Lansing were outhit 17-8 but still won. Syracuse too were outhit, and made nine errors in regulation, but managed to force extra innings. They finished with ten errors and the loss. New Hampshire and Auburn won big games to keep them in playoff contention, Dunedin lost two but still lead their division.
The minor league season has eight games to go, a little more for Auburn, just one game for the GCL Jays. If the season ended today four Jays affiliates would be in the playoffs. The Midwest league has the most generous allocation of playoff spots, eight in total, and Lansing are in the playoffs. Dunedin and Auburn lead their divisions by 2 and 5 games respectively. New Hampshire are one game up in the hunt for a playoff berth.
Ottawa 12 Syracuse 10 - 10 innings
Syracuse trotted out another emergency starter, saturday it was Pat Mahomes, sunday's mystery starter was Randy Leek who the Jays just picked up from the Long Island Ducks. Leek sprung a leek and allowed 8 runs on 12 hits in 4 innings. The recent doubleheaders with Ottawa really drained the Chiefs pitching staff with Justin James and Jeremy Cummings already converted from the bullpen to starters.
Once Leek departed the Chiefs were down 8-2. Hector Luna hit a two run home run to make it 8-4. The Chiefs then scored five runs in the fifth inning to take the lead, four singles and a walk were followed by a three run double from John Hattig. The Chiefs then gave up a couple of unearned runs, and scored one themselves, and the game was tied at 10 after regulation. The Chiefs had made nine errors to this point but only gave up three unearned runs. Hattig accounted for three errors and Chad Mottola four. Ottawa scored two runs in the tenth off Matt Roney and made another error to make it an even ten, but that error didn't factor into the scoring. The Chiefs were outhit 17-11, Mottola led the Chiefs with three hits.
Another big win for the Fisher Cats as they take a one game lead for the last playoff spot. Yusaku Iriki pitched seven shutout innings followed by shutout innings from Seth Overbey and Tracey Thorpe. For the second day in a row Dustin Majewski led off the game with a home run, he tripled in another run in the fifth. David Smith homered in the sixth.
This was the resumption of Saturday's game which was suspended after two innings with Dunedin leading 2-1. Adrian Martin started the third inning and pitched four innings but gave up four runs on nine hits. Paul Philips pitched the fateful ninth with the scores tied, he had already pitched 1.2 innings so maybe he couldn't handle the workload. The ninth went out, single, wild pitch, intentional walk, passed ball, another intentional walk, unintentional walk, game over. Anthony Hatch led the hitters with three hits.
Dunedin had one hit heading to the seventh inning where they strung together three hits and a run. Kyle Sleeth started for Lakeland with an ERA over 7.50 and held Dunedin to one hit in five innings.
Lansing were up 8-2 after four innings but then had to hold on for the win. Lansing were outhit 17-8 but made sure their hits were important ones. The Lugnuts scored two runs in the second when Brian Pettway doubled in two walks. Lansing tacked on five runs in the third inning on five hits, Travis Snider tripled in 2 runs. Snider homered in the fourth. Lansing had only one hit after the home run. Graham Godfrey only pitched three innings, Zach Dials pitched two innings in relief, his first appearance in over a month. Snider and Paul Franko had two hits each.
Chi-Hung Cheng started and pitched five shutout innings allowing just two hits. JP Arencibia who had 3 hits with two doubles yesterday had two more hits, both doubles in this game. He scored two runs and drove in two. Carlos Vazquez went 3-4 with a triple.
GCL Blue Jays - Scheduled day off
The GCL Jays play their last game of the season Monday.
3 star selection
3rd star - JP Arencibia
2nd star - Dustin Majewski
1st star - Yusaku Iribi
Team Records
Syracuse 60-76, 5th place, 17 games behind
New Hampshire 68-65, 2nd place, 10.5 games behind, 1 game ahead for last playoff spot
Dunedin 40-24, 1st place, 2 games ahead
Lansing 36-26, 2nd place, 4.5 games behind
Auburn 39-25, 1st place, 5 games ahead
Gulf Coast Jays 35-24, 2nd place, 7 games behind
