Another ugly one

Just when I was starting to think Morton was going to be better, he has another break down in an inning. Tabata played soccer with a grounder that didn't help, but Morton admitted after the game he never recovered from a walk and that the inning steamrolled him. Let's hope he can shake that off in the next outing. His mental toughness has always been the problem. It bit the Pirates today. Andrew McCutchen left the team for personal reasons, which is not good. And the Pirates lack of a bench is exposed. I wish Bowker would get a shot to start, but he did not come up with a hit when he pinch hit either. The only good thing to come out of this game is that Meek had a decent 9th. No walks, one hit, no runs. I'll take it.

The minors looked a little better than their big league brethren. Altoona won. Holt had a hit and a run. Mercer had a hit to raise his average to .179. His hit was a homer, his third on the year. Mercer was sent down to lower strikeouts and regain power. It is starting to look as if his power stroke may have returned. Let's hope his average gets caught up. Jeff Locke pitched 6 great innings, but left with men on base in the 7th. Those guys scored costing Locke a win.

Indy won with only six hits. D'Arnaud and Presley each had one, but the big hit was from Marte who left the park. Justin Wilson stole the show with 6 shut out innings, 4 K's. Moskos struggled, but Time Wood got a 4 out save. Apparently throwing in upper 90's. Good sign.

Bradenton put up 5 runs, but still lost because the pitchers were awful. They all gave up at least one run. Moreno and Lorin both looked bad. Calvin Anderson had multiple hits as did Rubenstein and Benji Gonzalez. A forgettable day for this group.

West Virginia lost as Rojas continues to get hits. Matt Curry had multiple hits as well including three RBIs. Kevin Mort went 3 for 4. He is not a prospect, but at this low A level, he can compete and help his team have a chance to win. Dan Grovatt had another 2 walk night. Unbelievable. This guy has an eye. Eric Avilia had two errors tonight and still is not hitting with an average dipping under .200 right now. It is actually a little hard to evaluate Zack Dodson's performance. He gave up 6 hits and 5 earned runs in 4 innings, but he struck out 7 guys. Kevin Decker went 3 innings, but the one unearned run he gave up made him swallow the loss. Jason Townsend still has a goose egg ERA giving up a hit and gaining a strike out in the last inning.