There were six games on the schedule Sunday. New Hampshire won, Buffalo lost, Dunedin split a doubleheader. But Vancouver were the best on the day, winning both ends of a doubleheader. Cade Doughty had six hits.
I also did a deep dive into how I see Orelvis Martinez's season so far.
Buffalo 3 Lehigh Valley 7
New Hampshire 10 Portland 8
Vancouver 19 Spokane 2 - game one
Vancouver 4 Spokane 2 - game two
Fort Myers 1 Dunedin 7 - game one
Fort Myers 6 Dunedin 4 - game two
Three Stars
Third Star - Leo Jimenez
Second Star - Ryan Jennings
First Star - Cade Doughty
NOTES
There has been a lot written in the last few days about Orelvis Martinez and his improvements at the plate. I see Orelvis's season so far in three stages. There was the first month and more with Orelvis bottoming out on May 4th. On that date he was hitting .079. He had three home runs, five total hits, 5 walks and 16 strikeouts.
In the second game on May 4th Orelvis tripled and homered. But he was hitless in the next four games. However he walked three times. Over the next 9 games, through May 19th, Orelvis went 10-35, hitting .286. Seven of those ten hits were home runs. He did not walk at all and struck out ten times. So, act one was basically hopeless Orelvis. Act two was home run hitting Orelvis.
Act three goes from May 21 to today. On May 21 he homered but he also walked twice. Orelvis has walked in all seven games since that date. In his last eight games Orelvis is 7-23, a .304 average. In addition he has walked 12 times to give him an OBP of .515. He also has two home runs and a double giving him a slugging percentage of .608.
Now eight games is an awfully small sample. But you would hope that is shows Orelvis what is possible, and it might show that Orelvis has learned a new approach. On Around the Nest podcast, NH broadcaster Gareth Kwok, noted that pitchers were continuing to tease Orelvis with breaking balls away. It looks like he has learned not to swing at them. I should note that Hypobole has pointed out yesterday that Orelvis has fared better against left handed pitchers. But small steps, and it looks like Orelvis might have taken one.
Buffalo scored three runs with three hits in the first inning. The rest of the way they were shutout on four hits. Davis Schneider and Wynton Bernard had two hits each.
Drew Hutchison started. He was a bit wild, he walked five in five innings. Add in four hits and he was charged with three runs. Jay Jackson has had a tough time since he returned from the majors. He gave up a couple of runs.
Sixteen hits for the Fisher Cats. Leo Jimenez hit his first home run of the season, and added a single and a double. He has his average back up to .294. Zac Cook hit his third home run and Orelvis his 13th. Phil Clarke had three hits. Cook and Steward Berroa each stole home, and those two runs were the margin of victory. It should also be noted that the Fisher Cats had only one walk in this game, and that was by Orelvis. When was the last time you could say that?
Adam Kloffenstein did not have a good start, six runs allowed on eight hits in five innings. he did strikeout eight though. six of the eight hits off Kloff were to right field. I didn't check to see if it was a lot of left handed hitters or if they were just going the other way.
In game one of their doubleheader the C's bats were on fire putting up 13 runs in the third inning. There were five walks, a hit batter and seven hits, the last hit being a grand slam by Cade Doughty. His bat seems to be warming up, he was 3-5 with six RBI.
Devereaux Harrison started, coming off his excellent first start. He was fine through two innings but gave up two runs in the third. That was it for him.
Cade Doughty stayed hot in game two. As a reminder he had three hits yesterday, three in game one and he went 3-4 in game two.
Eric Pardinho got the spot start and went three innings and only allowed an unearned run. But he didn't strike out anyone. Garrett Spain who had homered in game one, had two hits in game two. Rainer Nunez also had two hits.
Dunedin won the first game of their DH behind Ryan Jennings who pitched a complete game, seven innings. The only run off him came in his last inning. He struck out six. Peyton Williams hit two home runs and drove in three.
Irv Carter got off to a rough start in their second game, conceding four runs in the first inning. After the walk he retired seven in a row before walking a hitter. He then got the next out to finish his day with three innings. We saw something similar from carter last season before he found a groove. Carter threw 60% fastballs with an average velocity of 92 mph. Ryan McCarty his his second home run in as many days. Manuel Beltre had two hits.
