It is a rare, perhaps unprecedented, occasion when the minor leaguers share opening day with the major league squad. Three of the Blue Jays four full-season affiliates played official games tonight, while the Lansing Lugnuts participated in their annual Crosstown Showdown exhibition against the Michigan State Spartans. In was a good night all around on the farm for everyone except the 51's pitching staff.
Sacramento 11, Las Vegas 6
This is the guy who was a candidate for the major league rotation? The homestanding 51's sent Aaron Laffey to the mound tonight and got in return an opening night performance neither he nor they will recall in fondly told stories. Four Sacramento River Cats reached base, and two scored, before an out was recorded – beginning with a lead off homer from CF Grant Green. Laffey would give up four runs in the first.
The 51's answered with a run in the bottom of the inning when Adeiny Hechavarria came up with a one-out line drive double to right double and David Cooper drove him in with a line drive single, also to right. Adeiny doubled and scored again in the third but going into the bottom of the 5th the score was 7-2 and Laffey was out of the game. Then things got interesting.
Travis Snider got a one out single to right and Travis d'Arnaud followed this with a grounder to third which should have been a double play ball, but no outs were made. This opened the floodgates. David Cooper singled to center and snider scored. Moises Sierra singled home d'Arnaud. Richardo Nanita singled in Cooper. Yan Gomes drove in Sierra with a single of his one (one of four hits for Gomes on the night). By the time the dust had settled the Las Vegas squad had pulled to within a run, but it was not to be. Three runs off Scott Richmond in the seventh, and another off Bobby Korecky in the ninth led to a comfortable River-Cats win.
Besides Gomes' four hits in five tries, including a double, David Cooper was 3 for 5 with a double and both Hech and Snider were 2 for five, both of Adeiny's hits being doubles.
New Hampshire 5, Trenton 3
Stud prospect Drew Hutchison got the opening night start for the Fisher Cats in front of almost 6,500 fans and took just a few batters to find his groove. The first two Trenton hitters doubled and the third walked before Hutch locked in. Another hit later in the inning would put the F-Cats down 2-0 at the end of one but things would get better after that. Hutch would complete five innings but the other four would be perfect. On the night he recorded 6 K's against that single walk. In the third, New Hampshire saw their three singles and a walk aided by a wild pitch and an error and came away with a 2-2 tie. In the fourth another walk and three more hits, one of these a Brian Van Kirk double, added another pair of runs and the F-Cats were in the driver's seat. Justin Jackson and AJ Jimenez had multiple hits, and one of them stole a base. Care to guess which? Wrong! The bullpen looked good as well, giving up a single unearned run on a Jon Diaz (!) error in four innings.
Dunedin 6, Clearwater 3
Canadian left fielder Marcus Kencht accomplished the feat of delivering the only home run hit by a Blue Jays minor leaguer on opening night, with a 2 run shot in the bottom of the first which, along with a bout of wildness by re-habbing major leaguer Jose Contrares, would provided the D-Jays with the early lead. Just before the homer Contrares had advanced DH Jon Jones, who'd already stolen second, from there two home on two wild pitches.
The greater offensive contribution, however, came from shortstop Kevin Nolan how was involved in the rest of the D-Jays offense on the evening. In the fourth he tripled in a run then scored on a Jake Marisnick sac fly. Later in the sixth he doubled home another run to stake the jays to the lead which would be the final score.
On the mound, 2011 draftee John Stilson started and went three strong innings, using only 20 pitches to nine of the eleven batters he faced and pick up three strikeouts. He was relieved by Casey Lawrence who ended up with the win after cruising through two innings before having a rougher time of things In the sixth, when Clearwater rallied for three runs to make a game of it.. Reliever Scott Gracey and Dan Barnes would have none of it, however, shutting out the opposition for the final three innings of the contest.
Lansing 7, Michigan State 0
(yes, I know it doesn't count, but aren't you curious?)
Just under 13,000 fans turned out for the annual exhibition contest between the Jays affiliate and the local university. For six innings the teams tossed one-hit shutouts at each other before the 'Nuts broke out the lumber. Aaron Sanchez started, and struck out two (yay!) and walked two (boo) before giving way to Jesse Hernandez who kept the Spartans off the board for another five innings. Roberto Osuna came on the throw a scoreless seventh and was reportedly clocking 94 MPH on his fastball and impressing all observers.
The Lugnuts offense came in the seventh when they strung together five consecutive hits and an RBI groundout, none of them by anyone you'd consider a real prospect.
See video here, including three pitches from Osuna.
***Three Stars***
Third Star - Yan Gomes: 4 for 5 with a double and, by the way, played third base.
Second Star - Kevin Nolan: double, triple, walk, 2 RBI
First Star - Drew Hutchison: rebounded from shaky start to record 13 consecutive outs.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20120406011431821