Cannonballs coming: Lots of good pitching in the system

Bristol was off.

— Mitch Keller had a good outing as Indianapolis (66-56) won the first game of its doubleheader with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7-3. Keller started off with five shutout innings before giving up two runs in the sixth. He finished with five hits and a walk allowed over six innings, with seven strikeouts. He threw 65 of 97 pitches for strikes. The Indians had baserunners on constantly, thanks to ten hits and a dozen walks in the seven-inning game, but they stranded 13. Every player in the lineup apart from Eric Wood drew at least one walk. Ryan Lavarnway and Kevin Kramer provided most of the hits, with Lavarnway going 4-4 with a walk and a double, and Kramer going 3-4 with a walk. As of the end of the first game, Lavarnway was batting 311/395/536, which makes you wonder whether he might be a candidate for a roster spot. Kevin Newman and Max Moroff each went 0-3 with two walks. Jose Osuna was 1-4 with one walk.

The Indians lost the second game, 3-1. They went with a bullpen game, which included rehabbers Nick Burdi and A.J. Schugel. Burdi, who hadn’t pitched since July 31, couldn’t get through an inning. He recorded two outs while allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits. He struck out one. Schugel threw two innings, allowing three hits, including a solo home run. He struck out three. Steven Brault gave up a hit and a walk over a scoreless inning and a third. He threw only nine of 17 pitches for strikes. Indy had only four hits, with the only run coming on Wyatt Mathisen’s eighth home run. Moroff and Kramer each went 0-3. Jason Martin was 0-3 and is now in a 6-for-64 slide. Jose Osuna was 0-2 with a walk.

— James Marvel (pictured) had a second strong AA start as Altoona (65-53) edged New Hampshire, 3-2. Marvel gave up one run over seven innings on four hits and a walk. He struck out five. The Curve had only four hits, but Ke’Bryan Hayes went 1-3 with a walk to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. Jin-De Jhang, returned from rehab, drove in two runs with a double and Jordan George hit his fifth home run to account for the other. Cole Tucker and Will Craig were each 0-4, and Bryan Reynolds 0-3 with a walk.

— Domingo Robles, also making his second start after a promotion, threw seven shutout innings, but Bradenton (50-64) still lost to Clearwater, 2-1. The Marauders have won only four times in their last 24 games. Robles had a meltdown in his first outing with Bradenton, but in this one he gave up just three hits and a walk, while striking out four, against one of the league’s better offenses. Deivy Mendez, who has an ERA of 10.80 since the Pirates signed him, gave up two runs in the eighth to blow a 1-0 lead. The Marauders had only six hits, drew no walks and fanned 15 times.

— West Virginia (60-56) lost to Columbia, 5-2. The Power went through some lineup changes, as Travis Swaggerty moved up to take over center field, with Lolo Sanchez moving to left. Connor Kaiser also moved up despite struggling badly with Morgantown. Oneil Cruz went on the disabled list for unknown reasons, so Kaiser will take over at short. (The fact that the team moved up a recent draftee who was having a very rough time at the plate, rather than replacing Cruz with an organizational type, may indicate Cruz will be out for a while, but I don’t know that.) The Power also got third baseman Dylan Busby back from rehab, which resulted from a beaning. In the game, Max Kranick had an uneven start. He fanned seven in five innings, but allowed nine hits and a walk. That led to four runs, three of them earned. Swaggerty tripled his first time up, but finished 1-4. Sanchez was 2-4, Cal Mitchell 1-4, Deon Stafford 1-4 with a double, and Busby 1-3 with a double.

— Morgantown (22-35) pitchers Nick Economos, Francis Del Orbe and Logan Stoelke combined to allow just two hits while fanning 17 in a 2-0 blanking of Batavia. Economos gave up the two hits in six innings, walking one and fanning nine. He now has a 2.49 ERA, with 49 strikeouts in 43.1 IP. De Orbe threw two perfect innings, fanning five, and Stoelke struck out the side in the ninth. The Black Bears’ runs came on solo home runs, Daniel Amaral’s fourth and Edison Lantigua’s second. Fabricio Macias, who moved down from West Virginia to replace Swaggerty, went 1-4 with a double and Grant Koch 0-1 with three walks.

— The GCL Pirates (21-23) swamped the Braves, 17-2. A big chunk of the offensive spree came from the four non-drafted free agents the Pirates signed out of college after the draft; obviously, they’re a good bit older than the norm for the GCL. Kyle Mottice, Steven Kraft, Pat Dorrian and Matt Morrow combined to go 8-for-15 with two doubles, three walks, nine runs and four RBIs. Among age-appropriate players, Jack Herman went 2-6 and Francisco Acuna 3-5 with a double. Samuel Inoa was only 1-6, but the one hit was a grand slam. It was his third home run. Starter Santiago Florez, who’s been hitting 96 mph regularly, allowed two runs in three innings on five hits and a walk. He struck out four. Saul De La Cruz threw two innings, allowing just a hit and striking out four.

— The DSL Pirates1 (29-34) lost to the Red Sox2, 9-5. Carlos Arroyo (17) was 2-3 with two walks and Rayvi Rodriguez (20) was 2-4 with a double and a triple. Juan Pie (17) went 1-3 with a double and a walk.

— The DSL Pirates2 (25-38) beat the Tigers2, 4-1. Mario Garcia (19) allowed one run on three hits and a walk, and struck out seven, in six innings. Luis Peralta (17) allowed no hits or walks over the last three innings, with four strikeouts. Peralta now has 52 strikeouts in 39 innings. Mariano Dotel (18) was 2-4 with a double. Angel Basabe (17) was 1-5 with a double and three strikeouts.