Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
The Jays' affiliates had an off-day, a postponement, and a suspension. In the remaining 3 games, they went 2-1.


Sacramento 3 at Las Vegas 6

Brian Burres is pushing for a promotion! 11 days after spinning a masterful shut-out, the 28 year old pitched 7 innings of effective ball, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits and a walk while striking out 8 and getting 9 ground outs to only 4 flyouts. By the time he exited, the 51s had built a 6-3 lead which they never relinquished. Bill Murphy and Bryan Bullington each pitched a scoreless inning to ensure that this game was pitched entirely by guys who have been on the big club at some point this year. And whose first names start with B. Coincidence!

Las Vegas spread the offensive love around, with every starter getting a hit. Of note, J.P. Arencibia went 2-4 with a double and 2 ribbies, and Randy Ruiz had a double in 4 trips.

Portland at New Hampshire (suspended)

Charlotte 9 at Dunedin 8 (11 innings)

It was a wild one in Dunedin. Andrew Liebel got the start and had his first bad outing in a while, giving up 6 runs in just 4 and a third innings. However, only 2 of those runs were earned, and it really was a tough luck day for Liebel: he allowed unearned runs in three separate innings, and Kyle Ginley allowed 1 inherited runner to score, so this wasn't simply one of those situations where one error leads to a whole bunch of unearned runs. Nevertheless, it wasn't Liebel's greatest outing.

Liebel's mediocrity and the D-Jays' horrific defense put them in a 7-0 deficit by the time the 6th inning rolled around, but they finally broke through against Jeremy Hall on 3 consecutive hits by Sean Shoffitt (single), Raul Barron (triple) and Moises Sierra (single). And then, in the 7th, Dunedin exploded for 6 more, highlighted by a 3-run homer by John Tolisano.

Charlotte tied the game up in the 8th, and a scoreless 9th sent the game to extras. In 3 innings, Dunedin was held baserunner-less by the Stone Crabs' bullpen, and Charlotte won the game in the 11th by, you guessed it, scoring what turned out to be an unearned run charged to Tim Collins. Collins was otherwise good, pitching 3 innings, allowing 4 baserunners and striking out 3.

No hitter had a spectacular day, though Shoffit, Barron and Sierra each had 2 hits, and Tolisano had the aforementioned 3 run jack.

Dayton 3 at Lansing 5

Young Henderson Alvarez was the story for Lansing on Sunday afternoon, going 6 innings while only allowing 5 hits, walking nobody and striking out 5. Alvarez allowed 1 run, and had a 7-6 GB-FB ratio. Unfortunately, he didn't get the win, as the bullpen allowed the Dragons to tie it up in the 8th. But Lansing stormed right back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, and Matthew Daly nailed it down with a perfect 9th inning for his 14th save.

Chris Emanuele reached base 3 times with a single and 2 walks, and A.J. Jimenez had 3 hits including a double, and drove in 2 runs to lead the Lansing offense.

Jamestown at Auburn - post-poned

GCL Jays - scheduled day off

By the way, ever wonder what attendance is like at minor league games? Well, much more extensive research could be done on this topic, and who knows how representative these attendance figures are, but for what it's worth here were the crowd sizes for each of today's minor league games:
Las Vegas: 2,195
Dunedin: 399
Lansing: 4,918

Elsewhere... Lake Elsinore beat High Desert 33-18. Seriously. There were 58 hits. Also, Lake Elsinore walked 13 times, while High Desert only walked once. Weird.

Three Stars!

3. Brian Burres - 7 IP, 3ER, 9K
2. A.J. Jimenez, 3-4, 2B, 2 RBIs
1. Henderson Alvarez - 6 innings, 5 baserunners, 1 run, 5 Ks
How Many Ways Are There to Not Play a Game? | 6 comments | Create New Account
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John Northey - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 12:23 PM EDT (#201894) #
Dunedin has always been horrific for attendance.  And that was even before Tampa Bay got a ML team last year :)  It seems if a club is ML team owned it tends to have more attendance issues than other clubs.  Guess the ML team has little incentive to pack them in, tending to want the best training situation possible thus not worrying about night games/promotions/etc. whereas a person who owns a team will do all of that so they can actually make a little money (an amount that would be pocket change to Rogers).  It would be interesting to do a study on this but time is not on my side lately.

Jim - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#201896) #

I've been to all three of those parks.  Pretty much most minor league stadiums you can take the published attendance and cut it down by 33% at least.  Lansing draws pretty well, but Vegas doesn't.  If Dunedin is publishing 399, they probably had 50 people in the stands.    It would be tough for any team to really draw well in the FSL.  You get spring training in the same facilities earlier in the year when the weather is better.  Dunedin is a tiny little town and unless you really were a Jays fan or really wanted to see a particular player it's a haul from any of the population centers. 

Lugnut Fan - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 12:58 PM EDT (#201899) #

Dunedin has a lot of problems in my opinion.  There are a ton of teams in ths FSL that are quite close to Dunedin and I think the whole FSL is pretty attendance starved since there are so many teams close together on top of just so many other things to do.  I think Clearwater is something like 10 miles away and they have a team as well.

I went to a Blue Jays ST game a few years ago and stopped at a gas station to ask directions to the ball park.  All I got is a blank stare and an answer from a guy that said "I've lived here for 20 years and I don't know what you are talking about.  The Blue Jays play in Toronto".  I was within a mile and a half of Knology Park.

John Northey - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 04:24 PM EDT (#201905) #
Heh.  Reminds me of going to Knoxville years ago on business and checking if there were any Knoxville Blue Jay hats (it was their AA team at the time - I think they were called the Blue Jays).  The sports store guy looked at me like I was nuts for asking.  I did get a Myrtle Beach Blue Jays t-shirt years ago though, just before the team started play.  Still have it too, although it is a bit small now.
brent - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 10:32 PM EDT (#201916) #

Snider should be back in Vegas by Friday by word of Alex Anthoupoulousnuffleupagus.

http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20090629_151041_7300

 

MAFA - Monday, June 29 2009 @ 11:36 PM EDT (#201917) #
Maybe someone can explain to me why Leon Boyd was moved back up to the Cats, and Zach Dials is still down in high A? It seems a little odd to me since Boyd is struggling and Dials seem to be pitching lights out right now? He has a 1. something ERA, and he is a right handed lefty speacilist. PLAESE someone enlighten me..
How Many Ways Are There to Not Play a Game? | 6 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.