Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Rob Cosby had a big day as the Fisher Cats won. Auburn came from behind to also win. Otherwise three losses made it a 2-3 day. With just over three weeks left in the season, three teams are in the playoff hunt.

Syracuse 8 Scranton 9

Syracuse had a 5-4 lead heading to the bottom of the seventh with Jason Arnold on the mound. Arnold allowed a lead off single and a sac bunt. Kevin Tolar relieved and gave up a triple to tie the game. The usually reliable Lee Gronkiewicz came on to record the second out but walked the next batter, then allowed a 3 run home run and a solo home run and it was a 9-5 game. In the bottom of the ninth the Chiefs scored three on 3 singles, a walk and an error but Julius Matos lined out to end the game with the tying run on second. Earlier in the game Jason Alfaro hit a solo home run and Joe DePastino hit a three run shot. Chris Baker started and went 5 innings, giving up 4 runs. John-Ford Griffin and Jason Alfaro each went 3-5. Gabe Gross and Danny Solano each had two hits and a walk.

Box Score

Binghamton 2 New Hampshire 9

New Hampshire pounded out 15 hits yesterday. Vince Perkins pitched five innings, allowing no more than one base runner in the first, second, fourth and fifth. In the third an error by Raul Tablado on the lead off hitter led to 2 runs. The error was followed by a couple of hits and a couple of walks before Perkins struck out the side to get out of it. Perk's line was 5 4 2 1 2 7. New Hampshire took the lead with 3 runs in the fourth, thanks to a Cosby double; a Thigpen walk; a Cannon triple; and a Kratz double. The Cats added 5 more in the fifth on 6 hits including another Cosby double. Meanwhile Jordan DeJong had what could be his best appearance of the year, four innings, 12 up, 12 down, thanks to a double play. Cosby doubled in another run in the eighth and finished the day 4-5 with 3 doubles. Ryan Roberts, Thigpen, Cannon and Kratz also had two hits each.

Box Score

Dunedin - Scheduled day off

Beloit 4 Lansing 2

Chi-Hung Cheng had a pretty typical start, five innings, two runs, more walks (5) than hits (4). Lansing scored two in the fourth with four straight two out singles. The inning ended when David Hicks was out trying a delayed steal of home on the back end of a first and third double steal. Juan Perez came on in the sixth and retired seven in a row before a walk and three singles put Lansing down 4-2. Aaron Mathews and Charlie Anderson had two hits each.

Box Score

Batavia 4 Auburn 5

Two runs in the seventh, and two more in the eighth, gave Auburn the win after trailing 4-1 in the seventh. In the seventh Matt Cooksey singled, Joey Metropoulos doubled to score one, and Brian Bormaster singled in the second run. in the eighth Jermy Acey doubled, Cory Patton reached on a strikeout, Matt Cooksey singled home the tying run and a sac fly by Metropoulos brought in the go ahead run. Paul Philips came on in the eighth with two on and no outs and promptly pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Robert Ray started, pitched 4.1 innings with one run allowed on three hits. Acey and Cooksey had two hits each, Acey had also hit a home run in the first inning.

Box Score

Bluefield 9 Pulaski 4

Jesse Litsch started and was not at his best giving up three runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings. Rafael Perez followed and gave up four more runs in two thirds of an inning. Al Quintana led the offense on this night, tripling in a run in the second and scoring on a single from Jesus Gonzalez. In the fourth Quintana doubled and scored on a single by Octavio Cordero. In the ninth the same threesome was at it again, Quintana singled, Gonzalez doubled him to third, and Cordero hit a sac fly. Quintana and Gonzalez had three hits each.

Box Score

Your Three Star Selection

Third star - Paul Philips 2 inning save

Second Star - Jermy Acey, 2 hits, HR

First Star - Rob Cosby, 4-5

Standings Update

Just over three weeks left in the season, three teams, New Hampshire, Dunedin and Auburn are strong contenders for a playoff spot. Syracuse are a long shot. Lansing and Pulaski will not make it.

Syracuse record is 61-61. The Chiefs are tied for fourth place, five games back of Buffalo.

The Fisher Cats are 60-61, and are in third place, four and a half games back of Portland, and one game out of the playoffs.

Dunedin are 27-22, and are are in second place, a half game behind Lakeland.

The Lugnuts are 21-29, and are fourth, eighth games back of two teams.

Auburn are 31-22, on an eight game winning streak, in first place, three games ahead of Mahoning Valley.

Pulaski are 25-27, in third place, eleven games behind Danville.

Posted by Gerry on Monday, August 15 2005 @ 09:30 AM EDT.

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Erin - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 09:46 AM EDT (#125562) #

Auburn also resumed play on the 20 inning game that was suspended in July. Auburn won 6-5 in the bottom of the 22nd when Josh Bell drove in Matt Cooksey.

Pistol - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 10:00 AM EDT (#125564) #

Only 11 innings short of a record..

http://www.redwingsbaseball.com/history/longestgame.html

DepecheJay - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 10:21 AM EDT (#125566) #

It looks like Vince Perkins FINALLY might have turned the corner. He's always had outstanding stuff, but he never really had the K's to back it up... kind of like with Rosario. But suddenly, since coming off the DL he has posted some real nice K numbers and has looked very good in general. I wonder what the Jays have envisioned for his future. Looks like another possible reliever.

mcpherv - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#125568) #

According to the article copied into this thread (note that I didn't copy the article myself - I am only making use of what someone else has already posted):
http://www.bluejayway.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6452.0

JP states that Perkins is a possibility for a rotation spot in the future. He said that about Rosario as well, though, so obviously things can change fast.

I wonder how much of Perkins' improvement comes from working with Thigpen? I have gotten the general impression that the K totals of some of the pitchers on the Fisher Cats have improved since he joined - a similar sentiment is expressed by Dick Scott in the interview posted today as well (although he only just stated that Thigpen has done a good job). Obviously "stuff" is important, but pitch location and selection obviously plays a big part in the end result.

Its the same sort of thing I notice in the quality of calls in games caught by Huck and Zaun as well - it just seems that whenever Huck catches, the pitchers seem a little lost when compared with when Zaun catches (JP mentioned Zaun's game calling ability a few weeks ago on WWJP as well, so the brass also notices this trend). This sort of thing was especially evident with Halladay when Zaun was injured - the games against both Cleveland and Washington both had lower K totals and higher pitch counts for Doc than usual - understandable when you saw the fact that Doc's curve was almost never thrown in pitchers counts - allowing the hitters more opportunity to spoil good pitches. Halladay was instead mostly throwing his sinker in these counts, inexplicably still trying to get the hitter to make contact instead of being aggressive and trying to finish the hitter off via strikeout.

dr. haque - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#125572) #

I thought I would add this post since two above posters have talked about Perkins turnaround. Last night I spent some time accumulating some stats showing that in fact over the last little while he has significantly improved.

In fact his turnaround can go all the way back to June 16th two starts before his injury which put him out for about a month. Those two starts went as follows

9ip 18h 10ER 4BB 11K.

And the reason I use these two stats is because although he gave up a lot of runs the more telling stat was that he posted a good K:BB ratio. Now his stats after the injury include 8 appearences in which he posted this

34ip 28h 10ER 13BB 40K.

So in fact he has pitched very well since his return and I dont think Perkins has had a problem with hits or ERA but its always been his walk to strikeout ratio. Now including both stats that I have shown, add to this

43ip 46h 21ER 17BB 51K.

That ratio is 3:1 K/BB ratio which is very good considering his history. And if you take away one start which he made on July 30th in which he had 4BB 4K he posts a 47:13 K/BB ratio which is nearly 4:1 which can be compared to a lot of the other prospects in the minor leagues. So to conclude this lengthy post has Perkins finally put it together or is this just one lucky streak? I think he has begun to put it together and this can only mean good things for the fans because a lot of people have waited for him to put it together for a long time.

Gerry - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 04:16 PM EDT (#125623) #

And to follow on, Vince Perkins was named the pitcher of the week in the Eastern League. He had a 1.46 ERA in 2 starts.

R Billie - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 05:44 PM EDT (#125632) #

I think Perkins' improvement can be traced all the way back to spring training when Brad Arnsberg got him started on towel drills to keep him on a straight line delivering to home. He had some impressive early results before tailing off to his eventual injury. Now it seems he's back strong with a healthy arm.

Arnsberg is basically trying to do the same thing for League right now. Though one has to wonder if seeing this little game action is a good thing for him. He couldn't even get into the 12-0 game in order to allow Towers to finish the shutout.

Anyhow, it seems like the three or four big power arms the Jays have (McGowan, League, Rosario, Perkins) actually do have a chance to make something of themselves, with Rosario and League still being uncertain. If they can get contributions from all four (which would be surprising) they would be in great shape.

dr. haque - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 06:38 PM EDT (#125639) #

So should we expect to see Perkins with the Jays sometime next season or is that just wishful thinking? He is 23 now and the Jays have taken their time with him and making sure he develops properly.

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