A winning day on the farm, with a couple of big dingers.
Talk about your heartbreakers. Las Vegas fell behind 2-0 and 6-2 before storming back to take a 7-6 lead thanks to Adam Loewen - he hit a three-run home run in the 6th, and singled in the go ahead run in the 8th. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men. Newly reaquired Danny Farquhar loaded the bases with one out in the 9th before being lifted; and RBI groundout would tie the game. Darin Mastroianni doubled and Mike McCoy walked in the bottom half, but Brett Lawrie whiffed and Eric Thames grounded out. Sean Henn, who gave up Farquhar's run in the 9th, came back out for the 10th, promptly allowed the first batter to reach. A botched throw to second on a stolen base, a walk and a wild pitch upped the stakes before a single on a "pop up to shortstop" cashed the winning run. The 51s were able to get runners on second and third with one out in the bottom half, but once again were unable to capitalize.
Willie Collazo (who?) took the mound and the damage for the 51s, giving up six runs on ten hits in 5.2. He struck out three and walked one. Wilfredo Ledezma retired seven of the eight batters he faced, with a single being the lone black eye. Offensively Adam Loewen was the hero, amassing 3 hits and driving in 4. Despite their aforementioned critical failures, Lawrie and Thames both picked up 2 hits along with David Cooper, with Thames and Cooper going for extra bases. Mike McCoy singled and walked twice, and stole a base and was caught stealing. Lawrie also stole a base, and didn't make an error.
New Hampshire 6 at New Haven 2
The Fisher Cats won the New-Off, taking a 6-0 lead they obviously would not relinquish with a 2-run 2nd and 4-run third. Offensively the whole team (save for Anthony Gose) got in on the action, with Moises Sierra, Mike McDade and Travis d'Arnaud (DHing) doing the heavy lifting with 2 hits apiece, with McDade and d'Arnaud pickup up two-basers. Yan Gomes, who did do the catching, picked up 3 rbi on a single and a groundout. Palindrome Gonzalez led the charge for the guns for New Hampshire and was extremely sharp, going 7 and allowing but a run, with another unearned. He struck out 4 and walked none, giving up 6 hits in the process. Ronald Uviedo went two scoreless to close things out.
Once more into the breach dear friends, once more into the breach - Dunedin beat Tampa in very similar fashion to the F-Cats win, jumping out to an early 6-0 lead and never looking back. Asher Wojciechowski wasn't quite as good as Rei Gonazles, though 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 2 BB 3 K is a feather in his cap. Matt Wright got knocked around for 2 runs in relief however. Kenny Wilson and Justin Jackson (playing RF), were the only hitless D-Jays, while Kevin Ahrens, A.J. Jiminez and Ryan Goins all picked up 2 knocks, with Goins going for a 3 bagger and A.J. the round tripper to drive in 3, all in the 6 run second in which the team sent 9 batters to the plate - talk about efficiency.
Lansing 1 at Lake County 5 (7 Innings)
Lansing 6 at Lake County 5 (7 Innings)
Casey Lawrence took a complete game (6 inning) loss in game 1, allowing all 5 earned runs but getting 9 of his 10 outs in play on the ground and amassing a 5-0 K/BB ratio. It's just the 9 hits, 3 for extra bases, that were the problem. Marcus Knecht had 2 hits in the first game, including a solo home run to acount for the scoring, to raise his average to .351, while Carlos Perez had but one hit to drop his to .394.
The second game was looking about as bad as the first, and at one point Lake County had a cumulative 9-1 lead through 11. In the 12th (or 5th, as the case may be). Dunedin finally seemed to ask, should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No, they decided, and got on the board with a Balbino Fuenmayor double and a subsequent error, and in the 13th (6th) they finally burst through, as K.C. Hobson and Knecht drew one out walks, Michael Crouse doubled, Fuenmayor singled and Garis Pena finished things off with a two-run dinger. Crouse and Fuenmayor both had 2 hits, including a double, and Jake Marisnick walked twice, but overall it was a quiet day for the bats, as they amassed 11 hits in the two games combined. Misual Diaz allowed only 2 hits, but one was a three-run home run to the third batter he faced. He walked 3 and struck out 3 in 4. Danny Barnes picked up the win with 2 scoreless innings, and Danny Turnbull locked down the save in a shaky two-run ninth - he had won victory over himself.
Third Star! A.J. Jiminez - 2/4, HR, R, 3 RBI
Second Star! Reidier Gonzalez - 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 4 K 8-6 GB-FB
First Star! Adam Loewen - 3/5, HR, R, 4 RBI
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