Pawtucket, RI - The results were not there for Marcus Stroman (0-1, 12.00) in this one. He gave up three singles in the first but left fielder Caleb Gindl threw out a runner at the plate to keep the game at 0-0. However, he was roughed up for two runs in each of the second and third innings before calling it a day against the Red Sox affiliate. He surrendered eight hits and four walks while whiffing five. Stroman's two outs in play were on the ground over his 79-pitch outing, 44 of them for strikes. John Anderson tossed two scoreless innings with a hit, a walk and a strikeout. Greg Burke got bombed for five runs, including two homers, on three hits and two walks with one strikeout over 1-2/3 scoreless frames. Chad Girodo could not strand the bases loaded and coughed up a run of his own on two hits over 1-1/3 innings.
The Bisons scored in the sixth on a Matt Hague RBI double that cashed in an extra-base hit by Jonathan Diaz. Andy Burns doubled home a Ryan Schimpf base hit for the final run of the season. Diaz and Schimpf were the hit leaders with two apiece and Schimpf also drew a walk. Ty Kelly and George Kottaras also had base knocks. Melky Mesa was hit by a pitch while Gindl and Jon Berti finished without a hit in their four at-bats. Buffalo ends the season with a 68-76 record.
New Hampshire 8 Trenton 1
Trenton, NJ - New Hampshire finished two games below .500 but they made sure their Yankees counterparts did not finish above it as the 69-71 F-Cats dropped the Thunder to 71-71. New Hampshire took advantage of a pair of errors to score runs in the second and third innings before a two-run single by Kevin Nolan and a one-run single by Derrick Chung capped off a four-run third. Emilio Guerrero belted a home run to make it 6-1 Fisher Cats in the fourth. A bases-loaded walk by Shane Opitz and a single by K.C. Hobson rounded out the scoring in the seventh and eighth respectively. Nolan, Hobson and Roemon Fields spearheaded the 14-hit attack with three-hit games with Nolan also picking up a walk. Chung and Matt Newman had a couple of hits each. Dwight Smith Jr. walked but Jorge Flores went 0-for-5.Taylor Cole (7-10, 4.06) finished up strong with seven innings of one-run ball on a five-hitter. He struck out four, walked none and split his 13 outs by distributing seven on the ground and six in the air to give him a Game Score of 67. Chris Smith allowed a couple of hits and walked one but struck out one for a pair of scoreless frames.
Dayton 7 Lansing 2
Dayton, OH - The 73-66 Lugnuts head into the playoffs on a losing note after the Reds affiliate wiped a 1-0 deficit with seven straight runs. Chase Mallard (6-8, 5.49) pitched four scoreless frames but could not get any of the six batters he faced in the fifth. All six would score as he gave up eight hits and four walks over four-plus frames. One of the runs was unearned. His strikeout, groundout and flyout totals were three apiece. Colton Turner was touched up for a solo home run among two hits over two frames in which he also whiffed a pair. Phil Kish also struck out two in a one-hit seventh. Carlos Ramirez finished his regular season with a flourish by striking out the side in the eighth.
D.J. Davis scored the first run of the game when he tripled and came home on a Michael De La Cruz ground ball in the fifth. The second run came in the eighth when Gunnar Heidt walked and eventually scored on a base hit by Richard Urena. An attempt for a third run in the ninth came up short when Alex Maldonado was cut down at home trying to score from second on a De La Cruz single. De La Cruz was the only Lugnut with two hits in the regular season finale. Davis walked and Heidt singled to give him two appearances on the basepaths. Justin Atkinson had a base hit in four at-bats but David Harris and Jason Leblebijian came up with nothing in their four hacks at the plate. Austin Davis was 0-for-3 and Ryan McBroom went 0-for-2 before being replaced by Maldonado, who had a double in his two AB's.
Monday's Linescores
*** 3 Stars!!! ***
3. K.C. Hobson, New Hampshire
2. Kevin Nolan, New Hampshire
1. Taylor Cole, New Hampshire
This is it for the regular season. Lansing will begin its playoff run Wednesday in Midland, Michigan to take on the Great Lakes Loons in Game 1 of their best-of-three series. The Lugnuts will host the Dodgers affiliate in Game 2 on Thursday and Game 3, if necessary on Friday. LansingLugnuts.com has this series preview.
We hope you've enjoyed the minor league coverage on Da Box in 2015 and we hope Lugnuts will give us more good stuff to write about in the days ahead. Thanks for reading!