A pair of two home run games, a pair of great starts in Dunedin, and a pair of bullpen losses. Plus some in-person reporting from Buffalo.
Syracuse 5 Buffalo 6
The Chiefs bullpen lost another game yesterday when Spike Lundberg and Adrian Burnside were unable to hold the Bisons at bay. Yours truly was in attendance so here is an in-person game report. Shaun Marcum made his third AAA start against the best hitting team in the league and he did not have his best stuff, more detailed play by play was provided by MatO in yesterdays minor league thread. The game was a back and forth contest for six innings, Kevin Barker hit two home runs, driving in four, and John Ford Griffin hit a solo shot. Marcum threw 101 pitches, by my count, 73 strikes and 28 balls. Marcum faced 25 hitters and threw 18 first pitch strikes. Marcum's fastball is 87-89 and he also features a slider, a change and a curve. Marcum's best tool is his control and he was a bit off yesterday. As Shaun said after the game "location was a problem for me with a couple of pitches in the second and the fourth". Marty Pevey, the Chiefs manager, also noticed that Shaun left some pitches up, "it looked like he was rushing his delivery and dragging his arm, leaving some pitches up". In the second Jeff Liefer doubled off a hanging change; Ryan Ludwick and Ryan Garko singled to put Buffalo up 2-1. Garko homered leading off the fourth off another change up and over the plate and after that Marcum changed his approach. As he noted "It looked like they were sitting on some pitches, and they were quite aggressive early" so Marcum started featuring the fastball more. As a control pitcher, like Josh Towers, Shaun needs to hit his spots to be successful. Marcum went 5.2 innings, eight hits, no walks, six K's and four runs.
Spike Lundberg allowed back to back singles to start the seventh, and caught a break when Jake Thrower was thrown out by Gabe Gross from a sitting position as Gross fell down fielding the hit, tempting Thrower to try for second. Adrian Burnside came on to face lefty Jake Gautreau and gave up a hit, with a French bobble runners were on second and third with one out. Burnside walked the righty Kinkade to face the lefty Liefer, but Liefer doubled to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs. Burnside was unable to retire either lefty he faced and that was the game. Fernando Cabrera pitched two shutout innings for the save, running his scoreless streak to 24.1 innings.
I spoke with David Bush and Brandon League, look for that update next week as I am off to Erie today to see the Fisher Cats.
Game Story and some bathroom humourNew Hampshire 8 Akron 11
The good news was that New Hampshire hitters had 15 hits, the bad news is they allowed eleven runs. Akron scored five in the fourth and four in the fifth off Cameron Reimers. Reimers opened the fourth by hitting a batter and then committed a fielding and throwing error on the same play. Akron had four hits in that inning and five more in the fifth before Reimers was given the hook.
Justin Singleton hit a two runs home run in the first to put the Fisher Cats ahead, and added a solo shot in the fifth. Ron Acuna tripled in two runs in the first and Ryan Roberts had a solo homer in the ninth. Acuna, Maikel Jova and Roberts had three hits each, Singleton obviously had two.
Dunedin 8 Sarasota 0 - game 1
Dunedin 1 Sarasota 2 - game 2
David Purcey dominated for five innings, eight K's, 2 hits and four walks. Other than the four walks it was a great start. The offense was led by Chip Cannon, 2-3, a home run, 2 walks, 5 RBI's. Manny Mayorson went 3-3.
In game two Casey Janssen started and when Jason Waugh doubled in Joey Reiman in the fourth it looked like that would be enough. But Janssen was pulled after 5.1 innings and turned it over to the bullpen. Brad Mumma walked the lead off hitter and Milton Tavarez allowed two singles to load the bases with no-one out. A passed ball scored the winning run. Janssen's line was 5.1 IP, 6 hits, no walks, four K's, no runs.
Dayton at Lansing - rained out
Your Three Star Selection
Third star - tie Kevin Barker and Justin Singleton, two homeruns each
Second Star - Chip Cannon, 5 RBI's
First Star - David Purcey, five shutout innings
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050610083029590