The Toronto Blue Jays scored as many or more runs in the first inning yesterday as each of their minor league affiliates did during their entire games. I’ve not checked conclusively, but I believe that has to be a first for 2008. There were few noteworthy offensive performances, but Jonathan Baksh and Brad Emaus continued to swing hot bats, while Eric Eiland and Kenneth Wilson are doing well as leadoff hitters in the lower minors. However, the story on the night was pitching, with Robert Ray and Luis Perez throwing absolute gems and Michael MacDonald and Kenny Rodriguez pitching very well, too.
Toledo 12 @ Syracuse 2 – Boxscore
This one was the reverse of the parent club, as it was 9-0 after one and a half innings and Toledo went on to score 12 runs on 19 hits. Kane Davis fared a bit better than Bronson Arroyo, as he was able to get through two complete innings, but that was it. Nine hits, nine runs, a walk and two home runs later and his night was over. The one bright spot on the evening may have been Michael MacDonald’s relief effort, which saved Syracuse’s bullpen from taking a beating. MacDonald gave up one run on five hits with two strikeouts, but most importantly he gave the team five innings and allowed the team to turn it over to Sean Stidfole and Mike Gosling for the last two innings and avoided going through the entire bullpen. Stidfole pitching a scoreless inning and has yet to allow a run for Syracuse since his promotion, while Gosling allowed a couple on five hits.
Toledo’s Matt Joyce hit a three-run homer and a grand slam in his first two at-bats. The grand slam came with two out in the second and was likely what chased Davis from the game. Toledo tied a season-high with 19 hits and this allowed starter Virgil Vazquez to have his longest outing of the season, eight innings. Syracuse only had five hits, with the two runs coming from solo homers by Matt Watson and Buck Coats. Current and former middle infielders accounted for the rest of the offence, with Russ Adams, Hector Luna and Kevin Melillo each adding singles.
New Hampshire 6 @ New Britain 0 – Boxscore
Robert Ray. That’s your game story. Really, that’s about all you need. Ray threw a complete game five-hit shutout. He didn’t walk a batter and struck ten. He has a 0.78 ERA in three starts since being promoted from Dunedin. This was Ray’s third complete game of the season and his second for New Hampshire, but his other complete game in Double-A was in a seven-inning game. Ray’s K/BB ratio between Single and Double-A is 3.36, but yesterday was the first time Ray had more than three strikeouts in an outing for New Hampshire.
The MiLB game story has a couple of quotes from Ray which may be worth sharing:
“In both outings [referring to the CG for Dunedin[, I felt the same and all my pitches worked," Ray said. "I was able to stay ahead in the count and keep the fastball down, and my breaking pitches were working. I felt fresh even warming up in the bullpen. It was in a finer zone than it might be on an average night. That resulted in getting a lot of pitches over for strikes”…..Ray also heeded the advice of Dunedin pitching coach Darold Knowles, who told him upon his promotion "not to change a thing and do what you were doing here and give it a chance."
New Hampshire scored six runs, but five of them came in the eighth inning after New Britain starter Jeff Manship had left the game. Aaron Mathews and JP Arencibia each had a 3-hit game. Mathews went 3-5 with a run, a triple and 2 RBI, while Arencibia went 3-4 with a run and 2 RBI. Scott Campbell was 1-4 with a double and two runs in the leadoff spot and Ryan Klosterman was 2-4 with a double and a run in the 9-hole. Kyle Phillips was 1-4 with a double and 2 RBI, while Travis Snider was hitless, but drew a walk.
Dunedin 0 @ Brevard County 2 (7 innings – 1st game) – Boxscore
Jeremy Jeffress, one of Milwaukee’s top pitching prospects, shut down the Dunedin offence. He went all 7 innings and surrendered three hits and two walks, while striking out eight. Brad Emaus, Brian Dopirak and Sean Shoffit all got harmless singles off Jeffress. Meanwhile, for Dunedin, Kenny Rodriguez went all 6 innings and gave up four hits and no walks. Rodriguez gave up a solo homer to Jonathan Lucroy, but the other run was unearned due to an errant throw by David Corrente.
Dunedin 6 @ Brevard County 1 (7 innings – 2nd game) – Boxscore
Dunedin scored four in the first and never looked back. Three of those runs came courtesy of a Matthew Lane 3-run homer. In fact, all 5 of the team’s RBI came from the 4-5-6 hitters, as Cory Patton and Brian Dopirak each had an RBI, along with a hit and a run scored. Chris Emanuele was 1-2 and his mid-game replacement, Adam Calderone, was 1-3. Bradley Emaus was 2-4 with Dunedin’s other extra-base hit, a double. Calderone and Emaus also scored a run. Al Quintana and Sean Shoffit each added a hit, while Jonathan Diaz was 0-1 with two walks.
Julio Pinto had a solid start, going 5 innings of one-run ball. Pinto gave up six hits and a walk with five strikeouts and made one mistake, which was hit for a solo homer. Chad Blackwell pitched two scoreless innings of relief to lower his ERA to 2.58 and he might be angling for a return to Double-A, where he fared poorly in a brief stint earlier this year.
Great Lakes 1 @ Lansing 2 (11 innings) – Boxscore
Great Lakes got a run in the top of the second, Lansing got it back in the bottom of the third and it remained scoreless until Lansing scored again in the eleventh inning. There isn’t much to say about this game, but it was a great pitching duel between two relatively unheralded prospects in Justin Miller (no, not that one) of the Great Lakes Loons and Luis Perez of the Lansing Lugnuts. Miller went 8.2 innings, allowing six hits, four walks and one run. He struck out six, but was outdueled by Luis Perez, who went 9 strong and gave up a run on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. It was a busy night for the infielders, as Perez retired 18 of 20 batters on balls in play with groundouts, while Miller retired 16 of 20 the same way.
Lansing had 11 hits in the game. Eric Eiland did what a good leadoff should and got on base 60% of the time in the game through a hit and two walks. Raul Barron, John Tolisano Matt Liuzza and Justin Jackson each had a hit. Moises Sierra and Michael McDade each went hitless, while Manny Rodriguez had a hit and a walk. Jonathan Baksh was the offensive star. He went 4-5 with a run scored and an RBI, getting involved in both of Lansing’s runs and giving Cody Crowell his first victory of the year.
Mahoning Valley 5 @ Auburn 2 – Boxscore
Auburn rapped out 10 hits on the evening, but stranded 9 runners and lost to Mahoning Valley 5-2. Chris Demons was 2-5 in the leadoff spot, while Joel Collins was 2-4 with a double in the 9-hole, but neither one scored a run. Christopher Hopkins, David Cooper, Bartolo Nicolas Jonathan Del Campo, Bryan Kervin and Leance Soto all had one hit. Nobody had an extra-base hit but Collins. Hopkins and Kervin scored the runs, while Nicolas and Collins drove them in. Hopkins stole third, which was already his fourth theft of the season. Luis Rivera was the only batter to go without a hit.
Evan Crawford, who looks like he couldn’t be happier to be playing baseball got the start for Auburn. He went 4 innings and struck out four. He was cruising through four, but let the first four batters of the inning reach base and Brian Letko inherited a bases-loaded nobody-out situation. Letko got out of it with only one more run scoring, which I consider to be a job well done. Letko also pitched a scoreless sixth inning, before turning it over to Frank Gailey who pitched two innings of one-hit ball. Justin Cryer pitched the ninth and allowed three runs on four hits and a walk, but two of them were unearned thanks to a Soto error. Cryer also struck out three batters in the inning. Letko and Gailey retired nine of their combined ten batters on balls in play via the groundout.
GCL Blue Jays 5 @ GCL Tigers 9 – Boxscore
Wolfforth, Texas native Christopher Holguin’s first professional start wasn’t one to remember, as Holguin didn’t make it out of the third. Holguin gave up three hits and two walks, resulting in five runs, three earned, in 2.2 innings. Fellow Texas native Nathan Jennings relieved him and issued two walks in 0.1 innings and let the last of Holguin’s five runs score. The GCL Jays then went international, calling on Panamanian Joel Castillo, who went 3 innings and gave up two runs on four hits with three strikeouts. Continuing the international trend was Po-Hsuan Keng from Taiwan. His first appearance of 2008 was a disaster, as he lasted just a third of an inning and gave up two runs on five hits. Dominican Willi Menendez was the last pitcher of the evening and he went 1.2 innings with one hit and no runs.
The GCL Blue Jays had 7 hits, with only Nathaniel Nelson having a multihit game. Nelson was 2-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Kenneth Wilson pulled his best Reed Johnson impersonation, as he was a 1-2 with 2 HBP in the leadoff spot. Robert Pastornicky and Wellinton Ramirez were both 1-4 with a run scored. Justin McClanahan and Markus Brisker each had one hit. Pastornicky stole two bases and McClanahan and Antonio Jimenez each stole one. Kevin Denis-Fortier, Balbino Fuenmayor and Jimenez all went hitless, with Denis-Fortier striking out three times in the afternoon.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Kenny Rodriguez, 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
2nd Star – Luis Perez, 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
1st Star – Robert Ray, 9 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
Toledo 12 @ Syracuse 2 – Boxscore
This one was the reverse of the parent club, as it was 9-0 after one and a half innings and Toledo went on to score 12 runs on 19 hits. Kane Davis fared a bit better than Bronson Arroyo, as he was able to get through two complete innings, but that was it. Nine hits, nine runs, a walk and two home runs later and his night was over. The one bright spot on the evening may have been Michael MacDonald’s relief effort, which saved Syracuse’s bullpen from taking a beating. MacDonald gave up one run on five hits with two strikeouts, but most importantly he gave the team five innings and allowed the team to turn it over to Sean Stidfole and Mike Gosling for the last two innings and avoided going through the entire bullpen. Stidfole pitching a scoreless inning and has yet to allow a run for Syracuse since his promotion, while Gosling allowed a couple on five hits.
Toledo’s Matt Joyce hit a three-run homer and a grand slam in his first two at-bats. The grand slam came with two out in the second and was likely what chased Davis from the game. Toledo tied a season-high with 19 hits and this allowed starter Virgil Vazquez to have his longest outing of the season, eight innings. Syracuse only had five hits, with the two runs coming from solo homers by Matt Watson and Buck Coats. Current and former middle infielders accounted for the rest of the offence, with Russ Adams, Hector Luna and Kevin Melillo each adding singles.
New Hampshire 6 @ New Britain 0 – Boxscore
Robert Ray. That’s your game story. Really, that’s about all you need. Ray threw a complete game five-hit shutout. He didn’t walk a batter and struck ten. He has a 0.78 ERA in three starts since being promoted from Dunedin. This was Ray’s third complete game of the season and his second for New Hampshire, but his other complete game in Double-A was in a seven-inning game. Ray’s K/BB ratio between Single and Double-A is 3.36, but yesterday was the first time Ray had more than three strikeouts in an outing for New Hampshire.
The MiLB game story has a couple of quotes from Ray which may be worth sharing:
“In both outings [referring to the CG for Dunedin[, I felt the same and all my pitches worked," Ray said. "I was able to stay ahead in the count and keep the fastball down, and my breaking pitches were working. I felt fresh even warming up in the bullpen. It was in a finer zone than it might be on an average night. That resulted in getting a lot of pitches over for strikes”…..Ray also heeded the advice of Dunedin pitching coach Darold Knowles, who told him upon his promotion "not to change a thing and do what you were doing here and give it a chance."
New Hampshire scored six runs, but five of them came in the eighth inning after New Britain starter Jeff Manship had left the game. Aaron Mathews and JP Arencibia each had a 3-hit game. Mathews went 3-5 with a run, a triple and 2 RBI, while Arencibia went 3-4 with a run and 2 RBI. Scott Campbell was 1-4 with a double and two runs in the leadoff spot and Ryan Klosterman was 2-4 with a double and a run in the 9-hole. Kyle Phillips was 1-4 with a double and 2 RBI, while Travis Snider was hitless, but drew a walk.
Dunedin 0 @ Brevard County 2 (7 innings – 1st game) – Boxscore
Jeremy Jeffress, one of Milwaukee’s top pitching prospects, shut down the Dunedin offence. He went all 7 innings and surrendered three hits and two walks, while striking out eight. Brad Emaus, Brian Dopirak and Sean Shoffit all got harmless singles off Jeffress. Meanwhile, for Dunedin, Kenny Rodriguez went all 6 innings and gave up four hits and no walks. Rodriguez gave up a solo homer to Jonathan Lucroy, but the other run was unearned due to an errant throw by David Corrente.
Dunedin 6 @ Brevard County 1 (7 innings – 2nd game) – Boxscore
Dunedin scored four in the first and never looked back. Three of those runs came courtesy of a Matthew Lane 3-run homer. In fact, all 5 of the team’s RBI came from the 4-5-6 hitters, as Cory Patton and Brian Dopirak each had an RBI, along with a hit and a run scored. Chris Emanuele was 1-2 and his mid-game replacement, Adam Calderone, was 1-3. Bradley Emaus was 2-4 with Dunedin’s other extra-base hit, a double. Calderone and Emaus also scored a run. Al Quintana and Sean Shoffit each added a hit, while Jonathan Diaz was 0-1 with two walks.
Julio Pinto had a solid start, going 5 innings of one-run ball. Pinto gave up six hits and a walk with five strikeouts and made one mistake, which was hit for a solo homer. Chad Blackwell pitched two scoreless innings of relief to lower his ERA to 2.58 and he might be angling for a return to Double-A, where he fared poorly in a brief stint earlier this year.
Great Lakes 1 @ Lansing 2 (11 innings) – Boxscore
Great Lakes got a run in the top of the second, Lansing got it back in the bottom of the third and it remained scoreless until Lansing scored again in the eleventh inning. There isn’t much to say about this game, but it was a great pitching duel between two relatively unheralded prospects in Justin Miller (no, not that one) of the Great Lakes Loons and Luis Perez of the Lansing Lugnuts. Miller went 8.2 innings, allowing six hits, four walks and one run. He struck out six, but was outdueled by Luis Perez, who went 9 strong and gave up a run on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. It was a busy night for the infielders, as Perez retired 18 of 20 batters on balls in play with groundouts, while Miller retired 16 of 20 the same way.
Lansing had 11 hits in the game. Eric Eiland did what a good leadoff should and got on base 60% of the time in the game through a hit and two walks. Raul Barron, John Tolisano Matt Liuzza and Justin Jackson each had a hit. Moises Sierra and Michael McDade each went hitless, while Manny Rodriguez had a hit and a walk. Jonathan Baksh was the offensive star. He went 4-5 with a run scored and an RBI, getting involved in both of Lansing’s runs and giving Cody Crowell his first victory of the year.
Mahoning Valley 5 @ Auburn 2 – Boxscore
Auburn rapped out 10 hits on the evening, but stranded 9 runners and lost to Mahoning Valley 5-2. Chris Demons was 2-5 in the leadoff spot, while Joel Collins was 2-4 with a double in the 9-hole, but neither one scored a run. Christopher Hopkins, David Cooper, Bartolo Nicolas Jonathan Del Campo, Bryan Kervin and Leance Soto all had one hit. Nobody had an extra-base hit but Collins. Hopkins and Kervin scored the runs, while Nicolas and Collins drove them in. Hopkins stole third, which was already his fourth theft of the season. Luis Rivera was the only batter to go without a hit.
Evan Crawford, who looks like he couldn’t be happier to be playing baseball got the start for Auburn. He went 4 innings and struck out four. He was cruising through four, but let the first four batters of the inning reach base and Brian Letko inherited a bases-loaded nobody-out situation. Letko got out of it with only one more run scoring, which I consider to be a job well done. Letko also pitched a scoreless sixth inning, before turning it over to Frank Gailey who pitched two innings of one-hit ball. Justin Cryer pitched the ninth and allowed three runs on four hits and a walk, but two of them were unearned thanks to a Soto error. Cryer also struck out three batters in the inning. Letko and Gailey retired nine of their combined ten batters on balls in play via the groundout.
GCL Blue Jays 5 @ GCL Tigers 9 – Boxscore
Wolfforth, Texas native Christopher Holguin’s first professional start wasn’t one to remember, as Holguin didn’t make it out of the third. Holguin gave up three hits and two walks, resulting in five runs, three earned, in 2.2 innings. Fellow Texas native Nathan Jennings relieved him and issued two walks in 0.1 innings and let the last of Holguin’s five runs score. The GCL Jays then went international, calling on Panamanian Joel Castillo, who went 3 innings and gave up two runs on four hits with three strikeouts. Continuing the international trend was Po-Hsuan Keng from Taiwan. His first appearance of 2008 was a disaster, as he lasted just a third of an inning and gave up two runs on five hits. Dominican Willi Menendez was the last pitcher of the evening and he went 1.2 innings with one hit and no runs.
The GCL Blue Jays had 7 hits, with only Nathaniel Nelson having a multihit game. Nelson was 2-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Kenneth Wilson pulled his best Reed Johnson impersonation, as he was a 1-2 with 2 HBP in the leadoff spot. Robert Pastornicky and Wellinton Ramirez were both 1-4 with a run scored. Justin McClanahan and Markus Brisker each had one hit. Pastornicky stole two bases and McClanahan and Antonio Jimenez each stole one. Kevin Denis-Fortier, Balbino Fuenmayor and Jimenez all went hitless, with Denis-Fortier striking out three times in the afternoon.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Kenny Rodriguez, 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
2nd Star – Luis Perez, 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
1st Star – Robert Ray, 9 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
