The FCL Jays have the hottest hitters in the league and they racked up 14 runs on Saturday. Buffalo hitters are doing pretty good too and both these teams won. It was Buffalo's fifth win in a row. Vancouver finally tired of being beaten up by Everett and rallied for a come from behind, walk off win. And it was a no hit, walk off. Behind these teams there was a scarcity of hits as New Hampshire and Dunedin lost.
Syracuse 3 Buffalo 6
Reading 6 New Hampshire 0
Everett 6 Vancouver 7
Lakeland 2 Dunedin 0
FCL Tigers 6 FCL Blue Jays 14
This is what I noted from yesterday's games.
Forrest Wall is back from the IL and he went 2-4 on his return. Kevin Smith also had two hits, one of them was his 17th home run. Tyler White was another in the two hit club, he hit his seventh home run. And the final member of the two hit, one home run club is Nash Knight. Christian Colon had three hits but didn't figure into the scoring.
Tommy Milone started and pitched one inning. Milone hasn't been especially sharp on his rehab, in this game two hits and a walk led to an unearned run. The best of the relievers was John Axford who recorded five outs with just one hit reaching base. He struck out three of the five outs.
Luis Quinones made his AA debut and things went well through his first three innings. But in the fourth three straight hits led to a run. Then a familiar bugaboo resurfaced. Quinones walked one to ,oad the bases, another to walk in a run, and another walk for good measure. Mike Ellenbest came on in relief and let the remaining three runners score. Hopefully a learning experience for Quinones.
Just five hits for the Fisher Cats. Austin Martin, Samad Taylor and Jordan Groshans had one each.
Once again Everett scored early, one in the first and two in the second. Brian Rapp started and gave up the three runs but just one was earned thanks to two errors by Ronny Brito. Scoring was limited after that and the C's came to the bottom of the eighth trailing 4-1. A couple of walks started the inning then three singles and an error gave Vancouver the 5-4 lead. Victor Caracci came on to get the save but he hit a batter who later scored to tie the game. On to extra innings and Everett scored a run in the top of the tenth. The bottom of the tenth was an adventure. A walk and a hit batter, along with the designated runner, loaded the bases. Everett then struck out the next two hitters. Will Robertson was also hit by a pitch to tie the game and Sebastian Espino then walked on a 3-2 pitch to win it.
The C's had eight hits, Ryan Gold was the only one with two. Sebastian Espino homered to go along with his walk off walk.
This was a low offense game, four hits for the Tigers, just five for the Jays. The two hot hitters, Steward Berroa and Orelvis Martinez were held hitless. Miguel Hiraldo had a single. Hugo Cardona, another hot hitter, went 2-4.
Alejandro Melean threw five inning. He just allowed one earned run on three hits.
The GCL/FCL is generally a low offense league. But this years Blue Jays have been hitting and scoring runs. They lead the league in runs and it's not close, they are scoring over seven runs per game. As a result there are some healthy batting averages among the hitters. On Saturday, 19 year old Gabriel Martinez was 2-4 and is hitting .311. Amell Brazoban, another 19 year old, also had two hits and he is hitting .321. Leonel Callez had his first two at-bats of the season and singled in both, driving in two runs. 18 year old catcher Victor Mesia was 3-5, scoring two and driving in two.
Three Stars
Third Star - Sebastian Espino
Second Star - Kevin Smith
First Star - Victor Mesia
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