Syracuse at Columbus - cancelled

Minor league baseball calls this game as cancelled, the Chiefs would like to have it resume with Syracuse up 5-0 in the second inning.  However in checking the schedule Syracuse and Columbus don't play again this season.

Gregg Zaun and Wayne Lydon homered in their brief appearances. 

New Hampshire 8  Erie 1 - 7 innings

Robert Ray made his AA debut and pitched very well, the game was shortened to seven innings due to rain so Ray gets credit for a complete game.  Ray had an excellent two seam fastball that had a lot of movement and was between 88 and 91 mph.  Ray was very effective in keeping the ball down, there were no outfield outs until the fourth inning and only two in the game.  Ray also threw a change-up, a slider and a curve-ball.  The slider and the curve were not thrown much by Ray, and not too effectively, but his fastball was good enough to win with.  Ray will have to improve those off-speed pitches before he moves to AAA.

Scott Campbell was as advertised, he has a nice short classic lefty swing which he immediately used to single to start the game.  Campbell was very selective at the plate, he took a very close 3-2 pitch for a walk later in the game and walked a second time in the fourth.

Travis Snider looked to have his old swing back.  This was my third time seeing Snider play and he has great hand-eye coordination but is not that selective at the plate.  Snider is good at laying off pitches inside and outside but will swing a lot at pitches down in the zone.  If I was pitching to Snider today I would throw him a lot of change-ups or off-speed pitches as he tends to follow them down and hit a ground ball.  Sometimes he grounds out to second or first, sometimes it goes through.  Snider made a mess of one outfield play when the Erie run scored.  There was a runner on first when the batter hit a double off the right field wall, there might have been a play at the plate but Snider's throw went over the cut-off and ended up bouncing off the wall in front of the third base dugout.  Snider has only been in the outfield for a week or so but that was not a good throw.  Otherwise Snider looked good at the plate and had a couple of nice hits.

Snider was involved in the first run, he hit a fly ball to left field that the left fielder lunged for and missed allowing Cambell to score.  It was scored as an error but could have been a single.

In the third inning Snider again drove in Campbell, this time with a ground ball single.  The Fisher Cats added two more with a single by Ryan Patterson and a ground out.

New Hampshire added three more in the sixth with a walk (Kyle Phillips), a bloop (Anthony Hatch) and a sort of blast, Chris Gutierrez hit a double over the centre-fielders head.  Ryan Patterson hit a solo home run in the seventh to make it 8-1.

I will have more follow up on my Erie trip in the coming week.  For now the offensive stand-outs for me were Cambell, Snider and Patterson, no surprise there.  Campbell, as I said, has a short sharp swing that should work at higher levels.  There are some concerns as we have heard with his defense, more on that this coming week.  Snider is very talented but rough around the edges, in particular defense and pitch selection.  Patterson looks nice and quiet at the plate and should get a AAA look before the end of the season.

Mathews is a good hitter but looks like a pure fastball hitter to me at this stage and he might not do as well against the more "junky" pitchers you find in AAA.  Jeroloman did not have a good offensive game last night although his defense is excellent. 

Dunedin - scheduled day off

Lansing 3  Great Lakes 1 - 12 innings

This was a huge win for Lansing as they try and wrap up a playoff berth.  In this game Lansing had only two hits through eight innings and came into the nin th down 1-0.  Luis Perez pitched very well, he went six innings and allowed one run on four hits.  Tiny Tim Collins, the most reliable reliever, pitched the seventh and eight and kept the score 1-0 while lowering his ERA to 0.39. 

In the ninth John Tolisano led off with a double but Matt Liuzza and Moises Sierra each struckout.  Then with two out Kevin Ahrens singled home the tying run.  Edgar  Estanga shut down Great Lakes for three innings giving Lansing the chance to win in the twelfth.  In that inning Sierra led off with a single Followed by an Ahrens double.  Mike McDade then doubled home one run and Eric Eiland hit a sac fly to score another.  Lansing lead by one game with two games left.

3 star selection

3rd star - Luis Perez
2nd star - Robert Ray
1st star - Kevin Ahrens