Buffalo, NY — The Twins affiliate spoiled the Bisons home opener by roughing up Canadian Andrew Albers (0-1). The North Battleford, SK native gave up a two-run homer to Brock Peterson and a solo shot to Aaron Hicks over 4-2/3 innings. Albers allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks while only striking out one, giving him a Game Score of 31. Ryan Tepera managed to get away with three walks and a hit over two shutout frames that included a pair of K's. Gregory Infante also whiffed a pair over 1-1/3 perfect frames but Bobby Korecky was cuffed for two runs (one earned) on two hits and a walk in the ninth but also struck out a couple of Red Wings.
Chris Dickerson drove in the first Buffalo run with a single to score a Jonathan Diaz base hit to tie the game at 1-1 in the third inning. A Ryan Goins sacrifice fly and a Josh Thole base hit drew the Herd to within 4-3 in the sixth inning. Buffalo had 14 runners reach base on eight walks, five hits and an Ezequiel Carrera hit by pitch but Twins prospect Alex Meyer gutted his way through five innings for the victory. Caleb Gindl was 0-for-3 with two walks.
New Britain @ New Hampshire
Manchester, NH — Postponed due to snow. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday.
Dunedin 5 Clearwater 2
Clearwater, FL — Roemon Fields plated the first Dunedin run with a single in the third inning to conclude the small ball portion of the evening. It was all long ball after that as Mitch Nay, Dawel Lugo and Matt Dean all went deep in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings respectively. Lugo's shot counted for two and he had the lone two-hit performance for the D-Jays. The rehabbing Michael Saunders was the designated hitter and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk. Derrick Loveless - who scored the season's first run on Fields' single - stole his first base of the season. Fields was caught on his first attempt in the Florida State League.Jairo Labourt (1-0) lasted 5-1/3 innings in which he gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk against the Phillies affiliate. The lefty struck out three, split his 14 outs in play evenly on the ground and in the air and posted a Game Score of 54. Luis Santos came on for Labourt and struck out both hitters he faced to strand a runner in the sixth. Lefty Chad Girodo fanned two of the hitters he faced in the seventh. Southpaw Brady Dragmire and Wil Browning worked one-hit innings with Browning striking out one for the save.
Thursday's Boxscores
*** 3 Stars!!! ***
3. Matt Dean, Dunedin
2. Jairo Labourt, Dunedin
1. Dawel Lugo, Dunedin