All four affiliates had day games scheduled and three of them won and one was rained out. These games are scheduled for school groups to come in and get a day at the park. The teams clean up on the concessions while the players try to wake up when they normally sleep. The affiliates won behind good pitching. The three starters conceded one run between them, Sean Reid-Foley, Cesar Valdez and Angel Perdomo all pitched well. Chris Rowley also turned some heads with his pitching out of the bullpen.
Buffalo
Cesar Valdez is no spring chicken, he is 32 years old and he has 29 innings of major league experience. In his first start for Buffalo he threw five hitless innings with just one walk on his record. He had just two K's but got ten ground balls. Interesting that Matt Latos came out of the bullpen and pitched an inning. Is that Latos working his arm back into shape or is it a permanent move?
The Bisons had ten hits but five of them were doubles. Jake Elmore had two hits and scored two runs. Rowdy Tellez doubled off the wall and drove in two. Hot hitters Dwight Smith and Jason Leblebijian each had a hit.
New Hampshire
Sean Reid Foley had his best start of the year. He pitched five innings of three hit ball with seven K's and no walks. The absence of walks is the most surprising part of this start, prior to Wednesday SRF had walked 14 hitters in 15 innings. It was an excellent start and now we just need to see a few in a row. Chris Rowley tried to one up SRF. Rowley had seven K's in just three innings. That gives him 27 K's this season in 21.2 innings. In those 21.2 innings Rowley has given up 13 hits and walked just two. Thats a WHIP of .69. In case you have forgotten Rowley spent a couple of years away from baseball because of his military commitments. He is now 26 years old but certainly getting noticed.
The Fisher Cats had just seven hits and were out hit 10-7. Gunnar Heidt had two hits although his average is still just .224. Harold Ramirez hit his second home run of the season. Ramirez is just hitting .210 which is low but it the highest it has been since the second day of the season. Anthony Alford went 0-4.
Dunedin
Angel Perdomo had a decent start. His pitched five shutout innings but he had to use 94 pitches to do so. 53 of those were strikes so 41 were balls and he walked four in five innings. Its the usual story for Perdomo, he also walked four in his last start. Over his last five starts he has 26 K's in 25 innings with 13 walks. This was his pattern last year too, he just needs to tighten his control at each level.
The Jays have a couple of new hitters in their lineup, both coming off the DL. Josh Almonte had two hits with a home run to lead the offense. Almonte has shown glimpses of potential without much consistency. This is his age 23 season so this is the time to step up. Carl Wise is the other newbie, he was 1-4 out of the DH slot. Wise is another player who needs to show what he has this year after a below average year in Lansing in 2016. Kevin Vicuna has only one hit in his last six games and his average is down to .227. DJ Davis had a hit and has six hits in his last four games with just one strikeout. Is this a blip? Danny Jansen and Max Pentecost had the day off.
Lansing
Lansing were rained out and the game will not be made up. I believe the Lugnuts just make one western trip per season, so there was no opportunity to make it up.
3 Stars
3rd star: Josh Almonte
2nd star: Cesar Valdez
1st star: Sean Reid-Foley
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