Cannonballs coming: Jose Osuna keeps hitting

First and foremost, thanks to Pedropower for filling in so ably the last several weeks. Everybody will be glad to know that he’s going to pick up the report from time to time going forward, maybe once a week or so. Will Craig should be happy, since Pedro apparently lit a fire under him or something.

Action was a little light today, with Bradenton off for their All-Star break and the two DSL teams not playing on Sundays.

— Indianapolis (36-31) overcame an early deficit to beat Columbus, 6-3. J.T. Brubaker gave up three runs in the second, thanks to a series of miscues by his infield, although only one was scored unearned. Brubaker came out after three and Brandon Waddell, Damien Magnifico and Bo Schultz followed with a pair of scoreless innings each. Jose Osuna went 3-5, falling a triple short of a cycle. The HR was his fourth in AAA and he drove in four. Osuna is hitting 340/390/551 for Indy, but doesn’t seem to be good at accumulating veteranosity. Jung Ho Kang, playing third, was 2-5 with a double. Kevin Newman reached base three times, going 1-3 with two walks. Max Moroff hit his fifth longball, going 1-3.

Adam Frazier: 0-3, 2 BB
Jordan Luplow: 1-3, 2 BB
Kevin Kramer: 0-4, BB
Chris Bostick: 1-3, 2B, BB

— Altoona (34-29) had a forgettable game, losing to New Hampshire, 9-1. Eduardo Vera pitched well for three innings, but came unglued in a six-run fourth. He was charged with seven runs over three and two-thirds. The only offense came from Will Craig, who hit his 11th home run. He finished 1-4 and is now hitting 263/342/493. Cole Tucker was 2-4 with two steals. After starting the season 0-for-5 as a base stealer, Tucker has stolen 13 in 15 tries since May 20.

Jason Martin: 1-4
Bryan Reynolds: 0-3

— West Virginia (37-29) lost to Delmarva, 4-2. Gavin Wallace gave up three in the first, then threw five shutout innings after that, but the offense couldn’t come back. The Power had just five hits, all singles. Rodolfo Castro was 2-4.

Oneil Cruz: 1-4
Cal Mitchell: 0-3, BB

— Morgantown picked up its third straight loss to start the season, 10-9, to Mahoning Valley. The Black Bears had a lot of debuts in the process. Fourth round pick Aaron Shortridge made his pro debut, giving up a run on three hits in three innings. He fanned three and walked none. Ninth rounder Logan Stoelke also debuted, throwing a scoreless inning. Shea Murray was an 18th round pick last year, a big guy with a lot of velocity and little experience. He had an alternative sort of Tommy John surgery and hadn’t pitched as pro yet, and it didn’t go well. He threw a dozen pitches, all balls, then exited for Nick Economos, who let all three runners score and then two of his own. Morgantown battled back to tie the game, 9-9, with four in the eighth. Apparently they were short of pitchers, though, and conceded the game by putting second baseman Melvin Jimenez in to pitch the ninth. The game ended two batters later.

The Black Bears’ lineup is still a muddle of players who mostly are just low-level fill-ins as we wait for the college draftees to take over. Seventh round pick Brett Kinneman got his first pro hit, going 1-2 with a walk and two sacrifice flies. Felix Vinicio hit his first home run since 2015. Jimenez had three hits and Edison Lantigua had a game-tying triple, his only hit in five times up.