Buffalo racked up twenty hits as Casey Lawrence pitched well again. Rowdy Tellez had the game winning RBI as New Hampshire came from behind. Dunedin's game was suspended. Justin Maese pitched reasonably well but the bullpen blew his win. Vancouver and Bluefield lost close games, Bluefield in twenty innings.
Buffalo 10 Lehigh Valley 1
Buffalo outhit Lehigh Valley 20-3 and this game was a bit of a walk. It was badly needed after losses on Friday and Saturday. Dalton Pompey had a game, 4-5 with a walk and three RBI. He had a nine pitch walk to start the game and scored on a single by Darrell Ceciliani. Pompey drove in two runs as part of a three run fourth. Wilkin Castillo also had four hits. The Bisons didn't have a home run even though they scored ten runs. Jesus Montero had three hits, Shane Opitz had his first two AAA hits.
Casey Lawrence has been pitching well in his three starts since he was recalled to Buffalo. On Sunday he had a one hit shutout through six innings. Two doubles led to a run in the seventh and he was pulled, but it was an excellent start. Three relievers, including Franklin Morales, finished up.
New Hampshire 5 Portland 4
The Fisher Cats trailed 4-3 headed to the eighth. Christian Lopes singled and stole second. With two outs Jason Leblebijian drove in the tying run and moved to second on a fielding error. That brought Rowdy Tellez to the plate. He singled with a line drive to centre to put the Fisher Cats ahead. Chris Smith came out of the bullpen to get a six up, six down save.
Shane Dawson had a slightly more efficient start. On Sunday he managed to go six innings. However he was charged with four runs in those six innings. He gave up six hits and three walks for a 1.50 WHIP. He K'd 4. Eight New Hampshire hitters each had one hit.
Charlotte 3 Dunedin 3 - game suspended after nine innings
Dunedin trailed 3-2 headed to the bottom of the ninth with Chris Colabello leading off. Colabello reached with a soft line drive to right. It was his only hit of the night. Richard Urena ran for Colabello. Charlotte got two outs before Danny Jansen reached on an infield single. Mike Reeves was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With the last two being catchers both were pinch run for. Those substitutions were not necessary as the ever exciting wild pitch let Urena come home to tie the game. Jansen and Jonathan Davis had two hits, one of Davis' hits was a home run. When the game continues on Monday it will be all hands on deck after all the pinch runners used in the ninth.
Francisco Rios started for Dunedin and went five innings. He only conceded one run on four hits, and he didn't walk anyone. But on the other hand he had just one K. Rios was pulled after five innings and 71 pitches. Starlyn Suriel went three innings and gave up two runs, one earned.
Lansing 5 Burlington 7
Lansing had a 5-4 lead until Josh DeGraaf gave up three runs in the eighth. The blown save took a first A ball win away from Justin Maese. Maese is just 19 years old and this is a fairly aggressive promotion. Maese had some positives and negatives in this first start. He threw just 77 pitches in getting though six innings. He had a 10-3 ground ball, fly ball out ratio, and he walked just one. On the negative side he did not have a strike out and he was tagged for four runs on eight hits. Maese loaded the bases in the first inning by hitting two batters and walking one. But he settled down and retired nine of the last ten hitters he faced. In retrospect, maybe he should have been left in.
Lansing scored two in the first, one run came when John LaPrise stole home as part of a double steal. Carl Wise doubled in the second run. Juan Kelly hit a two run home run in the third. Wise scored the go-ahead run in the sixth when Ryan Metzler singled. Kelly was 3-4 and Connor Panas 2-4, both hits were doubles.
Vancouver 3 Boise 4
Vancouver went down 4-0 as Dalton Rodriguez had a bad start. Gino Encina pitched four shutout innings in relief to try and let the hitters get back into the game. They tried and had the tying run on second twice in the last three innings but could not bring him home.
The Canadians had just seven hits, catcher Javier Hernandez had two.
Bluefield 4 Greeneville 5 - 20 innings
Mike Green summarised this game...."Bluefield lost a 20-inning marathon last night. They left 20 runners on base and went 2-22 with runners in scoring position. Ouch. They had 16 hits including 2 homers, 10 walks and 34 strikeouts. They had the bases loaded and one out in the top of the ninth and couldn't score. They followed it up with two on and one out in the twelfth, a runner on second and nobody out in the fourteenth, and runners on second and third with one out in the sixteenth and couldn't score. They grounded into a double play, they flew into a double play, they grounded into fielder's choice at the plate, they laid down sacrifices, they popped up and they struck out. Torture. Greenville scored the winning run on a ground ball single, a wild pitch and another ground ball single." Thanks Mike.
The teams combined for seven runs in the first five innings, then one run over the next 14. The Jays bullpen pitched 14 shutout innings before Juandy Mendoza took the loss. Osman Gutierrez had started and it was he who gave up the four runs in his five innings. Some of the batting lines were ugly, Matt Morgan had an 0-7. Nash Knight was 4-9 with a triple and a home run. Levi Scott was 3-9 with two doubles and a home run but he struck out five times. Vladdy Jr had three hits, three K's and two walks.
GCL Blue Jays
The GCL Jays did not play on Sunday but they continued to win on Friday and Saturday. They had a 10-0 win on Saturday, Bo Bichette was 3-3, and was a triple short of the cycle. Ryan Gold,an 18 year old catcher who was a 27th round pick in this years draft, went 2-4 and his BA is now .269. Thats good for a kid. Dany Jimenez started and went six innings. He only allowed one hit and had seven K's.
The Jays won 3-1 on Friday. Gold and Manuel Herazo each had two hits. Guadalupe Chavez pitched six shutout innings with 3 K's and no walks.
Three Stars
Third Star - Nash Knight
Second Star - Casey Lawrence
First Star - Dalton Pompey
On Saturday Pompey and Matt Dominguez homered in Buffalo's loss. Danny Barnes pitched two perfect innings to get his ERA down to 0.77. Richard Urena had two hits, one of them was a home run. Connor Panas had two more doubles among his three hits. JB Woodman went 4-5 with a double. TJ Zeuch and Zach Jackson made their first appearances for the Canadians. For Bluefield Hansel Rodriguez went four innings, getting 12 outs, and nine of them were strikeouts.
Conner Greene went six innings on Friday, six hits, three walks and three K's. Richard Urena had two more hits on Friday. Angel Perdomo went six innings with eight K's, no walks.
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