Mitch Keller cruised through four perfect innings, but it fell apart for the Pirates in the fifth against the Rockies. Greg Brown has the story.
The game featured the Major League debut of pitcher Brandan Bidois, who became the first Australian to play for the Pirates, and it was made even more special by the presence of his mother, Sharon, who flew 24 hours from Brisbane to see her son for the first time in two years, accompanied last night by her son’s girlfriend, Morgan.
After splitting the first two games with the Rockies, the Pirates will try to win the series this afternoon at PNC Park. Left-hander Mason Montgomery (1-0, 2.87 ERA) will throw the first inning and Carmen Mlodzinski will take over in the second. The Rockies will counter with right-hander Chase Dollander (3-2, 3.35 ERA). Airtime is 12:10 with the first pitch at 12:35 on WCCS.
With his 130th Major League at-bat, shortstop Konnor Griffin officially graduated from “prospect” status, where he was ranked as the top prospects in all of baseball. The new number one is Brewers’ shortstop prospect Jesús Made, with another shortstop, the A’s Leo De Vries, second. Pirates right-hander Seth Hernandez vaulted from number 29 to number three in the new rankings. The only other Pirates’ prospect in the top 100 is outfielder Edward Florentino, who is number 37.
ALTOONA CURVE
All four Pirates minor league teams won their games on Tuesday. All four lost on Wednesday, including the Altoona Curve, who dropped a 9-4 decision to Harrisburg. Keiner Delgado had three hits for the Curve.
Altoona will play a doubleheader tonight against the Senators. Khristian Curtis starts Game One for the Curve at five o’clock. The Game Two starter has not been announced.
