Cannonballs coming: Tyler Glasnow gets good results with spotty command

I attended Indianapolis' matchup against Columbus, which Indy won 7-1. Tyler Glasnow started, allowing one run while striking out five and walking two over 5.1 innings. That's certainly fine, but he needed 97 pitches to get through those 5.1 innings, and his command of both his fastball and curveball came and went. There were also a few really wild misses, particularly late in the outing. Glasnow's fastball and curve are both terrific, and he looks like he could help the Pirates now, but he also seems to still have work to do -- a 96-MPH fastball and great curve can overmatch Triple-A hitters but might not work as well against more advanced hitters capable of exploiting iffy command.

After that, reliever Trey Haley put Glasnow's command issues in perspective, throwing only five of his 16 pitches for strikes, although he did throw those pitches very, very hard. Arquimedes Caminero then pitched the seventh and whiffed three of the four batters he faced, touching 99. He then pitched a second shutout inning in the eighth, running his pitch count to 42, one fewer than his career high in a big-league outing.

Jorge Rondon then pitched the ninth and also reached into the high 90s while striking out two and walking one in a scoreless inning. Rondon has been erratic this season, and Haley has more strikeouts than walks this year, but the velocity on display tonight from all four pitchers was impressive -- all three relievers threw even harder than Glasnow did. Columbus hitters must have been exhausted by all the high-90s fastballs.

Offensively, Indianapolis got three runs in the fourth on run-scoring hits by Jason Rogers, Willy Garcia and Danny Ortiz, and three in the seventh on a two-run double by Max Moroff and an RBI single by Josh Bell. Jacob Stallings tacked on a solo homer in the eighth. Moroff had three hits, while Bell and Adam Frazier each had two.

-P- Altoona lost, 10-4. Starter David Whitehead (the guy the Bucs got from the Phillies in the Charlie Morton trade) got rocked, allowing ten runs while walking four and striking out none over three innings. That performance brought his season ERA up to 7.83. After that, Jared Lakind, Jhondaniel Medina and Jonathan Schwind (normally an outfielder) combined for five scoreless innings. Schwind, remarkably, now has pitched 8.1 innings as a pro without allowing a run, although he's struck out two and walked eight. Jin-De Jhang went 2-for-4 with a double. Harold Ramirez was 1-for-4 with a walk, while Austin Meadows went 1-for-5 with a double.

-P- Bradenton's matchup against Lakeland was called due to rain.

-P- West Virginia ... well, West Virginia's still playing, with the score tied at five in the 10th, and I want to get off the computer. Dario Agrazal allowed five runs, four earned, over four innings, striking out two. Tito Polo hit his ninth homer of the season.