Buffalo, NY - The Bisons were able to get the upper hand on the Tigers affiliate as Scott Diamond (3-3, 2.39) outshone former Jay Daniel Norris with 7-1/3 innings of one-run ball. The Guelph, Ontario lefty scattered eight hits, struck out two, walked nobody and kept the worms afraid with a whopping 17 groundball outs. Ben Rowen and Pat McCoy helped Diamond out by stranding two runners to end the eighth with Rowen getting a strikeout. Wow, relievers stranding base runners! What a concept! David Aardsma teetered on the brink of disaster with a hit by pitch and two walks but he got the final three outs, one by strikeout, to collect his sixth save.Jesus Montero gave the Herd a thundering start with a two-run home run in the first inning. They would add another in the seventh on an RBI single by Dalton Pompey and one more in the eighth on a base hit by Darrell Ceciliani. Montero was a three-bagger short of the cycle. A.J. Jimenez had the other multi-hit game with a double and a single. Matt Dominguez singled and walked. Junior Lake, David Adams and Jio Mier all attended the hit parade. Only Domonic Brown did not attend.
Portland 2 New Hampshire 0
Portland, ME - Shane Dawson (1-2, 2.61) did his best to extend the Fisher Cats seven-game winning streak but he was tagged with the loss in this one. The Albertan southpaw held the Red Sox affiliate to two runs, including a Nate Freiman home run, on five hits and three walks over six frames. He struck out seven and his groundout total was five. Brady Dragmire and Danny Barnes each finished with one-hit shutout innings of relief.
Dwight Smith Jr. and Wilkin Castillo had the only extra-base hits and Rowdy Tellez had the lone base hit. Ian Parmley and Christian Lopes earned the only bases on balls. Roemon Fields struck out three times and joined Jon Berti and K.C. Hobson in the 0-for-4 club. Shane Opitz was one at-bat short of membership. Another prominent 0-for-4 belonged to 2015 Red Sox first rounder Andrew Benintendi in his Double-A debut.
Fort Myers 5 Dunedin 2
Dunedin, FL - Minnesota's first round picks of 2013 and 2014 were too much to handle for Dunedin. Nick Gordon homered and Kohl Stewart spun six shutout innings to outduel Brad Allen (3-2, 5.57), who allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits and three walks over 4-1/3 innings and only struck out two. Chris Rowley saved Allen from a worse pitching line by escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and finished up with 4-2/3 frames of shutout ball, scattering four hits and a walk and whiffing a pair.
Dunedin's two runs came in the ninth on a Michael De La Cruz two-run homer, plating a D.J. Davis single. Devon Travis had a base hit in four trips to the plate but also made a throwing error at second . Anthony Alford had a hit but struck out twice in five at-bats. Ryan McBroom and J.D. Davis also put a notch in the hit column with Davis and Richard Urena taking one for the team. Urena also made an errant throw at short.
Monday's Linescores
*** 3 Stars!!! ***
3. Shane Dawson, New Hampshire
2. Scott Diamond, Buffalo
1. Jesus Montero, Buffalo
Tuesday's Schedule
Fort Myers @ Dunedin, 11:00 am ET - Francisco Rios (0-1, 6.75)
New Hampshire @ Portland, 6:00 pm ET - John Anderson (2-3, 5.25)
Toledo @ Buffalo, 6:05 pm ET - Wade LeBlanc (4-1, 1.88)
Lansing @ Fort Wayne, 7:05 pm ET - Tyler Saucedo (1-4, 6.08)
Extra Innings