Thursday 6/21 News And Notes

• Gerrit Cole made his Double-A debut for the Altoona Curve last night and it was a pretty good one as well. Cole started the game off by retiring the first nine that he faced until he finally gave up his first run in the fourth inning. Cole ended up going five whole innings on just two runs and six strikeouts. Cole also showed good control last night walking no batters in all five innings he pitched, he also hit as high as 99 on stadium radar gun in Altoona. Robbie Grossman hit a home-run for the Curve and Brock Holt also added two hits on way to a 9-4 Altoona victory.

• Last night the Pirates dropped a close 2-1 game to the Twins, to tie the series at one. The Pirates had their best chance in the seventh when they had the bases loaded with only one out and Rod Barajas at the plate. Barajas ripped one hard to left-center field looking like a bases clearing double for sure but then Twins center-fielder, Denard Span seemingly came out of nowhere and made a fantastic diving catch, Pedro Alvarez still scored on a tag from third but the if Span misses that ball the Pirates probably take this one pretty easily. James McDonald take the hill tonight for the Bucs as they will look to take the series from the Twins.

• Jeff Karstens is scheduled to make his last rehab start on Sunday for Indianapolis before he will return to the big league rotation. Karstens said that he feels ready and could step in to a major league role tomorrow if he needed to. By the sound clip that I heard Karstens almost sounded annoyed that he is still pitching in the minor leagues, it sounded like he was unsure on why they just don't throw him into the rotation already.

• In other Minor league news the Indians crushed the ball last night winning the game 10-2, advancing their division lead to 8.5 games. Bradenton lost again last night to St. Lucie, Casey Sadler pitched six scoreless innings for the Marauders. State college got smacked losing 13-1 to Williamsport yesterday, Luis Heredia will make his Spikes debut tonight as he will take the hill once again against Williamsport. The GCL Pirates won 11-4 over the GCL Tigers, Wyatt Mathisen had a nice game going 3-4 with a walk.