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The affiliates took three out of four on Monday, one of them in extra innings.


Charlotte 5 Buffalo 1

Buffalo, NYDave Bush (4-4) was not wack (as the cool kids say!) but was whacked for two home runs by the White Sox affiliate. He got through six innings and was one run shy of a quality start after four runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out seven and five of his eight outs in play were on the green. Lefty Buddy Carlyle served up a gopher ball among his two hits. He struck out three and did not walk anyone. Mickey Storey celebrated his return to the Herd with two K's in his one inning of work.

Ryan Goins
drove in the only Buffalo run with a single in the fourth inning. Mauro Gomez was the only Bison to get aboard two times with two singles. Eugenio Velez singled and stole a base. Moises Sierra had the lone extra-base hit with a double. Jim Negrych was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Though he is only batting .386, this performance clearly justifies the Jays not calling him up.


New Hampshire 7 Portland 3


Portland, MERyan Schimpf belted his 10th homer of the season to lift the Fisher Cats to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning against the Red Sox farm club. Brad Glenn drove in the next two New Hampshire runs with a groundout in the third and a double in the fifth. Schimpf put the game away with a three-run bomb in the ninth. Schimpf also added a walk to his two homers. Ricardo Nanita also reached base thrice with a single and two walks. Glenn and Clint Robinson doubled and walked. Adam Loewen singled and walked.  Kevin Pillar was 0-for-5 with two whiffs.

Marcus Walden (3-4) met the quality start guidelines to a tee by giving up three runs (two earned) over six frames. He served up a homer among his eight hits and issued two walks. He struck out two but rung up nine outs on the grass. Lefthander Evan Crawford pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings but left two hits and a walk for Joel Carreno to deal with. All he did was strike out all five hitters he faced for his fifth save.


Dunedin 4 St. Lucie 3

Dunedin, FL
— The D-Jays walked one off against the Mets thanks to an Andy Burns RBI single. Burns drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning.  Pierce Rankin poked home the first Dunedin run with a single. Michael Crouse doubled home a run in the eighth. Rankin and Matt Newman had two hits apiece. K.C. Hobson and Jon Berti both doubled and walked while Peter Mooney singled and heard ball four once. Marcus Knecht was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

The rehabbing Josh Johnson surrendered a run on three hits over three innings. He struck out five, walked nobody and all four outs in play were on the ground. Eric Brown worked the next 2 2/3 innings and kept the Mets off the board despite two hits and a walk. Southpaw Tony Davis stranded a runner for Brown by striking out two over 1 1/3 scoreless frames. Ajay Meyer struck out three batters in his one inning of work but also gave up a run on two hits and a walk for the blown save. Danny Barnes (1-0) also got a BS in the boxscore by giving up a run on a hit and a walk in the ninth.


Lansing 4 Great Lakes 3 (10 Innings)

Lansing, MI — The first run of the game did not come until the fourth inning when Kevin Patterson lifted a deep enough fly ball to score a Christian Lopes triple. Lopes needed no help to score the next run as he socked one over the left field fence for his 3rd homer of the season in the eighth. A Seth Conner fielder's choice in the ninth sent the game into overtime. Carlos Ramirez took one for the team as he was plunked with the bases loaded to win it in the tenth. Lopes finished a double short of the cycle by going 4-for-5. Dwight Smith Jr., Gustavo Pierre and Balbino Fuenmayor all had two base hits apiece. Pierre also stole a base. Kellen Sweeney was 1-for-4. The Lugnuts pulled this one despite going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 men on base.

Southpaw Alonzo Gonzalez delivered a quality start against the Dodgers affiliate by yielding a pair of runs over 6 1/3 innings. He scattered six hits and a walk. He struck out two but got nine groundballs outs. Lefty Griffin Murphy had to deal with a bases-loaded situation and kept the damage to one run. He pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings and offset the three hits he gave up with two strikeouts. Arik Sikula (3-0) nearly took the loss by giving up a run over two innings thanks to two hits, two walks and a hit by pitch.

Boxscores


*** 3 Stars!!! ***


3. Joel Carreno, New Hampshire — Has a 42-8 K/BB total over 24 1/3 innings and is limiting Eastern League hitters to a .131 batting average.

2. Ryan Schimpf, New Hampshire — His batting line is .219/.360/.521 thanks to 20 of his 32 hits going for extra bases.

1. Christian Lopes, Lansing — Enjoys the nightlife by hitting .360 in night games and has an OPS of .876 over his last 10 games.


Tuesday's Probable Starters...

DunedinJesse Hernandez (2-4, 2.86) vs. St. Lucie, 11:00 am ET.
New HampshireDeck McGuire (2-3, 4.60) @ Portland, 6:00 pm ET.
BuffaloRicky Romero (0-0, 9.82) vs. Charlotte, 7:05 pm ET.
LansingTaylor Cole (2-2, 4.28) vs. Lake County, 7:05 pm ET.
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John Northey - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 07:22 AM EDT (#272455) #
Carreno in his first 14 games walked only 2 batters, one of them intentional with 6 hits allowed 1 was a double and 28 strikeouts in 16 1/3 IP.  In his last 6 games he has walked 6 over 8 1/3 IP but also K'd 14 while giving up 5 hits, 2 were doubles. 

So his K rate has stayed fairly consistent but his walk rate and hits allowed went up during the recent stretch.  However, again, games 15 & 17 were his big issues where he, in those 2 alone, walked 4 K'd 5 and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits.  The 2nd was a blown save but he got the win when the offense bailed him out.  The other game the team had an 8-2 lead and he was pitching for the 2nd day in a row.  Two of his 3 run allowing games were his first 2 games on no rest (ie: 2 games in 2 days).  The good news is yesterday was his 3rd game with no rest and he K'd all 5 he faced.  His last 3 games were 4 IP 1 H 0 R 2 BB 7 SO so he has clearly 'righted the ship' so to speak.  Guess he just had a bit of a slump there. 
greenfrog - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 07:57 AM EDT (#272456) #
If I recall correctly Carreno relies heavily on his slider. The pitch has apparently allowed him to rack up the Ks in the minors, but he may need more to succeed in the majors. At least that seems to be the perception. His numbers are very good this year, though (subject to the usual SSS alert).
hypobole - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 08:51 AM EDT (#272458) #
2 years ago, again in a SSS, he did get major leaguers out, 1.15 ERA, 2.83 FIP in 11 relief appearances. Last year he struggled in both the majors and AAA. Be interesting to see what happens if/when he's moved up. He's also 26 now, so he should be dominating younger players.
Ryan Day - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 10:22 AM EDT (#272460) #
Carreno's 26 and has spent parts of 3 seasons at AA, so it's probably not too surprising he's dominating. He may not be MLB ready, but you'd think a promotion to AAA is in order.
jerjapan - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 02:38 PM EDT (#272478) #

I wondered if Carreno's struggles last year were a result of his being pressed into the starting rotation, struggling with big league hitters and then struggling to get grounded again in Vegas?

Given his numbers this year, I think he's a better option right now for the back end of the pen then Lincoln or Rogers.  Lincoln still has options, so I'd love to see Carreno given a shot.  He could fight it out with Rogers, or Loup for that matter if AA doesn't want to lose Rogers on waivers, for the last spot when (fingers crossed) Santos is back. 

Gerry - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 09:13 PM EDT (#272486) #
Ricky Romero pitched for Buffalo tonight. Through five innings he had given up 4 hits and 2 walks and that included a rain delay after the second inning. He had throws 76 pitches through 5.

Then he went out for the sixth. A six pitch walk, a four pitch walk, a five pitch walk and a five pitch walk ended his night.

Summary, five good innings, one messy inning.
Mike Green - Tuesday, May 21 2013 @ 09:37 PM EDT (#272487) #
That is pretty charitable, Gerry.  He had 2 walks and a wild pitch, 2 strikeouts and 3 doubles allowed through 5 innings.  Decent pitching.  Then, with a 7-1 lead in the 6th inning, he walked the first four batters and left the game. 

I do not know that having him starting in Buffalo is a good idea from now on. I would probably send him back to square one, or alternatively move him to the pen and let him work some low leverage innings where there is no pressure to work a certain number of pitches/innings.

Chuck - Wednesday, May 22 2013 @ 09:16 AM EDT (#272491) #

Romero has walked 22 in his 24 combined innings in A, AAA and MLB. And given that he went walkless to start his season, in his 7-inning stint in A, those 22 walks have been issued over his last 17 innings. Management must surely be at a loss as to what to do next. There are no obvious next steps and even a Halladay-like square-one reboot would surely come with a low probability of success.

It is not a foregone conclusion that this is a Steve Blass situation, but it sure doesn't look pretty. Dontrelle Willis, a lefty who profiled broadly similarly to Romero, is a very recent example of how this could all end poorly for Romero. I imagine there are counterexamples with happy endings, but none spring to mind.

Ryan Day - Wednesday, May 22 2013 @ 09:39 AM EDT (#272492) #
It looks like Romero can maintain his delivery for an inning or two, but has trouble sustaining it over an entire game. I wonder if relief is a short-term possibility - give him some short outings, let him get some success under his belt, and gradually build up his innings.

On the other hand, relief pitching can be erratic, and Romero appears to need stability & predictability. Perhaps he should go back to Dunedin, and progress upwards on merit.
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