Oh my mama told me
There'll be days like this
If the parent club's opportunity of not getting home field advantage for this year's World Series wasn't bad enough, the affiliates were a combined 0-3 in North America and the Dominican. Each team managed to blow a lead at some point with one club pissing away a five-run bulge. If you don't bother to click the "More" link on this story, I wouldn't blame you but I still had to write the damn thing so just humour me, would ya?
Saturday night on the farm, seven games, three losses and a triple play. Sorry about the late submission, but your humble correspondent attended the Dunedin game, stayed up late to catch the late Las Vegas game, then fell asleep and woke up just a bit ago.
Kyle Drabek folowed up his no-hitter with six shutout innings as New Hampshire won easily. JP Arencibia hit his 23rd home run as Vegas held on for a narrow win. Egan Smith pitched six shutout innings as Lansing shut out Great Lakes.
Dunedin and Auburn both lost in extra innings. The GCL Jays were well beaten although Jake Marisnick had three hits.
Mike Green is back with the third and final episode of his travels in the North Eastern US.
We coasted into Auburn on the scenic two lane highway from Interstate 81 in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York . “Likes sort likes”, the line from the great Dutch film Antonia’s Line, came into my head as we passed through an obviously Republican town with accusingly well-manicured lawns, mandatory American flags in front of the houses and denizens in perfect nautical summer wear. Auburn was not one of those places.
If you read the headline into a microphone, remember to pop those "P's". Program directors at radio stations just love that! Anyways, as you may have gathered, the bats were working just fine for the visitors in Portlands Maine and Oregon Tuesday night in a 5-3 night for the affiliates. The number two and three stars of the night had big nights at the plate but they were overshadowed by a great pitching performance and he earned star number one. All this and a bag of chips (except for the bag of chips part) in today's edition of the MLU!
Our own Mike Green, a former member of the roster and minor league reporter, contributes this pinch-hit. Parts 2 and 3 to follow.....
Seeing new places is the kind of mind-altering experience that the middle aged can tolerate with equanimity. So it was that my companion and I headed out through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York on a baseball trip. First stop, Lansing, Michigan, for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games.
It was a wild night on the farm. Dunedin had two hits through eight innings but won the game in eleven innings with four hits total. Mike McDade hit a game tying, two-out, two run home run in the ninth to tie the game and the winning run scored thanks to two wild pitches in the eleventh. Lansing had a comfortable 9-2 lead, that became an uncomfortable 9-8 lead, before winning 11-9. Las Vegas won behind anoother home run from JP Arencibia.
New Hampshire lost by a run and left the bases loaded in both the eighth and ninth. Auburn lost with the eventual winning run for Batavia coming on a bases loaded hit batter.
