Three rain outs, Lansing wins behind more strong starting pitching from Zach Dials. Lansing's team ERA is just over 1. The Jays affiliates have thirteen rain-outs already this season. Bonus notes from the minors included for no extra charge.
Ottawa at Syracuse - postponed
New Hampshire at New Britain - postponed
Dunedin at Fort Myers - postponed
Lansing received another excellent start, this time from Zach Dials who went five shutout innings. Ben Harrison came on in relief and gave up a run to tie the game at 1 but got the win when Lansing scored in the bottom of the sixth. Lansing's first run came courtesy of a single by Brian Pettway, a double by Matt Liuzza and a single by Brian Bormaster. Pettway doibled to drive in Travis Snider with Lansing's second run and the final run came on an error scoring Scott Campbell who had singled.
2 star selection
2nd star - Brian Pettway, 3-4, 2 doubles, RBI
1st star - Zach Dials, five shutout innings, 4 hits
Team Records (it is too early to look at standings)
Syracuse 4-6 (2 games postponed)
New Hampshire 4-2 (4 games postponed)
Dunedin 3-6 (2 games postponed)
Lansing 5-1 (5 games postponed)
Did You Know?
All minor league teams have played ten games or fewer so season statistics are from a very small sample size. They would pass virtually unnoticed in the middle of the season.
Russ Adams is only hitting .182. Several of Syracuse's big hitters are quiet, Jeff Duncan (.105); Kevin Barker (.156); John Hattig (.182); and Chad Mottola, who had two hits yesterday to pull his average up to .211 are each weel below expectations.
John-Ford Griffin is off to a hot start hitting .361 and slugging .778. Mike Vento is also hitting well at .344 with a .625 slugging.
The Chiefs are striking out a lot, with 10 games played five hitters have nine or more strikeouts and two others have seven and eight K's respectively.
Jamie Vermilyea has a zero ERA with no baserunners allowed in 5.2 innings. Brian Wolfe continues to build on a strong spring with a zero ERA and a .75 WHIP.
Among the starters Dustin McGowan has a .90 ERA and 1.10 WHIP after two starts. Josh Banks has a 1.05 WHIP after two starts.
Eric Kratz leads Fisher Cat hitters with a .583 BA. Aaron Mathews might have been in Dunedin if Ryan Patterson was not injured, he is making the most of his opportunity hitting .381. Sergio Santos continues to struggle, he is hitting .059 in four games.
Chip Cannon is hitting .111 with 14 K's in 27 at-bats. Cannon could just be in a slump, or be in a funk becuase he was sent back to AA. Don't forget that Cannon hit .248 in AA last season with 158 K's in 135 games. The rosy expectations of him coming into 2007 were based on a strong AFL campaign but again that was a smaller sample size.
Most New Hampshire starting pitchers have only made one start, relievers Jordan DeJong, Jean Machi and Jo Matumoto still have their zero ERA's intact.
Adam Calderone has only played in 5 games for Dunedin but he is hitting .438, Jacob Butler is hitting .419. Anthony Hatch has slipped to .212 after a strong start.
The Dunedin starters have struggled. Orlando Trias, Robert Ray, Kurt Isenberg and Brandon Magee, who have made six of Dunedin's nine starts, each have ERA's over 5.50. Aaron Tressler, Kristian Bell and Ted Serro have the leading ERA's.
Lansing are winning with pitching. Lansing's team ERA is just over 1.00; 8 of the 12 pitchers have an ERA of 0.00; the worst ERA on the team belongs to Ben Harrison at 4.50. Brian Pettway (BA .360) and Travis Snider (.333) are carrying the offense.
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