The hot hitters just keep on hitting. Bo Bichette hits another bomb, his sixth. Bradley Jones hit his ninth. Mike Ohlman hit another home run and had three hits in all. Jason Leblebijian had two more hits. Dwight Smith and Vlad Guerrero recorded one each. Conner Greene had an excellent start without recording a fly ball out. One unusual suspect was Richard Urena who had five hits over two games.
Buffalo
Mike Ohlman hit a two run home run in the first inning and those runs were enough in a 4-1 win. Ohlman had two other hits. Ohlman is in a tricky situation, he has very good offense for a catcher but not good enough for another position. However teams value defense over offense in that position so Ohlman gets to stay in AAA. He either has to to hit better so he can play first or DH, or field better so he can catch. Following on from Sunday's big game, Jason Leblebijian picked up two more hits.
Luis Santos is now an official member of the rotation with Matt Latos being released. Santos has bounced between starting and relieving but in his last three starts Santos has pitched 14 innings with 9 hits, 6 walks and 15 K's. Santos might profile as a major league reliever but he is moving up the AAA pecking order, particularly given TJ House's recent form. Matt Dermody is heating up. His April was not good but in May his ERA is down in the low ones and his WHIP is 1.10. He is back on the radar for the major league team.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire played a double header and won both games. Conner Greene almost pitched a complete game which is seven innings in the minor leagues. Greene had allowed one run over six innings and got the first two outs of the seventh. But then Tim Lopes made an error and the next hitter homered off pitch number 91. Greene was pulled and missed a complete game because of the error. Greene's line was 6.2 6 3 1 2 6. Greene got eleven ground ball outs and no fly ball outs. The second game was handled by four relievers.
Richard Urena has been scuffling this season but he didn't scuffle on Wednesday. In game one Urena was 3-4 with a double. In game two he was 2-3 with a triple and a walk. Maybe Urena's bat will warm up with the weather. Gunnar Heidt and Harold Ramirez both had three hits over the two games. Ramirez has his batting average up to .230, the highest it's been all season.
Dunedin
Lucas Harrell signed with the Jays in the off-season but has been injured since the spring. Harrell has 97 games of major league experience with his best year coming in 2012 when he made 32 starts for the Astros. Harrell should make his way to Buffalo within a couple of weeks, assuming his rehab goes well. In this game Harrell went 2.1 innings, with four hits and two walks. Still some rust to work off. Carl Wise might not be on Conor Fisk's Christmas card list. Fisk followed Harrell and recorded nine straight outs. Then Wise booted one in the sixth and before the inning ended Fisk had conceded six runs. Fisk got back on track for the seventh, three up and three down. Then Wise made another error leading off the seventh. That was followed by a single and a home run. Fisk allowed nine runs, two earned and all nine runs followed the two Wise errors.
The Jays only had five hits. Dalton Pompey was 1-4 with a walk. Cavan Biggio and Max Pentecost were hitless.
Lansing
So Bo Bichette, Brad Jones and Vlad Guerrero kept hitting. JB Woodman had two hits, his first multi-hit game since May 7th. His batting numbers have fallen off in May, hitting just over 200. Other than that his offensive numbers are the same from April to May, in fact his K rate has risen slightly. Woodman is still striking out in almost half of his plate appearances. That is tough to fix. Josh Palacios went 0-4. Palacios got off to a late start to the season and then missed five days in middle of May. Since coming back on May 22nd, Palacios is 2-30. You have to wonder if something is still bothering him physically.
It was surprising to some in April when Mike Ellenbest and Andy Ravel were named in the Lugnuts rotation. Those two had piggybacked as starters in Vancouver last season with limited success. This year hasn't been great for them but there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. Ravel had his best start of the season at the weekend and Ellenbest had his best start in this game. He pitched seven shutout innings, four hits, one walk and six K's. On the positive side Ellenbest is striking out more than a hitter per inning. One start does not a season make, but there is hope.
3 Stars
3rd star: Mike Ohlman
2nd star: Brad Jones
1st star: Mike Ellenbest
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