Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - No New Injuries on the Farm

With nothing going right for the parent club, some Jays fans hoped maybe the minor leagues would bring some good news. If that’s the case, it’s not going to happen today, as two blowouts and one extra-inning loss means only one win on the farm. We’ll take a look at what happened, as some pitchers continued to struggle, some batters continued to hit and the low minors continued to make errors. However, nobody got hurt, and that's what's important. Seriously.

Syracuse 3 @ Louisville 4 (10) - Box Score

Mike MacDonald made his second start for Syracuse and began with a rough patch, surrendering two runs in the first and one in the second. However, he settled down and didn’t allow any further Louisville runs over the next four innings and left with 6 strikeouts in 6 innings. Ryan Houston pitched 0.2 scoreless innings and Jordan DeJong followed with 1.2 innings of one hit, 3 strikeout ball.

For Louisville Tom Shearn gave up one run in the second and two in the fourth and matched MacDonald with 6 innings. A trio of nondescript relievers, including Jim Shakelford, shut down the Chiefs during the rest of the game until the Bats scored the wining run in the tenth on a Ricky Gutierrez home run off 33-year-old James Crowell, whose struggles led to Ottawa releasing him earlier in the year. The Chiefs managed seven hits on the day, with every starter aside from Wayne Lydon and Russ Adams notching one and only one. John-Ford Griffin had the only extra-base hit with a double, and also managed to score two runs and draw a walk, although he struck out in both plate appearances where he didn’t reach base. The soon to be even more depleted Chiefs hope that John Hattig broke out of his slump with a two out, 2 RBI single in the fourth that scored Griffin and Adams.

New Hampshire 3 @ Bowie 10 - Box Score

Bowie jumped out to a one run lead after one inning as Orlando Trias got two outs around a single, but an error by Sergio Santos led to runners on first and third with two out. Then came one of my favourite baseball events, as Bowie executed the double steal, with Oscar Salazar stealing second, his first base of the year, as Ruddy Yan stole home. Trias cruised until the fifth, when he gave up five runs. However, none were earned. The Fisher Cats committed three errors during the inning, as Dustin Majewski made a throwing error, Robinzon Diaz made a fielding error and John Schneider committed catcher’s interference. After a dream beginning, Jo Matumoto continued his recent struggles. Matumoto allowed seven baserunners and three runs over 1.2 innings to raise his ERA to 4.60.

New Hampshire pounded eight hits and four walks over six innings off Radhames Liz of the Baysox, but only managed three runs. They pushed across a run in the third on a Sergio Santos RBI single that cashed Dustin Majewski. In the fifth the Fisher Cats scored two more on a Ryan Patterson two run home run. New Hampshire had ten hits on the evening, with Santos and Patterson each chipping in for two and Diaz contributing a 3-5 night. Chip Cannon went 0-5 and is hitting .185/.305/.385.

Dunedin 6 @ Palm Beach 4 - Box Score

AJ Wideman picked up his first win for Dunedin with the basic quality start. Yesson Berroa gave up the fourth run in relief in the eight inning, but Daryl Harang got out of the inning without further damage to preserve a 5-4 Dunedin lead. After Dunedin pushed across another run in the top of the ninth, Connor Falkenbach had a flawless bottom of the ninth inning for his eleventh save of the year.

Luke Hetherington led the offensive attack for Dunedin. He reached base in four of his five plate appearances and had three of Dunedin’s seven hits. Hetherington was one of two D-Jays to knock in two runners, along with Carlo Cota. He scored twice, as did Brian Jeroloman and Luis Sanchez, as Dunedin’s 8-9-1-2 punch accounted for all of the team’s runs, all of their RBIs but one and all of the team’s hits but one.

Quad Cities 11 @ Lansing 5 - Box Score

Quad Cities led this game 4-3 going into the seventh, where it all fell apart for Lansing. Chase Lirette and Eddy Rodriguez allowed seven runs and robbed the game of any excitement. Lirette left the game with the bases loaded and one out, but Rodriguez allowed all of his inherited runners to score and then let four of his own cross the plate. Lansing committed three errors, including two by Travis Snider. For Lansing at the plate, Chris Gutierrez, Sean Shoffit and Yuber Rodriguez each had two hits and Matt Liuzza added a solo homer.

3 star selection

3rd star – AJ Wideman, 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

2nd star – Sergio Santos, 2-3, R, RBI, 2 BB, 2 TB

1st star – Luke Hetherington, 3-4, 2 R, 2 3B, BB, 2 RBI, 7 TB

Posted by Thomas on Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 03:07 AM EDT.

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ayjackson - Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 09:50 AM EDT (#167924) #

Luke "Jo Jo" Hetherington is have a fine season so far.....HA HA!

Maldoff - Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 12:12 PM EDT (#167930) #

According to MiLB.com, Russ Savickas has been promoted from Dunedin to New Hampshire, and will start for the Fisher Cats tonight.

Sort of a surprising move, considering Savickas hasn't really dominated at A, despite his 2.70 ERA. Only 22 K's in 36.2 IP. But I guess with Romero missing 10 days, they needed to call someone up.

ramone - Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 06:30 PM EDT (#167951) #

In today's syracuse game Thigpen is playing second and Adams is out of the lineup.

Is Thigpen's inability to throw out runners bringing this move on?

Gerry - Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 06:40 PM EDT (#167952) #

Well Ryan Roberts was called up yesterday so the Chiefs are down to 5 infielders. Lets assume Adams is hurt and needs a day off, the choices for second are Brad Hassey or Thigpen. Maybe Hassey is hurt or maybe Thigpen needs to face Homer Bailey. Even if the Jays were worried about Thigpens throwing I doubt that anyone would admit it and it seems to soon to me to make a permanent change.

I would assume Thigpen will be back at catcher in the next day or two.

BigTimeRoyalsFan - Saturday, May 12 2007 @ 07:04 PM EDT (#167956) #

i have been looking at thigpen's stats throughout college and the minors, and they seem to be very nice for a catcher. it seems these days any catcher that can actually hit .270 with a .350 obp is a valuable commodity. however, i have never seen him play at all. is his arm really that terrible? does it project to be any worse than say, a zaun's or a phillip's? cuz i imagine if its not, and with his consistent numbers, that we will be seeing thigpen on the jays for the entire 2008. certainly he can be as capable of a backup as phillips or fasano? just wanted to hear the thoughts of anyone who has seen this kid play recently. johnny bench the 2nd?

tstaddon - Sunday, May 13 2007 @ 01:12 AM EDT (#167967) #

I, too, have never seen Thigpen play but like his bat a lot. Defensively, the reports were very mixed last year (some very positive, others quite the opposite). Is the consensus that it's just his arm? And if anyone who has seen him play can speak for whether or not he'd have the range to play 2B, please do.

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