Travis Snider and the home plate umpire disagreed over balls and strikes yesterday and you know what that means, Snider got to hit the pine. Snider did have another triple to his name before having his rest. Dunedin took the singles lumber to Andrew Miller while Nathan Starner and Kurt Isenberg were outstanding.
Ismael Ramirez continued his struggles at AAA. Ramirez only pitched three innings but gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks. The Chiefs were never alble to dig out of that deficit. John Hattig hit a two run home run in the seventh to halve the deficit but nine of the last ten Chief hitters got out. The Chiefs tallied six hits, Chad Mottola had two.
Kyle Yates started for the Fisher Cats and was rusty after almost two weeks off the mound. Robinzon Diaz got the start at catcher. Yates went 3.1 innings and gave up six hits, four walks and three runs. The Fisher Cats had only six hits. Their two runs came on a walk to David Smith, a single by Eric Kratz, an RBI groundout and another single by Manny Mayorson.
Andrew Miller is the Tigers number two prospect according to Baseball America, some of you might remember Miller pitching in the playoffs last season. Miller started against the D-Jays and cruised through the first two innings before falling apart in the third, five singles and a hit batter gave Dunedin four runs. Three more singles in the fourth allowed Dunedin to make it 5-0. Miller left after five innings having given up nine hits and two walks.
Kurt Isenberg rebounded from a couple of not so good starts to shut down the Tigers on two hits over seven innings while recording ten K's. Dunedin added three more runs in the ninth. The Jays had sixteen hits, all singles. Adam Calderone went 4-6, Al Quintana 4-5 and Juan Peralta 3-6.
Lansing scored a couple in the first inning, Chris Gutierrez singled, Travis Snider tripled and Brian Pettway doubled. Snider was up again in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded when he was called out on strikes, Snider disagreed with the call and was ejected. Pettway and Matt Liuzza both homered in the seventh to make it 4-0. Nathan Starner was outstanding on the mound, seven shutout innings, three hits, seven K's, no walks. Starner's big improvement so far this season is in his walk rate. Last season Starner only gave up 15 hits and had 43 K's in 27 innings. Both numbers are excellent. The one blemish was his walk rate, 16 walks in those 27 innings. This season, although early, Starner has allowed three walks in 18 innings. Pettway, Guttierez and Liuzza had two hits each. The win made it ten in a row for the Lugnuts.
3 star selection
3rd star - Brian Pettway, 2-3, BB, double, HR, R, 2 RBI
2nd star - Nathan Starner, seven shutout innings
1st star - Kurt Isenberg, seven shutout innings
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