David Purcey delivered what could be his best start of the year yesterday, six shutout innings, three hits allowed. Purcey did allow his usual four walks with four K's but in the process lowered his ERA to 1.99. Syracuse scored four times in the first inning, the first three hitters, Wayne Lydon, Ryan Roberts and Kevin Barker all singled to score one, then Chad Mottola doubled home two more. Mike Mahoney homered in the second and four more hits scored a run in the fourth. Wayne Lydon and Mike Mahoney each had two hits and a walk.
Ex-Blue Jay note, Kevin Cash is hitting .188 for Durham.
Video of David Purcey throwing in the bullpen can be seen here. Warning, the file size is large.
Manager Doug Davis held a closed door meeting after yesterdays game but it didn't help the hitters, the Fisher Cats had only two hits, both by Manny Mayorson. Ismael Ramirez was partially victimized by the stolen base in this game. In the first inning Ramirez walked the second hitter who promptly stole second and went to third on a throwing error, then scored on a double. After the double Ramirez retired thirteen out of fifteen hitters before allowing a lead off single in the sixth. The runner stole second and third before scoring on a sac fly. Ramirez final line was 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K and his ERA is now 1.86.
Jesse Litsch started for Dunedin and had one really bad inning, the second, where he gave up two runs on five hits and escaped with the bases loaded. Dunedin got one back in the fourth thanks to two errors and an RBI single by Christian Snavely. Daryl Harang and Justin James combined to give up four more runs in the seventh to make it a 6-1 game. Dunedin added a consolation run in the eighth, Ryan Klosterman walked and Ryan Patterson doubled him home. Dunedin hitters had four hits in the game. Litsch's final line was 5 IP, 7H, 2B, 3K. His ERA is 4.28.
Lansing at Quad Cities
The double header was rained out again and now back to back double headers are scheduled Monday and Tuesday, although the weather forecast is not optimistic.
Stars
3 Mike Mahoney, 2 hits, a walk with a HR
2 Ismael Ramirez
1 David Purcey, six shutout innings
Standings
Syracuse are 10-13, in sixth place, 5.5 games behind Scranton
New Hampshire are 8-14, in fourth place, 5.5 games behind Connecticut
Dunedin are 12-11, in second place, two games behind Fort Myers
Lansing are 17-5, in first place, 2 games ahead of West Michigan, after a 5-0 week
Bonus Coverage
In Buffalo this week I talked with Sergio Santos and Ryan Houston. Santos was surprised but happy to be traded to the Blue Jays. "When it first happened it was a surprise and it is hard not to look at it as one organization giving up on you. You have to look at it positively, when you look at the calibre of players in the deal, with Glaus and Hudson, and I don't think I was a throw-in, it's good that an organization wants you." It is always tough to come to a new team where you know no-one and that was the biggest issue for Santos during spring training. Now that the season has started it's the cold that takes a lot of getting used to. "I had seen snow before but just on the ground at Big Bear (in California). I had never seen it falling before so when it was falling I was out there in it and my teammates were telling me to get inside but I wanted to stay out there. I had to get my wife to send me some warm clothes, I didn't bring any with me". The Diamondbacks teams play in warmer weather locations than the Jays teams. Santos acknowledges 2005 as a learning opportunity, BA noted in their prospect review that Santos's defense improved but his hitting regressed. "At shortstop defense is almost the most important thing and I worked on it to make it better. With the hitting I learned a lot last year and I look on it as a learning opportunity. Sometimes you have to fail to get better, even the best players succeed only 30% of the time. Last year I learned about pitchers patterns and defensive positioning and a lot of other things." When you see Santos play it is easy to see what excites the scouts, he has a big body but moves well at short and he has a major league shortstops arm. He has very good speed on the bases and in BP the balls jump off his bat. Now as the weather warms up Santos has to warm up his bat too.
Ryan Houston is a hard throwing relief pitcher who the Jays picked out of high school with their 31st pick in 1998. After a season at junior college Houston signed with the Jays and has been in the system since 1999. Houston put up some impressive numbers last year in AA, 40.1 innings, 26 hits, 50 K's and 13 walks, a 2.68 ERA. Nevertheless Houston was sent to AA to start the year. I asked him if he was disappointed to be sent down? "Yeah, you always want to go to the highest level you can but I knew the situation coming into spring training and the Jays told me to hang tight, that moves would be made, so I just went down to AA and pitched as well as I could pitch, and I knew I would be moved up eventually. I was probably upset for one day but then I realized that no matter where you go you have to produce." Houston was injured for a while last year. "I had an elbow strain, and went to Florida (for treatment and rehab). I missed about six weeks but when I came back I felt great and had no problems." I asked Ryan what he was working on this year. "Just getting ahead of guys, and don't walk anybody. I feel if I don't walk anyone I have a good chance of getting out of there without giving up any runs. That and keeping the ball down." Does he see any difference in the AAA hitters? "It's a bit early to say, I have only made a couple of outings so far, basically it's the same, if you make your pitches you'll be OK, if not they will hit them. If anything they hit the ball harder here, they seem to barrel more balls." On Saturday Houston pitched another 2.1 shut-out innings to make it three AAA appearances with no runs allowed. If Houston keeps this up he could get the call to Toronto, he is already on the 40 man roster so the Jays don't have to drop anyone as they would to add another pitcher such as Ty Taubenheim.
