Kudos to the New Haven Ravens, who knocked off the New Britain Rock Cats 2-1 in the deciding match of their five-game series last night to advance to the Eastern League Championship Series. The Ravens did something their parent Blue Jays don't do very often -- beat Eric Milton. The rehabbing lefty threw four solid innings, but gave up a mammoth home run to recycled Jays prospect Anthony Sanders and an RBI double to Shawn Fagan, giving the Ravens a lead they never relinquished. Sanders' homer, only the fourth to ever clear the centrefield wall at Yale Field, travelled an estimated 500 feet. Chris Baker, of all people, threw 7 shutout innings for the victory, while Adam Peterson issued a hit, two walks and a wild pitch, but escaped a jam in the 9th inning to preserve the win.
The Ravens now move on to face the 88-53 Akron Aeros in a final that will involve a lot of travel (500 miles separate the two cities), but that also previews the futures of the two parent clubs, Toronto and Cleveland. Some people are saying that these two organizations have the best farm systems in the game, and glancing at the rosters, it's easy to see why. Led by young stars Grady Sizemore, Fernando Cabrera and Jeremy Guthrie, the Aeros complement a AAA Buffalo club that has already donated to the Indians Victor Martinez, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, Travis Hafner, Jody Gerut, Chad Durbin, Billy Traber, Coco Crisp and Alex Escobar. That's a powerful collection of talent, and it's slightly ahead of the Blue Jays collection of young stars, no slouches either: Gabe Gross, Jason Arnold, Corey Thurman, Jayson Werth, Alexis Rios, Guillermo Quiroz, John-Ford Griffin, Russ Adams, Dustin McGowan and David Bush, to name just some. The Jays-Indians series in the mid-'00s are going to be some of the best games played in the majors.
Gil Quiroz update: the Ravens catcher is out of hospital and well on his way to an apparent full recovery, which is great news. There was some thought that he might suit up for the deciding Game 5, but the Jays decided to play it smart and gave him the whole series off. It remains to be seen whether Quiroz will play in the finals against Akron -- he's a gamer, so I'm betting that he does.
The news was less good in Dunedin where, in between rainouts, the D-Jays were shut out for the second consecutive game by the Port St. Lucie Mets, 4-0 this time after a 7-0 whitewash in the opener. Dunedin managed just one hit on the night, and while DJ Hanson pitched relatively well -- 6 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks -- he also surrendered two homers that sealed the deal. It's now up to Jesse Harper to stave off elimination for Dunedin in the third game of this series. As has been noted earlier here in Da Box, Auburn was swept out of the NY-Penn League playoffs, hardly a crushing blow considering it was a three-game freaking series. Seriously, why not just flip a coin to decide rather than giving the series to the first team to win two games? Anyway, it may be just as well that Auburn is done for the year -- the team had a lot of college players who haven't had a break since the first game of their final collegiate season earlier this year. They deserve an extended break.
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