Nuts' Musgrave hurls seven one-hit innings

After a solid June, Harrison Musgrave is off to a stellar July.

The 23-year-old left-hander turned in seven innings of one-hit ball, striking out eight and pitching Class A Advanced Modesto to an 8-1 win over visiting Bakersfield on Wednesday night.

"It kind of helps that I was able to throw all four pitches for strikes and go to them in any count," said Musgrave, who hit one batter without issuing a walk. "When you can keep the hitters off-balance like that, it makes it easy to pitch."

Musgrave became the California League's first 10-game winner and ranks second behind teammate and 11th-ranked Rockies prospect Antonio Senzatela with a 2.76 ERA.

"I don't pay too much attention to wins, just because there have been times that I've pitched kind of bad this year and gotten a win because we scored a lot of runs. It's good from a team perspective and I do seem to get a good amount of run support when I pitch. It's cool to get to 10 wins, but getting better over the season is what matters," Musgrave said.

"ERA is definitely something to look after, to a point, just because you want to see how well it's going for you with runs. Senzatela has missed a couple starts, but before that, he's been pitching out of his mind."

Musgrave hasn't been so bad himself. He's allowed more than two earned runs in only four of 15 starts, and Wednesday's outing was the second in which he limited an opponent to one hit over seven innings.

"Against Visalia [on May 25], I had good fastball, changeup and slider command," the 2014 eighth-round pick said. "Today, I added curveball command, and that was really the key. I don't throw a fastball that's overpoweringly hard, but I did a good job hitting my spots with all my pitches and keeping hitters off-balance."

The only hit the West Virginia University product surrendered was a leadoff double to fifth-ranked Mariners prospect Austin Wilson in the third.

"I missed a spot and he hit a hitter's pitch. He did what he was supposed to do. It doesn't bug me," Musgrave said. "I can't go, 'Oh, if he hadn't gotten that hit ... ' because I don't know -- the next person might have gotten a hit. He did his job and I didn't."

Musgrave set down eight straight Blaze hitters, plunked Wilson, then retired seven in a row.

"You kind of notice [how well it's going] and try not think about it because you don't want to get in your own head," he said. "You notice, 'Wow, I haven't been in the stretch in a while.'"

It was the third time Musgrave has gone seven innings as a pro, with the first coming on May 25.

"I was pretty confident it would be it for me [after the seventh]", he said. "I'm on 90 pitches and [before the seventh] I was at 77 or 78. They do a pretty good job of sticking you at or below your pitch limit. I was thrilled to go seven innings."

Rockies No. 4 prospect Ryan McMahon backed Musgrave with his second straight multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. No. 6 prospect Raimel Tapia chipped in two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for the Nuts, while No. 21 prospect Jordan Patterson tripled, doubled and drove in three runs. Emerson Jimenez, Colorado's 15th-ranked prospect, singled and scored a run in his Class A Advanced debut.

Wilson finished 2-for-2 with a double.