Monday Morning Filibuster 5/6: vs. Altoona
The week that was for the AA Harrisburg Senators
This past week was an extremely successful one for the Senators, as they won the first six games of this home series against the Altoona Curve, the Pirates’ AA affiliate, while also getting Dylan Crews back in the regular lineup after he missed nine days with a hamstring issue. A couple of big bats started to heat up, and there were multiple impressive pitching performances as the Senators vaulted from fifth place to second place in the Eastern League’s Southwest Division (the other teams are Akron, Bowie, Richmond, Erie, and Altoona).
Scores: Harrisburg 3, Altoona 2 (Tuesday); Harrisburg 5, Altoona 4 (Wednesday); Harrisburg 6, Altoona 5 (Thursday); Harrisburg 7, Altoona 2 (Thursday makeup of 4/12 game); Harrisburg 2, Altoona 0 (Friday); Harrisburg 5, Altoona 3 (Saturday); Altoona 6, Harrisburg 2 (Sunday).
Pitcher of the Week - Michael Cuevas, RHP: This week’s Tuesday-Sunday starter, Cuevas had the best outing of any Senators pitcher in the Tuesday opener, going six scoreless while more than doubling his season strikeout total by punching out nine. His Sunday start was a little more pedestrian but still strong, as he allowed two earned runs over five with three strikeouts. Although he will not turn 23 until the end of June, Cuevas has been in the organization since being drafted in the 23rd round in 2019, and is quietly off to the best start of his professional career. Could he be getting on track to be a possible depth pitching option in the future? He is repeating AA and performing much better after arguably being rushed to the level the first time around. Cuevas has a mid to low-90s fastball but butters his bread with a tilt-a-whirl slider and a hard changeup - the combination of off-speed pitches that move in different directions means that there might be hope he can become a multi-inning reliever a la Tyler Clippard.
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