In a reverse of yesterday's report, the Jay's affiliates won 4 out of 5 games.
Buffalo 9, Syracuse 10
It was a wild one in Syracuse last night as Brandon League made his first start of the year. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. His fastball wasn’t fooling anyone as the Bisons pounded out 8 hits including 2 home runs for 6 earned runs in 4 innings. The Skychiefs trailed 6-0 when League left the game but they would battle back scoring 9 runs in their next three innings. The comeback was powered by the longball as home runs from Chad Mottola, Eric Crozier, John-Ford Griffin and Anton French scored 6 of the 9 runs.
Going into the 9th inning the Skychiefs led 9-7 but Justin Miller, in his 5th inning of relief and immediately following a heated bench-clearing exchange, yielded a 2 run homer to tie it up at 9 apiece. After Miller walked the next batter, Adrian Burnside came into the game and teamed up with Andy Dominique for a quick strike-em-out, throw-em-out combo to end the inning. Time for some bottom of the 9th heroics. Axe-wielding Aaron Hill played our protagonist, pulling a solo shot into left field for the walk-off homerun.
Harrisburg 3, New Hampshire 7
This game was rather ho-hum in comparison to the Fisher Cats’ AAA brethren, as Shaun Marcum cruised through 7+ innings with only 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and 8 strikeouts on his record.
The offense broke out a little as the F-Cats had 14 hits. Ron Acuna, Carlo Cota and Big Vito led the way with 3 apiece. Jordan De Jong came on in the 8th inning with 2 on and none out but allowed only one of the inherited Marcum runners to score. On the negative side, Raul Tablado continued his slump going 0 for 4 with 3 K’s while Ismael Ramirez was placed on the DL, which may explain his rocky start.
Lakeland 4, Dunedin 5
I’ll skip straight to the end. The Blue Jays scored the go-ahead run after Lakeland pitcher Andy Baldwin intentionally walked Jayce Tingler to get to the right-handed Ryan Roberts. I’m not done yet. Then Ryan Roberts was taken out for the right-handed, spectacular-gloveman-but-career-.579-OPS Manny Mayorson. No, seriously. But hey, Mayorson rarely strikes out and he didn’t dissapoint as he hit a sac-fly to score Scott Dragicevich from third.
Michael McDonald made the start for Dunedin going 5 and 2/3 while Brad Mumma and Brian Reed combined for 3 1/3 scoreless inning. Adam Lind and David Smith paced the offense reaching base 4 times each.
Cedar Rapids 2, Lansing 13 - Game 1
Cedar Rapids 4, Lansing 1 - Game 2
Lansing started out with a bang in this doubleheader, but finished with a whimper. A 7-run first inning boosted the Lugnuts to an easy win in the first game. Chi-hung Cheng pitched solidly giving up 4 hits, 2 runs with 4 walks and 7 strikeouts but fell one out short of qualifying for the win. The General, Cory Patton, broke out with a double and a homer and Chip Cannon notched his 5th long ball of the year.
The Nuts ran into a wall named Rafael Rodriguez in the second game as they could only muster a single run. Juan Perez struggled in his start once again, pitching 5 innings but yielding 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks.
Box score 1
Box Score 2
Game Story
Three-Star Selection!
The 3rd Star John-Ford Griffin: 5 RBI’s and a long ball
The 2nd Star Shaun Marcum: 7 solid innings
The 1st Star Aaron Hill: Walk-off homerun.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050427103733220