Cannonballs Coming: Good days for Brault, Garcia

-- Willy Garcia (pictured) broke a 3-for-32 skid by driving in five runs as Indianapolis edged Toledo, 6-5.  Garcia had a three-run HR, his tenth longball in AAA, and a two-run single in four at-bats.  The single brought the Indians back from a 5-4 deficit in the 8th inning.  Despite the dry spell, Garcia is hitting 284/322/578 in August.  He is what he is, though; that includes four walks and 30 whiffs.  Tony Sanchez and Josh Bell each went 2-4 with a double.  Bell is hitting .347 in AAA.  Alen Hanson was 1-5 and Travis Snider 0-4.  Indy went with a bullpen game, using six pitchers.  Brad Lincoln started and allowed three runs in two innings.  A.J. Morris threw four shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks, and striking out three.  Radhames Liz threw a perfect 8th with one strikeout, needing just seven pitches.

-- Steven Brault continued his outstanding work, throwing seven shutout innings in Altoona's 2-0 win over Trenton.  Brault allowed just three hits, walked none and struck out two.  He threw 63 of 84 pitches for strikes.  Adam Frazier went 2-4 and Max Moroff 2-3, with each collecting a double.

-- Bradenton beat Palm Beach, 5-3.  Cody Dickson struggled some, allowing three runs on four hits and four walks in five and two-thirds innings.  He struck out three.  The Marauders had only five hits.  Austin Meadows was 1-3 and Reese McGuire 1-4.  Harold Ramirez went 0-2 and came out for a pinch hitter.

-- West Virginia beat Lexington, 5-1.  Kevin Kramer went 2-4 and Kevin Newman 1-3.  Francisco Diaz was 2-4 with a double.  Austin Coley gave up one run on just three hits in seven innings.  He walked none and struck out five.

-- Morgantown lost to Batavia, 8-5.  Mitchell Tolman was 2-5 with a double, and Ryan Nagle was also 2-5.  Daniel Arribas hit his second HR.  Carlos Munoz made his NYPL debut, going 1-3.  He got hit with a pitch his first time up, then homered the next time.  Later he got plunked again, then struck out to end the game as the potential tying run.  Ke'Bryan Hayes got his first NYPL hit, going 1-1 with three walks.  Brandon Waddell had a rough outing, giving up seven runs, six earned, on ten hits in four innings.  He walked two and struck out two, and has an ERA of 7.04 through five pro starts.  Stephan Meyer struck out four in three innings of relief, with the only runner against him reaching on an error.

-- Bristol took the first game of a doubleheader with Elizabethton, 7-6, in nine innings.  After blowing a four-run lead, the Pirates scored two in the top of the 8th, but blew that lead, too, before winning in the 9th.  Starter Billy Roth gave up one run in five innings on four hits and three walks.  He fanned seven.  Cristian Mota, recently promoted from the GCL (pay attention here; this tells you which guys the Pirates think could be prospects*), threw a scoreless 9th for the save.  John Bormann was 3-5 with a double and Erik Lunde 2-4 with his third HR.  Henrry Rosario was 2-3.

Bristol got routed in game two, 11-4.  Marek Minarik and Neil Kozikowski combined to give up nine hits and six walks in six innings.  Carlos Ozuna went 3-4 with a double and Enyel Vallejo hit his first HR, a three-run shot.

* Mota is a small LHP who throws in the mid-90s.  He was almost 22 when he signed out of the Dominican and is in only his second pro year.  Possibly due to his size (5'10"), the Pirates have used him only as a reliever so far.  His track record is accordingly limited, but his opponents' BA is below .180.