The teams that mustered more than four runs were winners Tuesday night. One of them came close to nailing an impersonation of the big league club's come from ahead loss.
It was Ripley's "believe it or not" night for the affiliates Friday. Consider:
Jarrett Hoffpauir hit for the cycle in Las Vegas's win over Tacoma. It was his second cycle of the season.
Two Jays, Aaron Mathews in Vegas and Eric Thames for New Hampshire, hit inside the park home runs
New Hampshire were losing 6-1 in the eighth inning and won.
David Cooper, who has been struggling all season, hit a two run home run in the ninth to tie the game
Bubbie Buzachero, who had an ERA around 8 before last nights game, pitched five innings to get the win for the Fisher Cats
Chad Beck, whose pre-game ERA was over 6, made a spot start for Dunedin and pitched five shutout innings
Travis D'Arnaud hit a grand slam homerun.
Zach Stewart gave up five runs in the first two innings, then pitched three almost perfect innings
I am not a scout, I just play one on the internet. I was in Lansing last weekend to see three Lugnut games. I spoke with manager Sal Fasano, pitching coach Antonio Caceres, scouts and others hanging around the team to build a picture of the players, to go with what I observed.
My observations are below. Remember it is tough to evaluate a hitter in a handful of at-bats, they might be hot or cold that weekend which would influence my comments.
Two doubleheaders were split down the middle by the affiliates as part of a 3-3 night on the farm.
Two wins in five games for the affiliates. New Hampshire stayed hot behind Randy Boone, with homers from Brian Jeroloman and Adam Calderone. Dunedin had three hits from Adeiny Hechavarria, and a home run from Mike McDade, as they came from behind to win. Las Vegas had twenty hits and lost, as Rey Gonzalez was bombed. Brian Dopirak hit two home runs. Lansing lost both ends of a doubleheader in two very similar games.
Yours truly was in Lansing for the doubleheader and lugnut fan, Chad Hillman, stopped by to say hello, as we exchanged notes about the players. I talked with manager Sal Fasano, look for that on the site next week.
Henderson Alvarez cruised through seven shutout innings Friday night. He gave up five hits but recorded 14 of his 16 non-strikeout outs via groundballs. Mike McDade popped two home runs. And in the "glimpse of the future" department, in the sixth inning Adeiny Hechavarria, Tyler Pastornicky and Travis D'Arnaud had consecutive hits to score two runs. Jesse Litsch was pretty good for six innings in AAA on Friday but the bottom fell out fast in the seventh. Las Vegas went on to lose. Kyle Drabek had a not so good start and the hitters were shut down by Bowie. Lansing were rained out.
New Hampshire had 20 hits and lost while none of the other three afiliates did more than half that number while all emerging victorious.