After beating up on lowly Buffalo and Lehigh Valley the Chiefs faced Pawtucket who were three games over .500. David Purcey made his first post-major league start and it was a "Purceyesque" start. Purcey threw 104 pitches in six innings and struck out nine batters. Purcey gave up two runs in the second. A one out single and a two out walk were followed by a two run double, with an error added so that only one run was earned. Markham's George Kottaras homered off Purcey in the fifth. David allowed five hits and four walks in his six innings.
Former major leaguer Michael Tejera held the Chiefs to only four hits in six innings. The Chiefs run scored on a home run by Eric Nielsen. In total Syracuse had five hits, Nielsen had two of them. Lee Gronkiewicz pitched a three up three down ninth for Pawtucket. Adam Lind was 0-4.
Ricky Romero continued his up and down season with a very good start against Portland. Romero did allow a run in the first inning on two doubles but then retired nine out of ten. The one hitter to reach worked a lead-off walk, stole second, moved to third on an out and was thrown out by shortstop Chris Gutierrez at home. Romero allowed two runners in the fourth and two more in the fifth but he left them on the bases. Romero went five innings and gave up one run on five hits. Romero had a very good 9-3 ground ball, fly ball ratio.
New Hampshire got off to a fast start with two runs in the first, Gutierrez doubled and scored on a single by Jacob Butler. After a Travis Snider walk Josh Kreuzer doubled to make it 2-0. After Romero allowed a run in the bottom of the first the Cats got it back in the second. Marcos Cabral and Brian Jeroloman walked and later scored on a single by Gutierrez. New Hampshire added a fourth run in the sixth thanks to that exciting play the bases loaded walk, except that it was Gutierrez who walked to get the RBI putting him in the mix for three runs on this day.
Jamie Vermilyea followed Romero and pitched 2.1 shutout innings. Sean Stidfole gave up a run in 1.2 innings of work.
Travis Snider's day went walk; strike out; ground out to first; ground ball single. When you see Snider with doubles or home runs to left field or centre field you will know he has his good swing back. When I saw Snider in Fort Myers two weeks ago he was pulling off the ball. Despite the promotion I think Snider is still doing that, I think putting Snider with last years Lansing manager Gary Cathcart and Ken Joyce will help him get his swing straight.
Gutierrez was 2-3 with a run scored and two RBI's.
Gustavo Chacin had his best start of the season for Dunedin. After a perfect first Chacin allowed one hit in each of the second, third and fourth innings. Gus gave up a run in the fifth on three singles and another in the sixth on a double and a single. Chacin went six innings and gave up two runs on eight hits with no walks. Dunedin got a cheap run in the third on an error, a balk and a ground ball single. Edward Rodriguez gave up a run in the eighth.
The Jays had only three hits. Scott Rolen was 0-2 with a strikeout.
Lansing produced a come from behind win with two runs in the eighth inning. Lansing had never had more than one base runner in an inning trough seven. In the eighth Matt Liuzza led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Wesley Stone. Mike McDade grounded into a force out at home followed by Moises Sierra grounding out back to the pitcher putting runners at second and third. Raul Barron delivered with a two run single to give Lansing the lead. Randy Boone got the win with two perfect innings, the eighth and ninth.
Brad Mills started and pitched very well, the only run came when he left a two out walk at first and reliever Cody Crowell gave up an RBI double. Mills went 4.2 innings and allowed five hits and one walk with four strikeouts.
Liuzza and Stone had two hits each.
3 star selection
3rd star - Raul Barron
2nd star - Matt Liuzza
1st star - Chris Gutierrez
