Cannonballs Coming: Brault throws six shutout innings

Some extended discussion of Bradenton's doubleheader appears at the end.

-- Indianapolis lost to Columbus, 4-3.  Angel Sanchez went six and two-thirds, allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits and a walk.  He struck out four.  Willy Garcia was 2-3 with his second AAA HR.  Gorkys Hernandez was also 2-3.  Alen Hanson was 1-5 with a triple.

-- Steven Brault (pictured) and two relievers combined on a three-hitter as Altoona shut out Richmond, 3-0.  Brault allowed just two hits and a walk in six innings, while fanning nine.  Brault also provided much of the offense, going 2-2 with two RBIs.  Max Moroff was 2-4 with a double and Josh Bell 1-4.  JaCoby Jones went 1-3.

-- The West Virginia Power hammered Hagerstown, 13-3.  Cole Tucker went 3-5 with a double and three runs scored, Michael Suchy 3-4 with a triple, and Chase Simpson 3-5 with his eighth HR and four RBIs.  Tucker served as the DH after missing a couple of games.  Austin Coley gave up three runs on three hits over five innings.

-- Morgantown lost to Tri-City, 5-1, putting an end to its nine-game winning streak.  Starter Dario Agrazal gave up two runs over five innings.  Tate Scioneaux made his pro debut, throwing a scoreless inning, giving up a hit while striking out two.  The Black Bears managed only six hits.  Kevin Newman was 2-4 with two doubles.  David Andriese was also 2-4.

-- Bristol allowed double figures in runs for the third time in five games in a 12-4 loss to Greeneville.  Logan Sendelbach and Shane Kemp, both of whom have struggled badly since being selected in rounds 10 and 26 of the draft, respectively, combined to give up ten earned runs in five and a third innings.  It could have been a lot worse, as the Bucs' outfield threw out three runners at the plate.  Carlos Munoz went 2-5 with a double.  Sandy Santos was 2-4.

-- The GCL Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Phillies.  Game one was the resumption of yesterday's suspended game, in which the Bucs led, 1-0, after one inning.  They eventually went up, 4-0, then held on to win, 4-3.  Nick Economos threw the one inning before the suspension, giving up a hit and a walk, and striking out two.  Adam Miller threw a scoreless inning in a rehab outing.  Jhoan Herrera and Edison Lantigua each went 2-4.

The Pirates rallied for four runs in the bottom of the 7th to win game two by the same score.  Edison Lantigua finished it off with a walkoff, three-run HR, his first HR as a pro.  Herrera went 2-2 with a double and is now hitting 322/351/471, albeit with a 4:20 BB:K ratio.  Starter Chris Plitt gave up three runs over five innings.  He allowed only three hits and walked none, but two of the hits left the park.  He fanned two.

-- Bradenton split a doubleheader with Clearwater, losing the first game, 4-1, and winning the second, 2-1.

Clay Holmes started the first game, but came out after two innings for unknown reasons.  He threw mostly or solely fastballs, driving the ball down well.  He gave up singles to the first two hitters, one a bouncer that sneaked through, but then got a GIDP and a strikeout.  In the second inning he got three outs on three pitches.  I saw no sign of any issues, but he didn't come out for the third and the Marauders had Henry Hirsch ready to go.  Hirsch got hit hard and quickly allowed a pair of runs, then later walked in a third.

Bradenton did little with a mediocre Clearwater starter.  Reese McGuire hit a long double into the opposite field corner and Erich Weiss lined out to deep right, but there were few other balls hit well.  In the humidity here nothing seemed to carry at all, anyway.  Balls died like they were hit underwater.

In game two, Harold Ramirez provided most of the offense.  He lined a triple that resulted when the CF missed a diving try.  Weiss then bounced a single through to score him.  In the 6th, Ramirez lined a single to bring in Justin Maffei, who had doubled and stolen third, with the eventual winning run.  Ramirez consistently made good contact and also showed good range and got good jumps chasing several balls hit into right-center.  Nobody else hit much well in game two, either.

Luis Heredia started game two and lasted six innings despite throwing only 45 of 80 pitches for strikes.  He threw mostly fastballs, with a few hard curves.  His command came and went.  He generally got on top of the fastball well and kept it down, but he had several 2-0 counts in the first few innings.  He still got through three scoreless innings without much trouble, but got very wild in the 4th.  He seemed to be overthrowing, as he was wild high a lot.  He walked two and also went to full counts on the last two hitters, but should have been out of the inning anyway.  Wyatt Mathisen went to second instead of first and failed to get an out after fielding a grounder with two outs and the bases loaded.  Heredia got a ground out to escape more scoring, then suddenly started throwing strikes and breezed through the 5th and 6th.  One telling sign:  There were a handful of scouts at the first game, but most left between games and the only person with a gun on Heredia was the Marauders' player who was charting pitches.