Pirates Prospects Daily: Rookies Spark Come From Behind Win To Snap Losing Streak

P2Daily
Anthony Murphy

It doesn’t always have to be some big flashy play that gets things rolling for a struggling team.

Sometimes it’s just as simple as the former first overall pick fighting back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk and clapping towards the dugout in order to spark any sort of life into a stagnant offense.

Only to follow that up with the same player stealing second base to put himself in scoring position.

The Pirates didn’t score that inning, but that set the stage for Josh Palacios to lead off the ninth with a single, got to second on an Andrew McCutchen single, stole third and scored on a groundout from Connor Joe.

A late rally gave the Pirates their first win since June 11 against the New York Mets.

Possibly more importantly, it was the players expected to take this team to the next level in the future. Whether be Henry Davis trying to spark the team despite it being his fifth game at the major league level, or Luis Ortiz pitching eight innings of one-run baseball – including the final seven shutout.

The veterans came up in big spots and the hometown kid closed the door in the bottom of the ninth.

I talked about it yesterday that the offense, and team in general, really needed to a spark to get things going again.

Maybe it’s only one win, but if there is a game to use as a rallying point, there aren’t many better victories to do so than this one.

Prospect Notes

— For the first time in his professional career, Wilber Dotel completed five innings as a starter, earning his first win of the season on Friday. Control has been one of the biggest setbacks for the righty in his time with Bradenton, but he didn’t issue a free pass to Lakeland.

All total Dotel finished with five innings of one-run baseball, allowing just three hits while striking out four batters.

I’ve always been intriguing by his stuff, with his slider looking like a really promising offering. After Friday’s start he has posted a 43.1% whiff rate with the pitch.

— Maikol Escotto went 4-for-4 with his sixth home run of the season, also stealing a base as well (his sixth), in Greensboro’s loss on Friday.

The shortstop has some intriguing raw power, but just hasn’t been able to hit enough to tap into it just yet. He’s still a year younger than the average South Atlantic League hitter, so it would be interesting to see if he can get things going. He’ll be among the vocal points of the offense, with Tsung-Che Cheng being promoted to Altoona, along with Jase Bowen who hit his 15th home run of the season.

Daily Video Rundown

Jacob Gonzalez with his 5th home run of the season for Altoona.

Despite being one of the youngest players in Double-A, Anthony Solometo is looking really strong so far.

Jared Triolo picked up four hits on the night, including two triples.

PIRATES PROSPECTS DAILY

By Tim Williams

MIAMI – I asked Derek Shelton after the game about that intensity from Davis shown in the eighth inning.

“He’s got some energy. He’s got some edge,” said Shelton.

In Thursday’s game, Davis homered, but the Pirates lost. After the game, Davis seemed more disappointed over the loss than he was happy about his first homer. Shelton noted that all Davis wants to do is win. That was shown in the at-bat in the eighth inning.

“That’s a big league at-bat,” Shelton said. “He goes 0-2 to 4-2 on three borderline pitches and takes them with confidence. But I think that’s one of the things that has expedited his development is because of the fact that we know he can control the zone. We know he knows the strike zone. But it’s fun when rookies show that kind of enthusiasm.”

Nick Gonzales to the Majors

Nick Gonzales got the call to the big leagues today, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his debut. I wrote about Gonzales after he spoke with media before the game.

**Nick Gonzales Bringing Successful Hitting Adjustments to the Majors

Anthony Murphy had a great breakdown of the exit velocity numbers from Gonzales.

**Nick Gonzales: What The Exit Velocity Numbers Say About Potential Impact

The Pirates sent down Cal Mitchell for Gonzales, and moved Vince Velasquez to the 60-day IL.

**Pirates Promote Nick Gonzales; Option Cal Mitchell to Indianapolis

Daily Recaps

The Pirates beat the Marlins with a ninth inning comeback. Check out the recap, and all of the minor league action, in Pirates Prospects Live.

**P2Live: Pirates Snap Losing Streak With Ninth Inning Comeback

Our new Prospect Watch looks at three players each day. Today we had a live look at 2022 4th rounder Michael Kennedy, along with a look at Po-Yu Chen after a nice outing in Greensboro.

**Prospect Watch: Michael Kennedy, Po-Yu Chen, Wyatt Hendrie

The Draft

MLB Pipeline has someone other than Dylan Crews going to the Pirates.

**There’s a New Mock Draft from MLB Pipeline and the Pirates Pick Isn’t Dylan Crews

Missed yesterday?

Anthony wrote about the offensive struggles the Pirates saw during their losing streak.

**Pirates Prospects Daily: Offensive Struggles During the Ten Game Losing Streak

SONG OF THE DAY

Anthony Murphy
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Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.

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