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Morgan Heading Back to Pittsburgh, Salas Back to Indy

OF Nyjer Morgan was scratched from the starting line up at the last minute on Thursday night, and this morning it appears that the suspicions were correct: the Pirates have recalled Morgan today.

Morgan began the season with the Pirates, but was optioned to the Indians on May 9th. Morgan hit .222 in the rest of May, though that included the first few games with the Indians when he was struggling to get his timing back after seeing few at-bats with the Pirates. He has hit .265 in June, including going 13-for-44 (.295) in his last 10 games, and has had at least one hit in 8 of those last 10 games. Morgan is leading the International League in steals per game (0.51). His 19 stolen bases (in 22 attempts) is tied for 4th in the league.

To make room on the roster for Morgan, the Pirates are returning relief pitcher Marino Salas to the Indians (again). Salas has made two appearances for the Pirates in this short stint. Last Friday, in a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Salas was brought into the game in the bottom of the 8th inning, with Orioles’ runners on the corners, two outs, and Baltimore ahead 8-6. Salas faced one batter, and got him to fly out to end the inning, but in the course of the at-bat, he threw a wild pitch, allowing the runner from third base to score. Last night, Salas entered the game to begin the bottom of the 7th inning, with the White Sox ahead 10-5. Before recording an out, Salas gave up a single, a homer, a single, a walk, and another homer. Then he got a fly out, and then gave up another single, and hit a batter. Oh, dear.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Marino Salas, Nyjer Morgan, Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.