Dunedin and Lakeland played a marathon that is a strong contender for game of the year in the minor leagues. The game went 17 innings and was scoreless through the first 16 frames. Arguably, that’s not the most impressive fact from the game, as one team was no-hit through the first 13 innings. There were several fine pitching performances throughout the minors and I could tell you some interesting facts like that the 4 non-Triple-A saw 11 total runs scored in 44 innings, but wouldn’t we all rather just get to the game of the night, and of the year?

The Jays affiliates were almost perfect last night.  Two extra innings wins and a pair of two-run victories boosted the affiliates to a 4-1 record. 

This has been mentioned in these parts earlier but the Auburn Citizen recently speculated the Doubledays affiliation with the Blue Jays will come to an end after the 2010 season.  Reporter Kristin Kowaleski-Wolford claims it's the Jays are the ones who are walking out, a complete role reversal from the Syracuse-Toronto break-up.  She also makes comments in her blog about the D-Days/Jays parting of the ways.  Last week, Kowaleski-Wolford spoke with Charlie Wilson, the Jays director of minor league operations, about the possible end to the affiliation.

 

Someone please tell me if I am crazy. I opened up the first box score of the evening and thought "hey, new box scores! These are purdy!" However, upon venturing back to old MLUs to find out when exactly the change took place, I discovered that they've been in use for at least the last four weeks. So, either all the MILB box scores have been retrofitted, or I'm a ball short of a full count. WHICH IS IT???!?!

A perfect 5-0 night on the farm featured some great performances by a few usual suspects.

And it got uglier as the night went on.  Our farm boys committed 9 errors in 3 games (Las Vegas, Lansing, and Auburn) and our bats were quiet as they could be producing only 5 runs in 3 games (GCL Jays, Dunedin and New Hampshire).

Two affiliates fell short in their playoff chases on Friday.  The GCL Jays lost and now need help to make the playoffs on Saturday when they play their final game of the regular season.  Lansing lost and dropped their series against playoff rival West Michigan.  Lansing are three games out of a playoff spot.  Las Vegas and New Hampshire also lost.

Dunedin and Auburn broke out the big bats on their way to wins.  Carlos Perez had three hits and three RBI's and Gustavo Pierre had four hits for Auburn.  Mike McDade and Ryan Schimpf had four hits each, including a home run, for Dunedin.

The affiliates went 5-3 in a night that featured no fewer than 5 fine pitching performances. A team won a crucial game to charge ahead in the standings, while another suffered a potentially season ending loss.

The top three affiliates combined for eight hits on a 1-4 night on the farm.

I was in Lansing ten days ago for two games.  Here is my scouting report on those games.

The Jays did get the upper hand on the Yankees on the minor league side of things Tuesday night.  That's the biggest highlight of a 3-3 night on the farm that saw two games washed out by rain and another one cut short because of precipitation.

Boy, am I ever running out of Kyle Drabek puns. What does that one even mean? It means Kyle Drabek was great, is what it means. Drabek led the farm to a 2-2 night including a couple of rainouts.

Not much of the in-between on Sunday.  The affiliates did a bit of knocking around and got themselves knocked around a bit more on a 2-4 day.

Tough night on the Farm.  The Rookie Blue Jays were the only ones who managed a win.  Anemic bats and innings that blew up on us were to blame.

Randy Boone retired the last 25 New Britain hitters in order and David Cooper and Eric Thames homered to lead the Fisher Cats to victory.  The Doubledays put on a hitting display behind Misual Diaz and won handily.  Newly drafted Shane Opitz paced the baby Jays to the win.  The other three teams lost on a .500 night on the farm.