilson Herrera led the way, going 3-5 and falling just a single short of a cycle. He drove in three runs. Eric Wood went 3-3 with two doubles and a walk, and Elvis Escobar went 2-4 with a triple. Jon Sandfort picked a good time for one of his best starts, pitching three shutout innings and allowing just a hit and no walks. He fanned one. Cesar Lopez also threw three shutout, one-hit innings, fanning five. The Bucs can clinch the championship tomorrow.

-P- The DSL Pirates1 wrapped up a first-round win by trouncing the Mets2, 8-0. Starter Oderman Rocha went five innings, allowing just a hit and a walk, and fanning four. Omar Basulto pitched the last four innings. Yunelky Adames went 2-3 with a walk and a grand slam.