A fantastic start from Kyle Drabek highlights last night’s Minor League activities as the Jays’ affiliates went 3-1.
Buffalo 4 Louisville 2
Clearly Kyle Drabek is a reader of Da Box. Just when Bauxites far and wide began voicing their collective concern for the future of Monsieur Drabek, the man goes and pitches an absolute gem. Eight innings of shutout, two-hit baseball, with five strikeouts to boot. Drabek was dominant, needing only 90 pitches to get through his eight innings. Maybe this is the new Drabek? Bauxites have been reporting his velocity has been in the 89-90mph area. I’d be interested to see whether he’s now basically just throwing cut fastballs at that velocity. When he broke for the first time, there were moments there where I thought I would be paying to see the kid pitch every night. The curve ball was classic 12-6 and plus. The fastball was 94-96mph and his changeup broke off the table and he had this cutter which he learned over the off-season you could just see eat up LH hitters. And the kid competed. Anyways, enough fleeting nostalgia. I like Drabek and think he could put it together and still have a good career in a big league rotation. Learning to pitch at lowered velocities—as drastically as he’s had to do—is tough and takes time. I’m pulling for the guy and if he were to put together a month or two of solid pitching and those walks come down, I’d be banging the table to call the guy up.
At the plate Ryan Goins had three hits and raised his batting average to .321. He might need a few call-ups and send downs before he finds some comfort at the big league level. Jonathan Diaz had two triples and Brad Glenn had two RBIs.
New Hampshire 3 Reading 1
Matt Boyd pitched his best game in his young AA career. He allowed just one hit and one earned run over six innings of work. The Fisher Cats had been on an eleven game losing streak so the performance was certainly welcome. Ryan Schimpf homered in the eighth to put the AA affiliate ahead.
Fort Myers 5 Dunedin 7
Dalton Pompey hit leadoff and collected two hits and a walk. Dwight Smith Jr. followed and collected a triple and a walk of his own. Both batters had an RBI. Emilio Guerrero had two hits including three RBIs. Derrick Chung continued his impressive year to date with two hits as well. On the mound Kendall Graveman was solid. He pitched into the sixth allowing three earned runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out five. Taylor Cole gets the start today.
Lansing 1 Fort Wayne 3
The only loser on the farm last night, Lansing struggled with the bat recording just four hits on the night. With that being said the team recorded seven walks, however, just couldn’t cash anyone in, going 1-11 with RISP and putting the tying runs on base in the ninth. It will be interesting following some of these hitting prospects in the coming months as the fatigue of full season ball starts to set in. Mitch Nay has struggled of late and looks one that probably needs a day off or two. Lansing did get two good outings from its pitchers though. While Alberto Tirado did allow three earned runs over four innings, he didn’t walk anyone. His piggy-back partner Shane Dawson was very good. Dawson shutout the Fort Wayne squad in his four innings of work and allowed just three hits.
Three Stars
3. Shane Dawson
2. Matt Boyd
1. Kyle Drabek
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