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Without best stuff, Glasnow rolls on

Pirates top prospect gets past struggles, hurls six scoreless innings
August 2, 2014

Tyler Glasnow warmed up before Friday's game and could tell he didn't have his best command. Coming off his worst start in recent weeks, he knew he had to to compensate for the control issues once he took the mound at McKechnie Field.

And while he issued four walks, the Pirates' top prospect did just that, allowing two hits over six scoreless innings as Class A Advanced Bradenton held on for a 3-2 win over visiting Brevard County.

"Today probably wasn't my best day. I know the stat line looked pretty good, but I was struggling a little with control," he said. "[I had to] try to live in the moment, just go out there, look at the glove and let it go."

After a perfect first inning, MLB.com's No. 20 overall prospect walked Michael Reed in the second. The Brewers' No. 13 prospect stole second to put Glasnow in his first jam of the night.

"It was time to focus," he said. "Leadoff walks are always -- I don't like those at all, of course," he said. "I really had to bear down [and] not change anything."

With the mind-set of treating every moment the same, the 20-year-old right-hander struck out Cameron Garfield. Reed moved to third with his 29th stolen base of the season, but Glasnow fanned Victor Roache -- Milwaukee's 10th-ranked prospect -- and Mike Garza to whiff to end the threat.

The California native walked Brandon Macias in the third and made an errant pickoff attempt to put him in scoring position. He issued another free pass to Michael Reed in the fourth but didn't allow a hit until the fifth when Garza singled, inducing six popouts along the way.

"I knew, but it wasn't like, 'Don't give up a hit,'" Glasnow said of the no-hitter. "I was just throwing in the zone. I can't really control what happens after that."

Glasnow struggled with command issues early in the season but was improving of late, averaging 1.9 walks in his previous 12 starts.

"It had been a while since I had struggled with control," he said. "This start and last start, I didn't really feel that great."

After a personal three-game winning streak, the 2011 fifth-round pick began his last start with three perfect innings, then yielded three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and four walks over the next 2 1/3 frames at Lakeland.

Glasnow (8-5) tried to put that outing behind him, something with which he struggled when he was younger and something that's preached in the Pirates system.

"They like a pitcher who can move on and roll with the punches," he said. "I'm just taking each start one at a time; I forgot about that start pretty fast after it was done."

Ryan Hafner allowed one hit over two scoreless innings and Josh Smith surrendered two runs in the ninth before recording his fifth save.

The Marauders staked their starter to an early lead as Eric Wood delivered an RBI single in the first and Jose Osuna lifted a sacrifice fly in the second.

Kelsie Heneghan is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow her on Twitter @Kelsie_Heneghan.