Las Vegas 6 @ Portland 1 – Boxscore

David Purcey went 6 innings and only allowed 2 hits, as he made a strong bid to assume Halladay’s spot in the rotation, should it open today. Purcey did struggle with his control and walked three, but he struck out 6 and only allowed one run. Rommie Lewis continued his strong debut at Triple-A with 2 one-hit innings. Lewis struck out five. Casey Janssen threw a scoreless inning to finish the game.

Las Vegas scored runs in the first 5 innings as they rode 7 hits to a 6-1 victory. In the first Buck Coats singled to begin the game and Travis Snider doubled him home. In the second Kevin Howard doubled and came around to count on Jason Lane’s sacrifice fly. Randy Ruiz’s two-run homer in the third scored Howie Clark and gave the 51s a 4-1 lead. Brian Dopirak singled in the fourth and then Lane and Angel Sanchez both walked. Coats singled home Dopirak and Lane also tried to score but was gunned out at the plate. In the next inning Snider tripled and JP Arencibia drove him home with a sacrifice fly.

New Britain 2 @ New Hampshire 1 – Boxscore

New Hampshire could only generate five hits off New Britain pitching as four hurlers shut down the Fisher Cat offence. I’d extend them more credit, but it’s not a particularly onerous task. Todd Donovan had the highest batting average in the starting lineup at .255, which narrowly edged out David Cooper’s .251. Donovan was kept off the bases and struck out three times, but Cooper had a double with two out in the first that scored Brad Emaus, who was 1 for 3 with a walk. Bryan Kervin added a single, but in a growing theme on the evening, gifted the opposition with a run because of an error. Darin Mastroianni was 2 for 3, but had a poor game on the bases, as he was caught stealing and picked off. Mastroianni is now 14 for 18 at New Hampshire after going 32 for 39 with Dunedin.

Toronto’s Rene Tosoni led off for New Britain against Kenny Rodriguez and went 1 for 5, scoring one of their two runs. Rodriguez failed to make it to the fifth inning for the third time in his last five starts. He went 4.2 innings and didn’t pitch well, surrendering 6 hits and walking 6 batters. However, he escaped with only two runs, one unearned on a Kervin error, due to stranding runners and some strong relief behind him. Matt Hensley inherited the bases loaded but retired Tosoni to escape the jam. He pitched a further 2 scoreless innings before Edgar Estanga finished the last 2 innings, only allowing one hit. Estanga’s line doesn’t compare with Anthony Slama, New Britain’s closer, who struck out four batters in 1.1 innings.

Dunedin 2 @ Palm Beach 5 – Boxscore

Yesterday was Ryan Page’s 21st start for Dunedin and his 17th decision for the team. Page fell to 7-10, but continued his trend of pitching deep into ballgames with his tenth start in a row (maybe more…) of at least 5 innings. Page went 5.2 innings against Palm Beach and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits. He struck out 3 and retired 12 of the 14 batters on balls in play on fly balls and only two on grounders. Alan Farina pitched 1.1 innings and allowed a run on two hits and two wild pitches. Lance Loftin gave up a run in the bottom of the eighth.

With two out and none on base in the top of the ninth Dunedin got a double by Kevin Ahrens and then Adam Lowen was hit by a pitch. With Dunedin trailing 5-0 Raul Barron hit a ball to right that looked like it would end the game, but an error by Adron Chambers let both Ahrens and Loewen score and Barron ended up on second. However, the D-Jays couldn’t make the most of this reprieve as Sean Shoffit struck out with the bat on his shoulders. John Tolisano doubled, Loewen singled and Ahrens and Shoffit each added two hits to account for Dunedin’s 6 base knocks.

Clinton 5 @ Lansing 3 – Boxscore

Clinton hit Lugnuts pitching for 12 hits on the way to a 5-3 victory in Low-A yesterday. Chad Beck gave up over 3 runs for just the second time in his last 6 starts and this stopped him from picking up his third straight quality start. Beck gave up 10 hits over 7 innings and was touched for five runs, all but one earned. He didn’t give up a walk but fell victim to a pair of 2-run innings in the first and fifth. Frank Gailey pitched 2 innings of two-hit ball.

All of Lansing’s runs came via the long ball as Yohermyn Chavez hit a solo homer in the fourth and Balbino Fuenmayor hit a two-run homer in the fifth. Fuenmayor’s homer was a case of fortuitous timing, as he drove home Jon Talley, who was one of only three Lugnuts to have a hit during the game. Aside from Fuenmayor’s homer cashing Talley’s single, all the other Lansing hits came from Chavez, who had two singles to go along with his homer. The first three batters went 0 for 12 as Kenny Wilson, Tyler Pastornicky and Brian Van Kirk were unable to set the table for Chavez or Mark Sobolewski. Pastornicky made his 22nd error of the year during the game.

Mahoning Valley 2 @ Auburn 4 – Boxscore

Nearly 2,300 people paid to see the home side make four errors but still escape with the victory. “The Ryans” from the 2009 draft – Goins and Schimpf – batted first and second for Auburn and each had a single, a walk and a run scored. Schimpf made an error and also struck out twice. Sean Ochinko added a double and a run scored and Wellinton Ramirez had a great game at the plate going 2 for 3 with a double, a triple, a walk, an RBI and a run. Yan Gomes was 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI and Eric Eiland and Lance Durham also added singles.

Utah-born Egan Smith started for Auburn and went 5 innings without allowing an earned run. Smith surrendered two hits and two walks, but struck out five. A run came around on a pair of errors in the second, one by Schimpf and one by Marcus Brisker. David Miller gave up an unearned run on a hit over 2 innings with three strikeouts. Austin Armstrong and Casey Beck closed the door with a scoreless frame each.

GCL Braves 6 @ GCL Blue Jays 10 – Boxscore

A look at the boxscore shows there were six errors in yesterday afternoon’s game, which is a bit high, even for the Gulf Coast League. Matt Fields started for the Blue Jays and went 5 innings. He allowed four hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Fields gave up a run, which raised his ERA to 0.66. Tyler Ybarra gave up 3 hits over his inning and gave up two runs, one earned. Brian Slover gave up three runs, none earned, over 0.2 innings as the defense let him down. Alex Pepe surrendered a hit and a walk and otherwise was flawless in his 2.1 innings to pick up the win.

The Jays managed to score two runs on the two errors by the Braves, half of the number of unearned runs that the Braves scored. Michael Crouse was 0 for 4, but drew a walk and scored a run. Gustavo Pierre was 3 for 5 with 2 RBI and two runs scored. Nick Zaleski atoned for his first error of the year with two doubles, 2 RBI and two runs scored. Like Crouse Jack Murphy walked and scored a run. Gari Pena and Oscar Dominguez split the game at second, each hit a double with Dominguez scoring a run and Pena adding an RBI against an error. Kevin Denis-Fortier added a hit and a run and John Roberts scored two runs, one of which came on a solo homer. On the other side of the ledger Castillo Perez was 0 for 5 with an error.

Three Stars:
3rd Star – Matt Fields, 5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
2nd Star – Travis Snider & Wellinton Ramirez, 2-3, R, 2B, 3B, RBI, BB, 5 TB
1st Star – David Purcey, 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K