Orelvis Martinez had a big night and has stepped up to another level in July. Breyvic Valera and Kevin Smith starred for Buffalo while Alejandro Kirk scuffles. New Hampshire had a nice comeback win thanks to Kevin Vicuna's first home run of the season. Vancouver took the only loss for the affiliates as CJ Van Eck struggled.
Lehigh Valley 3 Buffalo 4
New Hampshire 5 Hartford 2
Vancouver 6 Hillsboro 12
Dunedin 15 Clearwater 10 - 10 innings
FCL Yankees 7 FCL Blue Jays 12
This is what I noted from yesterday's games.
Breyvic Valera and Kevin Smith led the offense from the top two spots. Each had three hits, Valera scored two and Smith drove in two. Christian Colon homered. Alejandro Kirk was 0-5 and is hitting .243 in AAA. It looks like he still needs more time in AAA.
Zach Logue went five innings. He gave up two earned runs but had just two strikeouts.
With New Hampshire trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Kevin Vicuna hit a three run home run to make it 4-2. It was his first home run of the year. Demi Orimoloye followed with his first home run of the season to make it 5-2. Austin Martin was 2-4 with a walk and Jordan Groshans 1-3 with two walks and two runs scored. Vinny Capra was hitless.
Reilly Hovis, the recently signed free agent, pitched five innings with just an unearned run on his record. Martin, playing short, made two throwing errors, Groshans, playing third, also made a throwing error. Four relievers followed Hovis.
It was the bad CJ Van Eyk who showed up on Friday. He gave up six runs in the second inning and nine in total over 3.1 innings.
The C's did have eleven hits themselves. Ryan Gold had three. Tanner Morris and Eric Rivera had two each.
The Dunedin pitching was not good. Alejandro Melean started and gave up six of the runs. The best pitching for the Jays was by Gabriel Ponce who held Clearwater off in the ninth to give the Jays a chance to win it in the tenth. He also pitched the tenth. The D Jays trailed 10-8 headed to the ninth. They scored two to tie and five more in the tenth.
Orelvis Martinez hit his twelfth home run. He hit it off Anton Kuznetsov who was born in Moscow. Martinez also doubled twice, singled and walked twice. Martinez is now hitting .282. In July he is hitting .383 with an OPS of 1.354. It seems he is hitting the next level and is turning into the hitter we expected him to be. Dasan Brown was 2-4 with a walk. Addison Barger had a quiet night until he homered in the tenth.
Twelve runs with eight hits for the FCL Jays. They also walked eleven times and the Yankees made two errors. Rikelin De Castro had a hit to get his average above .200. He also walked twice. Jose Rivas was 2-2 and is hitting well but at 20 he is a little older and repeating in the complex league. Darlin Guzman, who just arrived from Cincinnati, homered in two at bats. Cesar Ayala struck out seven in three innings but also gave up four runs, including two home runs. Sounds like a Robbie Ray type pitcher. Will Robertson had three at-bats in a rehab assignment.
Three Stars
Third Star - Breyvic Valera
Second Star - Kevin Vicuna
First Star - Orelvis Martinez
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