Buffalo
Buffalo won 5-2 with the offense shared throughout the lineup. The pitching was the more notable aspect to the game. Casey Lawrence went three shutout innings on his return from the big leagues and he was followed by Mike Bolsinger who who went 1.2 innings after his trip through DFA country. There was in interesting contrast between the next two lefty relievers in line after Loup. Matt Dermody faced five batters and struck them all out. Chad Girodo faced six batters and only retired two. Three singles and a walk led to the two Rochester runs.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire had a nice come from behind 5-3 victory. The hitting hero was Gunnar Heidt who hit a three run home run, part of his three hit day. This was Heidt's fifth game of the season and the first one where he had a multiple hit day. Heidt has been average in his three years in the minors so far. This is his age 24 season so we will see if he can break out.
Sean Ried-Foley had a second bad start at AA. He was pulled in the second inning having thrown 30 pitches in the inning. SRF threw 49 pitches in total, 29 strikes and 20 balls. In the second inning he went to a three ball count on the first four hitters then grooved a pitch that went over the wall. AA is the biggest jump for a player and SRF needs to learn how to pitch at this level. He will have a few more starts to figure it out.
Dunedin
Dunedin put up 11 runs and cruised to a win. DJ Davis had three hits and is hitting .235. We all know this is a make or break year for Davis but his eight K's in 17 AB's is not getting off to a good start. Cavan Biggio might have been pushed to Dunedin because of injuries elsewhere. So far he is hitting .217 and has eight strikeouts. On Wednesday he went 2-6 and di not strikeout. A sign of progress?
Jordan Romano, from Markham, started and went four innings. His command was off in this game, he needed 85 pitches to get through four innings.
Lansing
Lansing split a doubleheader. Andy Ravel and Taylor Saucedo combined on a three hitter in game one. Ravel went five shutout innings in his first start of the year. Ravel was a seventh round pick last year out of Kent State, the same college as Dirk Hayhurst. Ravel was a piggy-back starter with Mike Ellenbest last year in Vancouver.
Justin Maese pitched a complete game in game two but took the loss. In this case it was a six inning complete game. Maese is a sinkerball pitcher and this game showed the limitations that sometimes come with that approach. Maese had just two K's and gave up nine hits. Through five innings Maese had conceded five hits, two infield hits, two ground ball singles and one hard hit ball. Perhaps he tired in the sixth but in that inning three of the four hits off him were hard hit. Maese definitely needs to work on his strikeouts before he can think of Dunedin. Vlad Jr. hit his second home run of the season in the second game. The middle of the Lugnut lineup has four hitters with averages over .300, Bo Bichette, Vlad Jr., Brad Jones and Christian Williams. Bichette and Vlad have OPS's over 1100.
3 Stars
3rd star: Matt Dermody
2nd star: Andy Ravel
1st star: Gunnar Heidt
