Sergio Santos continues his hot hitting - he's 13 for his last 23, with 11 of those hits going for extra bases.
Syracuse 5 @ Buffalo 10
Funny how things work. Jamie Vermilyea pitched 3 scoreless innings for the Jays on Sunday and was sent to Syracuse. He pitched three innings last night and gave up 7 runs. Gio Gonzalez wasn't too much better giving up 3 runs over 5 innings.
The Chiefs banged out 12 hits on the night. Thigpen hit his 2nd HR of the year and Sal Fasano hit his 5th HR of the year. Hattig, Lydon and Olmedo each had two hits.
Binghamton 1 @ New Hampshire 3
Jesse Litsch is more of an under-the-radar type of prospect for the Jays. He was drafted in the 24th round and then signed the following year as a draft & follow. Litsch split his time last year between Dunedin and New Hampshire. His NH numbers weren't overly impressive (5.06 ERA in 12 starts), but he had an excellent K/BB ratio (54/13) and got two groundball outs for every flyball out last year. (Gerry had an interview with Litsch last summer after he was promoted from Dunedin.)
Last night the Fisher Cats got their third straight win behind Litsch's strong outing. The 22 year old gave up just 1 hit and 2 walks in 6.1 innings. He struck out 6 Mets. After three starts this year Litsch has pitched 17.1 innings and allowed just 16 baserunners. His ERA sits at 1.56.
Jo Matumoto finished off the last two hitters with strikeouts to earn his first save. After 7.2 innings he still has a perfect ERA.
Sergio Santos continued his recent hot streak hitting 2 doubles in 3 ABs, plus a walk. Santos has 14 hits this season and 11 are for extra bases. Both doubles were to right field. The previous night he hit a HR to left and center, and doubled to right. On Sunday his HR was to RF and his double was off the top of the wall in right center. So it appears that Santos is hitting for power to all fields.
I mentioned it in yesterday's MLU: perhaps Santos was just promoted too aggressively and now that he's taken a step back he's starting to catch up to where he should be. It'll be interesting to follow him this year.
Tampa 3 @ Dunedin 2
Brandon Magee got the start and pitched his best game of the year. Magee went 6 solid innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 2 and had a 13/3 GB/FB ratio.
Josh Kreuzer had 2 doubles in 4 ABs for the D-Jays. Otherwise the bats were quiet in Florida last night.
Beloit 1 @ Lansing 0
Chase Lirette was the tough luck loser. He gave up one unearned run on a double, ground out and passed ball. Otherwise he pitched a fine game going 6.2 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 3. His ERA for the season sits at 0.49 after 18.1 innings over 3 starts.
Lansing had just 5 hits on the night. The only extra base hit belonged to Travis Snider who doubled. In case you weren't sure Snider had a power bat he has 11 extra base hits among his 19 hits overall this year. His ISO Slg is nearly .300, he's 3rd in the Midwest League in Slg, and 5th in OPS. And a year ago he was just starting his senior year of high school baseball. I can't imagine anyone expected anything close to this out of Snider so far.
3 Stars!
3 - Sergio Santos
2 - Chase Lirette
1 - Jesse Litsch