JP Arencibia hit his PCL leading 26th home run to start the second inning and that would be all the 51s needed, though they tacked on two more runs for good measure. Brad Mills got the first start coming off the all star break and made it a good one, going six strong innings. He allowed 4 hits and 1 walk to go with 3 punchouts, and got sixty percent of his outs in play on the ground. Josh Roenicke, Jesse Carlson and Jeremy Accardo each pitched a scoreless inning in this the parade of ex-Jays pitchers. Aaron Matthews was the only 51 with more than 1 hit, as he singled and doubled, and Mike McCoy, Jarrett Hoffpauir and Brett Wallace all singled and walked batting 1-2-3, while the former two also stole bases.
Binghampton 5 at New Hampshire 1
This one was knotted at zeros through the first five innings before Binghampton got on the board in the 6th with a run and put it away in the 7th with runs. Reidier Gonzalez was the victim in this one, He was cruising early, allowing only 3 singles in his first five innings. He'd allow two more in the 6th to score a run, but a single, sac bunt, walk and homer, followed by another single, would chase him from the game. Danny Farquhar came in to pick him up but eventually allowed a run scoring double, making Rei's final line 5.1 IP, 8 H (7 1B, 1 HR), 5 ER, 1 BB 2 K. Farquhar was good otherwise though, going 2.2 and whiffing 4 against the double and a walk. The offense, as you may have surmised, was not much better either. as Shawn Bowman reached on an error and scored for the Cats only run. Eric Thames, who accounted for 4 of New Hampshire's 7 hits, is the only batter worth speaking about. (Snider and Hech went hitless, Loewen singled.) Thames' season line is up to .287/.364/.501, with 16 homers and an 8/10 rate stealing (he was caught in this game.)
The D-Jays could muster only 2 runs on 6 singles and went down quietly against St. Lucie. Jon Del Campo had two of the hits and Brian Van Kirk walked and singled, and that was about that. Henderson Alvarez wasn't particularly sharp after being drilled in the futures game Sunday; he went 5 and allowed 6 hits, 3 runs and walked 3, whiffing only 2.
The first of two games against the Badger state saw the Lugnuts get knocked around early before mounting a futile comeback in the 6th and 7th (7 inning games because of the double header). Matt Fields didn't escape the third and ended up allowing 6 of the 7 runs on 11 hits, recording only 7 outs, 1 via the strikeout. Matt Wright was perfect in relief though, going 2.2 and striking out 3. Through 40 innings he's K'd 50 batters and allowed 30 hits and 14 walks. Through 150 minor league innings he is now averaging 10.62 K/9, so Tim Collins eat your heart out. (I'm sorry, I just miss him,) Shortstop Kevin Nolan, also trying to make us forget about now ex-Future Blue Jays, doubled twice for the Lugnuts, while Balbino Fuenmayor homered. His OPS is almost up to .675! Chris Hopkins singled and walked twice, and Kenny Wilson, Sean Ochinko, AJ Jiminez, Kevin Ahrens and Justin Jackson all reached base on solitary singles.
This outing turned out a little better for Lansing, as they rode a decent start from Egan Smith to the W. Egan got 10 outs on the ground, 2 in the air and 3 via the strikeout in his 5 innings, walking 1 and allowing 2 runs on 6 hits. Steve Turnbull pitched 2 perfect innings for the save, striking out 4 of the 6 batters he faced. The Lugnuts only reached base safely 8 times on 5 hits and 3 walks but made the most of their chances, Kenny Wilson was the big gun, doubling and walking twice while scoring and cashing a run. Justin Jackson tripled and Brad Glenn homered, and Ochinko and Randy Schwartz had the other two hits with Randy getting the third walk.
Our last game featuring the major affiliates was a bit of a heartbreaker. Auburn scored the first 5 runs and was up 5-0 and 6-1 before things started to fall apart. Andrew Hutchison continued his fine form to start the short season, allowing just one run in his five innings. He gave up only a solitary hit but allowed one of his two walks to cash for the only real blemish. He managed to strike out 6 for good measure and get two thirds of his outs in play on the ground. Juan Fernandez was not as fortunate, however, and got absolutely torched. Tri-City went single-walk-single-double before he recorded his first two outs, but got pulled after allowing another run scoring double. Tri-City tied in up in the 7th, and stormed ahead with 3 runs in the ninth without reaching base safely. Auburn made three straight errors to lead off the inning, two by the pitcher, and four in total in the inning. Auburn got back to back doubles to lead off the 9th but didnt reach base again and that was that. Every hitter but Gustavo Pierre (who made the error letting in the 3rd run in the 9th) hit safely, with Knecht and Brisker getting doubles, and Yudelmis Hernandez did it three times with a double and two homers, driving in and scoring 3.
DSL Royals 4 at DSL Jays 3 (12 Innings)
Three Stars
Hon. Men! Brad Mills 6 IP 4 H 0 R 1 BB 3 K
3rd Star! Andrew Hutchison 5 IP 1 H 1 ER 2 BB 6 K 6-3 GB/FB
2nd Star! Eric Thames - 4-4 3 1B 2B
1st Star! Yudelmis Hernandez - 3-4 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R
