Buffalo 5 Columbus 3 Game One
I think Kyle Drabek has found his niche—extending relief pitching after a rain delay. Drabek pitched five scoreless innings as play resumed after last night’s rain delay. Homeruns by Darin Mastroianni and Jared Goedert provided the offence after the restart as Buffalo ran out winners at 5-3.
Buffalo 7 Columbus 4 Game Two
Game two was marked by a gutsy Austin Bibens-Dirkx start. After allowing four runs in the first inning, Bibens-Dirkx rebounded to pitch four scoreless innings. Meanwhile the Bisons’ offence rallied, posting three runs in the second, two in the third, and a single run in the fourth and fifth innings. Kevin Pillar, back in the heart of the Bisons’ batting order, delivered two hits. As did Brad Glenn who homered, and Andy LaRoche had three hits including a double and a homerun. Aaron Sanchez hopes to impress tomorrow.
Altoona 6 New Hampshire 7
Drama I do say down in New Hampshire. After last night’s brawl, New Hampshire and Altoona returned tonight to combine for 29 hits and a walk-off. New Hampshire came from behind in the ninth to tie the game at six with three runs and then walked off in the eleventh.
There were heroes all around tonight. Jonathan Jones threw a runner out at the plate in the ninth. Kevin Nolan was at the heart of the ninth inning rally—doubling with one out and ultimately scoring the winning run in the eleventh. Andy Burns singled home the winning run and has now run his hit streak to ten games, while Kenny Wilson had four hits at the top of the order. I want to say tonight’s game jump-starts the Fisher Cats as they sit last in the Eastern League’s Eastern division, but they’ve been winning their fair share of ball games recently—so keep it up!
Clearwater 4 Dunedin 5
Another walk-off down on the farm as Marcus Knecht singled home Dalton Pompey to walk-off the Phillies affiliate. Pompey had two hits including a triple and was joined in the two-hit department by L.B. Dantzler. Recently promoted Santiago Nessy doubled. On the mound, Matt Boyd went five solid innings, allowing just one earned run while striking out six and walking two.
Bowling Green 10 Lansing 4
The second half of the season did not start as planned for the Lansing squad. While Dawel Lugo had three hits on the evening, he also kicked the ball twice leading to two unearned runs. Dickie Joe Thon had two hits, as did Mitch Nay, Derrick Loveless, and Chaz Frank. Not much extra-base pop though as Derrick Loveless’ triple represented the only extra-base hit for the Lugnuts. Frank Viola III goes for the Lugs tomorrow.
Spokane 0 Vancouver 1 Rain Delay
Play will resume tomorrow apparently.
Johnson City 13 Bluefield 0
Opening night down in Bluefield and yikes, did they get hit around. The reviews for Jesus Tinoco and the Relievers don’t look pretty. No four stars here. Little going on at the plate as well. Eyes will be on Bluefield to see how this crop of hitting prospects fare. I think since we’ve started up with Bluefield the Jays have sent some pretty good-looking hitting prospects down there. This year should be no different as the lineup will feature Richard Urena, Anthony Alford, Jake Anderson (or whatever is left of him), Rowdy Tellez, Gabriel Cenas, and Jesus Gonzalez. All of those names received a lot of bonus money. It would be awfully nice if a few of those names make it through the year with some numbers to justify the outlay.
DSL Rangers1 7 DSL Blue Jays 6
This Severino kid cannot catch the ball. He made his fourteenth error tonight in his seventeenth game. He can hit apparently as he stroked three hits and fell a homerun shy of the cycle. The Rangers squad scored a single run in the top half of the ninth to top the DSL Jays affiliate.
Three Stars
3. Andy Burns
2. Brad Glenn
1. Kyle Drabek
