Morning baseball in Indy

Thanks to the MLB network,I had the opportunity to catch the Pirates AAA affiliate as the Indianapolis Indians hosted the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees.
This is exactly the type of thing that MLB network should be doing more of as live baseball at any level certainly beats hours of taped programming from the likes of Matt "Mr.XFL" Vasgersian or Hazel Mae.
Scranton-Wilkes Barre jumped out to a 7-0 lead before a late rally from Indianapolis trimmed the final to a more respectable 7-5.

A few thoughts on the contest follows

1) Mike Crotta allowed seven runs in five innings and had trouble keeping the ball down.
For a sinker type pitcher such as Crotta,this is never good news.
Crotta was not helped by his defense early as Brandon Moss misjudged a fly that would have been the third out and the runner eventually scored and Eric Kratz dropped a nice throw from Moss that would nailed the Yankees Kevin Russo at the plate.

2) Brandon Moss showed the inconsistent play that marked his time with the Pirates as the above note on his defense discusses,but he had good and bad on the offensive end as well as Moss homered and somehow was picked off on a ill-advised steal attempt for the third out of an inning.
Watching Moss can be maddening and he just seems to be doomed to a fate of a Triple A hired gun...

3) Scranton started former Pirate reliever Romulo Sanchez and I was stunned to see this as Sanchez as a starter in AAA?
Sanchez then shut Indy down completely allowing just one hit over six innings.

4) I was impressed with Justin Thomas for the I Tribe as he allowed just one hit over two innings and lowered his ERA to under 1.5.
Thomas was acquired on waivers over the winter from Seattle and could be the next callup the next time the injury bug hits the Bucco pen...

5) The three hitters that most interest Pirate fans all were in the lineup.
Jose Tabata led off and went 0 for 2 with 2 walks,2 RBI and was caught stealing.
Tabata's 19 steals leads the International League.
Neil Walker doubled for his only hit on the afternoon,while Pedro Alvarez doubled and walked twice.

6) First time that I had seen a game from Victory Field and it plays similar to PNC with a huge left and center field.
It makes a lot of sense for the Pirates team being in Indy for that reason alone...

7) All and all,a good way to pass a morning,even if the players that I wanted to see didn't have great games,as I mentioned earlier-Do more of this MLB!!!