Three out of four teams lost in Thursday's action, in a slate of games which featured some outcomes that one might not have expected at all.

Strong starts in Triple-A and the Midwest League led to victories, with the former being a come-from-behind extra-inning affair. Meanwhile, the Fisher Cats lost in Brett Cecil’s return to the diamond and a first inning grand slam put Dunedin in a hole that Jake Marisnick and Sean Ochinko couldn’t lead the team out of

Some offensive players had big nights. Marcus Knecht had four hits and two home runs; Ryan Schimpf had two hits in one inning, one of them a home run; Anthony Gose had two hits, including a two run triple; and Kenny Wilson and Kevin Pillar each had three hits with a triple. The farm delivered two wins, one loss, and a rainout.

Las Vegas was the only affiliate to put one in the win column Monday.

The affiliates went 3-2 on the day as Dunedin split a double-header.

Three outta four on the farm and a ton of nice performances including exactly the type of game Anthony Gose should have.

The Farm went 2 for 3 on strength of Las Vegas hitting and pitching, New Hampshire’s 8th come from behind win and a heartbreaking loss for Lansing.  Despite the loss, Lansing stays on top of the Eastern Division of the Midwest League with a record of 19-8.  Dunedin, with a night off, stayed atop the Northern Division of the Florida State League.  As we go up the organization, New Hampshire holds down the 4th spot in the Eastern League Eastern Division with a 12-15 record. And Las Vegas starts the weekend at 13-16, good for 4th place in the Pacific Coast League’s Pacific South Division.

A very quiet workmanlike night on the farm but the affiliates nevertheless went 3-1 without any real standout performances.

In Lansing, one of the team’s mostly high-touted pair of tandem starters had their first poor outing of the season. Meanwhile, Las Vegas exploded for a dozen runs in Reno behind a solid start. The Fisher Cats had a quiet day at the plate and there was an unexpected source of heroics for Dunedin.

Sometimes you win from your own efforts, sometimes it's given to you.  Sometimes you could have won but lost, and sometimes you just blow it.  And that was the night on the farm.  New Hamsphire were the only winners through a combination of their efforts and Reading doing their best to lose the game.  Las Vegas had lots of opportunities to score but came up short.  And Dunedin were heading for a win but blew the game in the eighth inning.

Yohan Pino was the standout, throwing 93 pitches to get through his eight innings.  Aaron Laffey and Randy Boone pitched well too.

I was in Lansing last week to see four Lugnut games. Lansing is drawing a lot of fan and scout attention this year because of their young group of starting pitchers and the teams performance on the field has more than lived up to expectations.  This scouting report summarises what I saw in my four days in Lansing.

Remember this is the end of the first month of the season for the players, many of whom are playing in full-season ball for the first time. There is a lot of teaching going on. While I was in Lansing, in addition to the regular team coaches, these other "teachers" were in town: Pat Hentgen, roving pitching instructor; Mike Mordecai, infield instructor; Rick Miller, outfield instructor; and Steve Springer, quality at-bat instructor. The manager/coaches room was like grand central station.

Las Vegas won the Battle of Nevada and Mother Nature won out in Lansing. The other two affiliates wound up on the wrong side on the scoreboard thanks to come from ahead losses, one of them in extra innings.

The Toronto affiliates received some outstanding pitching performances on Sunday, helping the clubs combine for a 4-0 record on the day and just five runs allowed - including two shutouts.

The affiliates split their four games on Saturday while the top prospects all had top prospect-y nights.

The farm club put in some great pitching and OK hitting and came up winning for the evening.  Jessie Chavez took his third win for Las Vegas with a brilliant outing and what we could call a “parsimonious” pitching performance.  Hats off to the pitching staffs at all levels Friday, allowing only 8 runs in two games while striking out a total of 31.