The affiliates may have gone just 3-5 on the night but the pitching. Oh, the pitching.
Travis Snider went 0-for-4 with 4 K's in this to bring his AAA hot streak to a grinding halt. That said, I wonder if that may actually be a good thing. It may show he's up there hacking, not just trying to knock a squibber up the middle. For the glass half empty folk, he did manage an outfield assist. Adeiny Hechavarria was 1-for-4 to drop his average to .517.
P.J. Walters made another start and while it went better than the first debacle, he's not in line for a crack at the majors. Walters went four innings and allowed two runs on seven hits with three walks against four strikeouts. A trio of relievers closed things out.
Believe it or not, this one was tied at 2-2 heading into the 9th. And then the Fisher Cats happened. They parlayed nine hits and a walk into a nine-spot and cruised to an 11-2 victory. Moises Sierra and Yan Gomes each had three hits. Gomes smacked his 11th homer while Sierra scored four times. Travis D'Arnaud was 2-for-5 while Anthony Gose had a single and a run scored. Mike McDade went 2-for-5 with a double and 3 RBI.
It would take a hell of a performance to overshadow a nine-run ninth but Nestor Molina did just that by going 5 innings and allowing but two hits while striking out nine. Molina seems to be finding AA much to his liking as he has now accumulated 17 strikeouts against one walk in his 11 Eastern League innings.
The less said about this one, the better. Sean Ochinko had two hits while Andrew Liebel took the loss by allowing all six runs in four innings. There. Done.
Jake Marisnick was 2-for-4 with a double while Marcus Knecht had a double of his own. KC Hobson contributed two singles and that was that for the offense.
Egan Smith started and got whipped to the tune of five runs on six hits in 4.1 innings.
While the end result doesn't look good, that's because Noah Syndergaard was removed after five innings. But oh, what a five inning stint it was. Syndergaard breezed through the AquaSox (aren't those just flippers?) line-up allowing just two walks and striking out eight. In four Lo-A starts, Noah has a 22:5 K:BB in 18 innings and allowed just 15 hits.
Andy Burns provided most of the excitement on offense with an inside-the-park job.
Burlington 1 Bluefield 2 (5 innings)
Myles Jaye didn't want to be left out of the fun and put up a gem of his own going the (shortened) distance and allowing a run on two hits and a walk against eight strikeouts. You know, just in case you needed another low minors pitching prospect to keep your eye on.
Peter Mooney is showing he's probably ready for another promotion as he went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI to raise his Appy League OPS to over 1.000. Dalton Pompey had a hit, HBP, run, and a stolen base.
GCL Pirates 1 GCL Blue Jays 5 (6 innings)
Melvin Garcia hit his first homer, a three-run job, to propel the offense. Jorge Vega-Rosado was 1-for-2 with two stolen bases.
Randal Thompson went four innings for the win allowing an unearned run on one hit and a walk against 3 punch-outs.
Maydawin De La Cruz homered for the Jays to provide pretty much all of the offense.
Cesar Sanchez started and took the loss allowing two runs on six hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
Three Stars:
3rd Star: Myles Jaye- 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K
2nd Star: Noah Syndergaard- 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K
1st Star: Nestor Molina- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110819092713379