The Pirates had two of their top young pitchers on the mound in the minors on Thursday, Roansy Contreras and Quinn Priester. While they got the job done (five earned runs among 10 collective innings pitched), you can make cases they were far from their best on the night.
That happens sometimes, which also points why they are so highly regarded, their ability to still limit the damage when maybe they don’t have their best stuff.
Further down the system, the other two starting pitchers both continued to take strides in the right direction with their latest outing.