Marauders' Hearn hurls five hitless innings

Taylor Hearn didn't have his best complement of pitches working Wednesday night, but opposing batters still found him unhittable.
Pittsburgh's No. 11 prospect tossed five hitless innings with four strikeouts and four walks, but Class A Advanced Bradenton fell to visiting Clearwater, 5-4.

"The off-speed was working for me pretty well," Hearn said. "My fastball command wasn't there, so I'm glad I've been putting in all the work to try to get my slider in [the zone] consistently and my changeup as well. The off-speed played pretty big."

Though he worked clean innings in the third and fourth innings, Hearn faced baserunners in his other three frames. Herlis Rodriguez reached with two outs in the first, as did Drew Stankiewicz in the second. Rodriguez stole second but was stranded there, and Stankiewicz was thrown out by catcher Christian Kelley trying to do the same.
Hearn's toughest spot came in the fifth. Philadelphia's No. 10 prospect Cornelius Randolph led off with a walk and was replaced at first by Jan Hernandez after a force play. Stankiewicz followed with his second walk before Hearn struck out Austin Bossart and got an inning-ending groundout from Emmanuel Marrero.
Gameday box score
"Mentality doesn't really change," Hearn said of dealing with runners on the bases. "It's just my approach maybe a little bit because I know guys are looking to sit dead-red on my fastball. That's where I've been putting in a lot of work to also have the slider good as well, not just the changeup.
"I'm zoning in a lot more and trying to get ahead early, because I know guys are going to want to drive those runs in. The least I can do is try to minimize damage."
Leaning heavily on his secondary pitches, Hearn threw 52 of 86 pitches for strikes. The outing was his second scoreless start in the Royse City, Texas native's last five trips to the mound, though it was his third straight with four walks. The southpaw has fanned 78 while walking 31 in 65 2/3 innings this season.
"Especially being down here in Florida, it's going to be getting a lot hotter, so these games are pretty big," Hearn said. "It's my second full year [in the Minors], but being healthy this year, it's pretty awesome. I just know that you've got to try to take every start and just roll with it, know you're going to have some bad ones out there, but other than that, just try to be consistent day in and day out.
"It's good to see that the hard work has been paying off. This league is filled with a whole bunch of really great hitters, so you can't really take any hitters off. It's a good challenge if you ask me because every team has a good three or four hitters. It's definitely a good challenge."
Hearn is in his first full season in the Pittsburgh organization after being acquired from Washington as part of a 2016 deadline deal involving closer Mark Melancon.
A longtime baseball home would be a relatively new thing for Hearn. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound hurler was drafted four times -- after his senior year of high school, twice out of San Jacinto College and finally from Oklahoma Baptist University -- before signing with the Nationals in 2015. Just over a year into his professional career and after 22 appearances, Washington dealt him away.

"It's been a lot easier," he said of his first full campaign with the Pirates. "It's definitely not as stressful, dealing with injuries and all that stuff. It's been good. I had to get to know a lot of new faces this year, especially with Spring Training, a whole bunch of new guys, everybody wanting to get to know you. It was fun.
"It feels good to finally see things have calmed down a little bit and finally get to know guys and get used to the system and how they operate on the pitching side."
Bradenton led through five, 1-0, before Clearwater plated all its runs in the fifth and sixth against relievers Yunior Montero (4-2) and Jake Brentz.
The Marauders were in the hunt for the Florida State League's South Division first-half title before being overtaken by the Palm Beach Cardinals in the final week. Still, an encouraging first half has Hearn excited for more.
"This is one of the best clubs I've ever played with," he said. "We've got a really good group of guys, real good chemistry and stuff. We did get beat today, but I'm telling you, we'll be fine. I've got a lot of faith in the guys that play behind me and everybody on this club, pitching and everything.
"We're a really talented team and we can hang with anybody. I'm excited to see what we can do in the second half."