Baseball insiders say it is good for a player to have some adversity before they reach the major leagues. Players in the majors will struggle at some point and if you had gone through it before you reach the majors it leaves you more prepared to handle it. Bo Bichette is gaining experience at the moment. Bo was 0-4 on Wednesday and is now hitting around .200 for May. Pitchers have adjusted to Bo and now he needs to adjust too. His strikeout rate is 20% and he is walking, just running into some challenges getting hits. Cavan Biggio and Vlad picked up the slack and New Hampshire continued on their winning ways. Ryan Borucki pitched well but had some umpire trouble, the Bisons lost. Dunedin lost in extras while the Lansing hitters not named Kevin Smith were quiet. That left Zach Logue the loser after his best start as a pro.
Buffalo
Buffalo found hits hard to come by and lost 7-2. They had just four hits in the game, and none until the sixth. Ian Parmley had two hits, one of them a triple. Parmley is hitting .309 although with just one walk and little power. Parmley did get his major league call-up, and three at-bats, last season. Dalton Pompey did not play for the second game in a row. Pompey came out of a game at the weekend because "he didn't look good coming out of the box". He missed a couple of games, came back for one game and now has missed two more. Pompey is very close to the injury prone tag. Rowdy Tellez had a double as his warm-up at the plate continues.
Ryan Borucki pitched well until he ran into some umpire trouble. Borucki pitched 5.2 innings. Through five he had just allowed one run but then in the sixth he walked the bases loaded before a two run single made it a 3-0 game. Pitching coach Bob Stanley then got ejected followed closely by Borucki. It was a good start by Borucki despite the ejection.
New Hampshire
The Fisher Cats won 7-2 even though they were out-hit 10-8. Vlad got his two hits and a walk, his average is at .425. Cavan Biggio had three hits, and was a home run short of the cycle. He drove in three runs. His average is at .304. Jonathan Davis had two doubles and he is hitting .275.
TJ Zeuch went seven innings and his only blemish was a two run home run in the sixth. Zeuch seems to be settling in at AA and his starts are getting better.
Dunedin
This game went to extra innings and ended in disappointment for the Jays. The Jays were down 7-6 headed to the bottom of the tenth. As per the new rules a runner started on second and the next two batters walked to load the bases with no outs. However a strikeout, a pop out and a ground ball left the bases loaded and the Jays with a loss. The Jays had eight hits, Randall Grichuk homered and Kacy Clemens had two hits.
Matt Gunter was called up from extended to make the start and was hit around a bit although Logan Warmoth made an error that led to two unearned runs. It was Warmoth's ninth error. Ty Tice took the loss, he has found it tougher in the FSL.
Lansing
Zach Logue had never pitched into the eighth but he was pitching a shutout through seven so he went back out for the eighth and gave up a home run to the first hitter. Lansing lost 1-0. Logue's line was 8 3 1 1 0 4. It was a very good start and lowers his ERA to 2.67. With Yennsy Diaz in Dunedin, Logue is now the ace of the staff.
The Lugnuts had just four hits. Kevin Smith had two of the hits, both doubles. The question now is when is Smith getting promoted. I can see Smith staying in Lansing until the Lugnuts hopefully clinch a playoff spot which would be just after the middle of June. The second question is where will he play in Dunedin? I don't see Logan Warmoth going anywhere. Bradley Jones is playing third and has been playing better recently. John LaPrise at second is not playing well and he could get bumped for Smith.
Three Stars
Third Star - Kevin Smith
Second Star - Cavan Biggio
First Star - Zach Logue
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