Toronto’s affiliates played not one, but two, double-headers last night to give fans an eight-game menu to appease their palate. The teams split both twin billings and Toronto’s other four affiliates went 3-1 on the evening. The multitude of games means there were many outstanding performers yesterday, from Triple-A players hoping to make it back to the big leagues to high-round GCL prospects.
Ottawa 3 @ Syracuse 5 (7) – 1st Game - Boxscore
Ottawa 6 @ Syracuse 4 (7) – 2nd Game - BoxscoreJustin James got the start for Syracuse in the first game of the twin billing and went five innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk; he retired nine batters on ground outs and five on fly balls. Scott Sauerbeck pitched the sixth and picked up the win, striking out two batters. Matt Roney earned his second save of the year by pitching the seventh.
Eight of Syracuse’s 10 hits came from three batters: Hector Luna, Adam Lind and Howie Clark. Luna was 2-3 with a walk and an RBI, while Lind was 3-3 with a solo homer. Clark was 3-3 with two runs and an RBI. David Corrente had one of the other two hits for Syracuse, but his was a decisive two-run homer in the sixth inning.
Pat Mahomes, who resurfaced with Syracuse at some point fairly recently, started the second game. It was his first start of the year. He went four innings and gave up three runs on five hits and a walk without striking out a batter. Mahomes left a game tied at 3 apiece and turned it over to Jordan DeJong, who struck out four batters over his two innings, but he allowed three runs to score on two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. DeJong loaded the bases in the sixth on a hit batter, a single and a walk and picked a perfectly inopportune time to surrender a double, which scored all three Lynx runners and gave Ottawa the lead. Syracuse would get one back in the bottom of the sixth, but it wasn’t enough.
Syracuse had seven hits in the evening game and all of them came from their first three batters in the order. If you were paying attention in the first game, you’d probably guess these players were Hector Luna, Adam Lind and Syracuse’s second baseman. You’d be right, too, as Luna, Lind and Ryan Roberts provided all of Syracuse’s offence in the second game. Luna was 2-3 with a HBP, Roberts went 4-4 and Lind went 1-4. Luna scored three of Syracuse’s four runs, while Roberts had three of the team’s four RBI, with Adam Lind picking up the other. John Ford-Griffin and John Hattig each drew a pair of walks.
Portland 12 @ New Hampshire 6 - Boxscore
Ricky Romero continues to struggle at Double-A. After three quality starts around the end of July, he’s only had one in his last four, which have included two ugly outings. Romero gave up eight runs, five earned, over 2.2 innings last night. He gave up a three-run homer in the first, escaped the second without giving up a run, but the wheels came off the bus in the third and Romero didn’t make it through the inning. Seth Overbey and Sean Stidfole combined for 5.1 innings of scoreless relief and only allowed two hits. At this point Portland only had an 8-6 lead so New Hampshire put in Tracy Thorpe to pitch. After retiring the first two batters, Thorpe gave up two walks, a single and a double, which scored three runs and put the game all but out of reach.New Hampshire had 12 hits on the evening, with every batter but Sergio Santos picking up at least one. Dustin Majewski had two, as did Erik Kratz, and Juan Peralta had three. Coincidentally, these three players were the three Fisher Cats who hit home runs on the evening. Majewski hit a solo shot in the third, Kratz hit one in the fifth and Peralta hit a two-run homer in the eighth. Peralta and Kratz each had two RBI, Majewski had one and Rob Cosby picked up the other.
Clearwater 5 @ Dunedin 6 - Boxscore
Canadian A.J. Wideman won his 11th game of the season for Dunedin with a quality start that would have been scoreless if not for the home run. Wideman gave up a pair of solo homers in the 1st inning – a homer to the leadoff hitter and then another with one out. However, after that he didn’t allow a run and finished six innings having allowed six hit and two walks. Billy Carnline came in for the seventh and allowed Brian Burgamy’s second homer of the game. Chad Blackwell began the eighth inning and after retiring a batter gave up two straight walks and then a single. He departed with runners on first and second and Connor Falkenbach was able to induce a double play from the next batter.Meanwhile, Dunedin strung together eleven hits, which included an Anthony Hatch triple and a double each by Hatch and Carlo Cota. Brian Jeroloman was 3-4 and Hatch was 2-5. An offensive bonus came from Dunedin’s plate discipline as the team induced 7 walks, including three from Cota. While 3rd hitter Kyle Phillips was 0-5, the 4-5-6 trio of Eric Nielsen, Cory Patton and Jacob Butler each had a hit and an RBI. Dunedin scored its runs by being able to mix together walks and hits in effective bunches. The biggest hit was Hatch’s 2-run triple in the bottom of the fourth, which followed a Nielsen sacrifice fly in the third and a Jeroloman RBI single in the fifth, which was Dunedin’s last run of the game.
So, that summary leaves it with Dunedin sporting a 6-4 lead going into the top of the ninth inning. Connor Falkenbach, who hoped to pick up his 29th save of the year, came in to pitch. He retired the first two batters on strikeouts, with one swinging and one looking. However, consecutive singles left Clearwater’s tying run at first and the potential winning run at the plate. Lou Marson hit his 24th double of the year and drove home the lead runner to cut the deficit to one run. As Nielsen fielded the ball in right the second runner tried to score from first on the double. Nielsen threw it to the cut-off man, Cota, who relayed it to Jeroloman and Clearwater’s second runner, the tying run, was tagged out at the plate to end the game.
Great Lakes 1 @ Lansing 4 - Boxscore
Venezuelan Julio Pinto pitched six innings and gave up one unearned run on three hits and a walk, while striking out five. The run was truly unearned, as the runner was on second with two out and scored on a fielding error by first baseman Matthew Lane. With the batter who reached on an error sitting on second, Pinto struck out the next hitter to get out of the inning. Benjamin Harrison replaced Pinto in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings of relief, which included striking out the side in the eighth. Po-Hsuan Keng picked up the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.Lansing scored four runs on five hits with a two-run third and fourth inning. Lansing’s runs in the third inning came with the help of Great Lakes pitcher Christopher Malone, as he threw away a sacrifice bunt with none out and two on. This scored one runner and left Lansing with runners on first and third and none out. Malone induced Scott Campbell to hit into a double play, but the 6-4-3 twin killing allowed the second run of the inning to score. The runs in the fourth came in a more conventional fashion, as Travis Snider doubled and Matthew Liuzza singled him to third. A wild pitch advanced Liuzza to second, but Snider held at third. After Matthew Lane struck out, Brian Pettway hit a 2-RBI single and cashed in both runners. Lansing picked up four of their five hits on the night during those two innings.
Williamsport 1 @ Auburn 4 (7) – 1st Game - Boxscore
Williamsport 7 @ Auburn 4 (7) – 2nd Game - BoxscoreIn the first Auburn connected for a four-run third inning and this provided them with all the offence they would need on the day. All 9 Auburn batters had a plate appearance during the inning, which began with a CJ Ebarb double. Then, with one out, Luis Sanchez hit an RBI single, which was followed by Benjamin Zeskind’s RBI triple. Zeskind scored on Adam Calderone’s single and Calderone would score the fourth run of the inning on a fielding error by the shortstop. Auburn only had six hits on the evening, but five of them came during that inning. The only other baserunner they managed during the other five innings came on a Darin Mastroianni double, but other than that they were kept of the basepaths.
Brett Cecil started and went four strong innings. He gave up one hit and two walks and struck out five. He retired five batters on ground balls and two on fly outs and his ERA now sits at 1.32. Adam Rogers came in and gave up one run in his two innings and he turned it over to Joe Wice, who picked up his fourth save of the year by striking out two batters in the inning. Wice has 44 K’s on the year against only three walks.
Bradley Mills started the second game and went 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks. Mills left the game with one in and runners on first and third. With Javier Nieves pitching Williamsport pulled off a double steal and Caleb Mangum got his first stolen base of the year, which was no less than home plate. Nieves got through the sixth unscathed and turned a 3-2 lead over to Cody Crowell. Crowell gave up a pair of walks and than a pair of infield singles – one to the pitcher and the next to second base, which was compounded by Darin Mastroianni’s throwing error. This left Williamsport with a 4-3 lead and runners on second and third. Ryan Bird came in and threw two wild pitches, which scored both runners. He would eventually surrender a run on a walk and a single on a pop-up to second base. Patrick McGuigan came in to finally get out of the inning.
Only one of Auburn’s four runs in the second game was earned, even though they scored one run in four separate innings. In the first Manny Rodriguez doubled in Mastroianni, who had walked. In the third Wesley Stone tripled with none out and than scored on a throwing error by the catcher on a pickoff attempt. Williamsport’s Chance Chapman then proceeded to strike out the next two batters. Auburn scored in the sixth by capitalizing on a throwing error by the first baseman and in the seventh by making the most of the left fielder’s blunder. The Doubledays had two runners on with two out, which brought the tying run to the plate, but Rodriguez grounded out to first. Brad Emaus was 2-3, Mastroianni was 1-2 with two walks and Stone was 2-3.
GCL Indians 3 @ GCL Blue Jays 6 - Boxscore
James Dougher started for the GCL Blue Jays last night and he went a strong four innings. Dougher gave up four hits and one unearned run on a Justin Jackson error, but struck out five without walking a batter. Dougher now has a 52/10 K/BB rate after yesterday’s start. He didn’t leave in line for the win, but the Blue Jays removed any chance he’d suffer a loss with a Moises Sierra RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.Jason Monti came in to pitch for the Blue Jays and he only gave up two hits in his four innings of work. Monti gave up two runs, one unearned, and also struck out five batters. The Indians got both their hits in the seventh and the runners advanced on Sierra’s error, which removed any chance of a double play and eventually led to the third run.
For the Blue Jays Jonathan Talley scored two runners in the sixth with a single to center. In the bottom of the seventh the Blue Jays scored three runs to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Blue Jays lead. Kevin Ahrens drove home 2 with an RBI double and then he scored on Talley’s RBI single. The 5-6-7 hitters provided the bulk of the Blue Jays production, as Ahrens went 3-4 with 3 runs and 2 RBI; McDade was 3-3 with a walk and Talley was 2-3 with a walk and 3 RBIs.
3 star selection
3rd star – Kevin Ahrens, 3-4, 3 R, 2B, 2 RBI, 4 TB
2nd star – Julio Pinto, 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
1st star – Hector Luna, 4-6, 3 R, 2B, RBI, BB, HBP, 5 TB
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