Kyle McPherson Almost Perfect In Win Versus Brevard County

It seems whether it’s MLB or Advanced Single-A some things never change. Over the past year plus pitchers have seemingly owned MLB with no-hitters and perfect games being tossed at an unusual rate. Another seemingly constant in the majors would be the failure of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It seems as both of these trends have found their way into the minors as well.

Last night Kyle McPherson of the Pittsburgh Pirates Advanced Single-A team, Bradenton Marauders (20-32), tossed 8 1/3 innings of perfect baseball. All over the internet I have seen stories of Kyle losing his “no-hit bid” in the 9th inning but his only walk of the night came after Brevard County Manatees, affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, got their first hit, a home run by catcher Sean McCraw. No matter how the game ended this is definitely the biggest moment in the young career of the 14th round pick of Pittsburgh in 2007. Much like their major league counterpart the Marauders have seen little success so far this season. While some of their prospects are having great individual seasons the team has yet to put together a string of victories except for 5 straight early in the season. Another interesting story behind the scenes of the near perfect game is just who is Sean McCraw, the man who broke up the perfect game with a blast to right field?

Sean McCraw may be my favorite part of this story just due to the fact he is probably the last person anyone would’ve guessed to break up perfection, especially with a homer. McCraw was initially drafted in the 37th round of the 2004 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers but did not sign with the team. He was then drafted in the 8th round by the Mets in 2005 and signed. Over 4 years in the Mets organization McCraw never broke into AA and before the 2009 season McCraw signed with the team who originally drafted him in 2004. McCraw finally got his chance at AA last season but hit only .177 in 21 games. In his minor league career, 371 games, McCraw has registered a .235 batting average with only 14 homer runs. Yet today McCraw is a major part of one of the biggest stories of the young MiLB season.

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