A bunch of good and almost great pitching performances, and a shot at a clean sweep.
Normally aging pop stars head to Vegas to rehab their careers, but in this case Brett Cecil has been doing it, and with some success. He made his third consecutive goodish start, going 7 innings while allowing 9 hits, 4 runs (3 earned) with 2 walks and 5 K's. Cecil has nominally been a ground ball pitcher during his time in Toronto, but last night he got all 12 of his outs in play on the ground (reversing some earlier fly ball numbers in Vegas), and allowed only two extra base hits, both doubles. He's now thrown 24 innings in 4 starts, striking out 18 and walking 9. He's allowed 17 earned runs, but 10 of those came in a disaterous first start, where he also walked 3 against only 2 Ks. Danny Farquhar closed things out for Vegas with 2 strikeouts in a scoreless inning. Offensively the two teams traded 2 and 1 spots in the first and second to be tied at 3s, but the 51s kept plugging away, adding solitary runs in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th. Brian Jeroloman was the star, going 3/4 with 2 RBI. Brett Lawrie homered and walked, Adam Loewen doubled and walked, Eric Thames doubled, Danny Perales had 2 hits, Jason Lane doubled and walked twice, and Travis Snider had but an RBI groundout.
I'm about as high on Joel Carreno as anyone, perhaps irrationally so. He's 24 and has posted obliteratingly good K/BB in A ball, but his first taste of AA has been rougher. Had been rougher. Last night against Portland he went 7 innings, allowing only a solitary hit. He did walk 3, but struck out 7, making his ratio a respectable 17/38 BB/K so far in 35.2 innings. With Carreno dominating, a Mike McDade home run in the fourth to cash two would be all the Cats needed... and got - they were 4 hit. Hech and Gose walked, with Adeiny stealing his 9th base to boot.
Deck McGuire was our pitching ace for this one. He only made it through 5, but he struck out 7 (4 walks) while allowing only 2 hits and 1 run. The DJays offense, meanwhile, racked up 11 hits and cruised. Everyone had one hit, except for Brad Glenn (2B, HR) and Brian Van Kirk (1B, 2B), who had two. Sean Ochinko also walked twice, and his one hit was a home run.
My chance for a second consecutive perfect write up was dashed in A ball, where Lansing took a late lead on a Gustavo Pierre single and Carlos Perez sac fly, before Scott Gracey allowed two triples and a single to start the home half of the 8th. It spoiled a decent if short start from Sean Nolin, who went only 4, striking out 4, walking 2 and allowing 3 hits and a run. Marcus Knecht continued his hot streak, singling twice, while KC Hobson singled and doubled.
3rd Star: Deck McGuire - 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K
2nd Star: Brian Jeroloman - 3/4, R, 2 RBI
1st Star: Joel Carreno - 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110512101353179