The affiliates were 1-3 on the night with some nice performances from Dwight Smith, Andy Burns (the new Kevin Pillar), and Kevin Pillar. Buffalo faced their third successive solid pitching prospect in Zach Britton. Yes, Jim Negrych hit him too. Deck McGuire got the win down in AA and Lansing faced off against a rehabbing Johnny Cueto. Dunedin was edged out by the Cubbie affiliate. It was a fairly unspectacular day down on the farm—something you didn’t say too often last year.
Norfolk 7 Buffalo 3
Buffalo has been in tough this week facing a number of highly thought of pitchers. Jake Arrieta on Tuesday, last night Jair Jurrjens, and tonight the Bisons faced up against Zach Britton who is still regarded as a promising pitching prospect in Orioles system. As a result, many readers—including front office types for the Jays I’m sure—have been watching this series with Norfolk closely. Anthony Gose, for example, has not done too well against the aforementioned Tides-trio. Gose went 0-4 on the night with the golden sombrero. He has reached base in each game, walking again tonight. Jim Negrych continued his hot hitting; recording two hits tonight. In other good news, Jeremy Jeffress is now up in AAA and pitched an inning and two thirds of hit-free and walk-free baseball. He struck out three batters along the way and was up to 98mph with the fastball on the stadium gun.
The Bisons fell in this one. They went behind in the fourth and then struggled to cash runners in. The Buffalo squad was 2-15 with RISP on the day. Miguel Batista got the start and couldn’t get out of the four run fourth inning, yielding six earned runs. The Herd are now 20-12, good for first in the International League North Division.
New Hampshire 8 Trenton 3
The lone win on the night came in the capital of New Jersey as our AA affiliate topped the Yankees’ AA affiliate by a score of 8-3. Deck McGuire turned in a half decent performance, but seven hits, two earned runs, and three walks to two strikeouts over five innings does not exactly instill much confidence given his track record. Neither does a strike percentage of 54%. Kevin Pillar led the way with the stick, stroking two doubles and a single out of the leadoff spot. Sean Ochinko supplied the thunder in the fifth with a two-run homerun.
Dunedin 3 Daytona 4
Dunedin fell as well tonight in a tight one to the Cubs’ High-A affiliate. K.C. Hobson went deep for the fifth time this year (in nineteen games), yet has seemingly lost his eye this year and ability to hit for average. Andy Burns, on the other hand, had three hits tonight and is one the few bright spots or grouping of players who we can legitimately say at this point has improved from last season. Burns also stole his thirteenth bag on the year. Casey Lawrence got the start and gave up four earned runs. Lawrence and his relievers didn’t walk anybody, an oddity for a Blue Jays pitching staff.
Lansing 6 Dayton 9
Lansing showed some fight in this one, scoring four runs late, but ultimately fell to the hometown Dayton Dragons. The hope for Lugnuts hitters tonight would have been that facing up against Johnny Cueto, who was on a rehab assignment tonight, would be a humbling experience on how far they’ll need to improve to make it to the Big Leagues. At the same time, considering the number of blue chippers at Lansing, front office types would have expected some productive at-bats against Cueto. Dwight Smith Jr. did not disappoint—singling and tripling off Cueto. He would later add a double to his tally of hits on the night. Kellen Sweeney had two hits on the night, including a triple of his own, and Christian Lopes had a hit and two RBIs to continue his hitting ways this season.
The Lugnuts struggled to keep up with the Dragons in this one. Their run in the top half of the first was quickly matched and then surpassed by five runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Reds affiliate then added one and then two more runs in the second and third respectively, and the Lugnuts were stuck seven by the fourth. Lugnuts starter Javier Avendano struggled on the night and battled the walk. He walked four over his three innings of work, giving up eight runs—six of which were earned. One of Avendano’s relief corps was Wil Browning. I draw attention to Browning only to point out his dominating season so far. 27 strikeouts and seven walks in 18 and a bit innings. His ERA is a tiny 0.48. He is old in prospect years though.
Three Stars
3. Kevin Pillar
2. Andy Burns
1. Dwight Smith Jr.
Box Scores
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