Cannonballs coming: Cal Mitchell keeps hitting

— Indianapolis (23-20) got hammered by the International League’s weakest team, Louisville, 10-2. Austin Coley continued to be overmatched in AAA, allowing six runs on eight hits in four innings. Meanwhile, the Pirates sent J.T. Brubaker back to Altoona, presumably to make space for Nick Kingham. Jesus Liranzo’s AAA debut didn’t go well, as he gave up three runs, two earned, on one hit (a HR) and two walks over two innings. Liranzo struck out one. Max Moroff went 1-4 with his first AAA home run. Jordan Luplow was 2-4 with a double.

Kevin Kramer: 0-4, 3 K (15 Ks in last 38 AB)
Chris Bostick: 1-3, BB
Jacob Stallings: 0-3

— Pedro Vasquez (pictured in Bowie’s threadbare field) got shelled as Altoona (21-20) lost to Bowie, 9-3. Vasquez provided another lesson of some sort about the Pirates’ fastball-heavy, pitch-to-contact approach. His first 17 pitches were fastballs. He got away with it in the first inning because of a line drive-double play, followed by the one instance of weak contact in the inning on his very first breaking ball. In the second, though, he got torched for five runs on seven hits, every one of them laced and all but one on fastballs. Not just fastballs, but fastballs in the same location: over the plate and just above the knees. Vasquez showed good velocity early, sitting at 92-95, although that dropped to 90-92 after the first two innings, both of which involved a lot of pitches. He didn’t move the ball around much, trying to locate it at the knees on nearly every pitch. I’m pretty sure he didn’t throw a single high fastball. He threw a slider, curve and change, and got better results when he mixed them up more over his final three innings (he lasted five). None appeared to be an out pitch, though, and he wasn’t able to throw any of them for strikes with any consistency. Vasquez gave up a two-run HR in the fifth and finished with seven runs allowed on 11 hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out four.

Not much good happened with the offense. Jason Martin hit a couple balls hard, including one that was caught at the fence in right, but he finished 0-3 with a walk. Will Craig also had a ball caught at the fence and went 1-4. Jordan George had a pair of doubles.

Cole Tucker: 1-5
Ke’Bryan Hayes: 1-3, 2 BB
Christian Kelley: 0-4
Stephen Alemais: 2-4, 2B

— Bradenton (24-20) blew a two-run lead in the 9th, but came back to beat Fort Myers in ten, 7-6. Starter Eduardo Vera continued to go deep into games, lasting eight innings. He gave up three runs on eight hits and no walks, and struck out three. Albert Baur went 2-4 with a walk, a triple and his seventh home run. Baur is now hitting 346/386/589, but . . . he’s 26 and in class A. Hunter Owen also went deep, his third.

Jared Oliva: 1-5, 2B
Adrian Valerio: 1-5, 2B
Arden Pabst: 1-4, 2B
Bligh Madris: 0-3, BB

— West Virginia (24-19) blew a three-run lead in the 7th and lost to Columbia, 6-5. Gavin Wallace gave up two runs on six hits in six innings, but Beau Sulser got torched for four runs in the 7th. Cal Mitchell went 2-3 with two walks and his sixth home run. Brett Pope hit his first home run in his third game after getting moved up from extended spring training.

Lolo Sanchez: 0-4
Deon Stafford: 0-5
Oneil Cruz: 1-5
Rodolfo Castro: 2-4, 2 2B