Fresno Grizzlies: Highly regarded pitcher Joe Musgrove impresses in Triple-A debut

Houston Astros prospect Joe Musgrove steamrolled through the first seven Triple-A batters he faced, pretty much like he fared against Double-A competition.

The new Fresno Grizzlies starting pitcher wouldn’t dominate the whole night Friday.

But he did enough to impress during his Triple-A debut as Musgrove struck out five over five innings while allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks in the Grizzlies’ 4-3, 10-inning win against the Tacoma Rainiers before an announced crowd of 12,822 at Chukchansi Park.

Musgrove, who went 2-1 with a 0.34 ERA in 26 1/3 innings at Double-A Corpus Christi this season, ran into trouble with one out in the third after giving up a soft single to No. 8 hitter Dario Pizzano.

Working out of the stretch for the first time, Musgrove got back-to-back strikeouts and appeared poised to escape.

But the second of those third strikes got past catcher Roberto Pena and allowed Tacoma’s Shawn O’Malley to reach and Pizzano to advance to third.

Musgrove loaded the bases with a walk, then issued another walk to No. 3 hitter Efren Navarro as Pizzano trotted home with the game’s first run.

Musgrove gave up an unearned run in the fifth after O’Malley got on base via a fielding error, eventually scoring on Navarro’s double to left.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Fresno Grizzlies: Highly regarded pitcher Joe Musgrove impresses in Triple-A debut."