There was good pitching in the lower levels of the minors yesterday. Auburn played a doubleheader where the teams combined to score four runs. Lansing won an extra inning game 3-1, while the Gulf Coast Blue Jays lost an extra inning game 2-1. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s 36 innings of baseball with 11 runs scored. Brett Cecil got his first victory for Syracuse while Dunedin won a nail-biter by continuously chipping away at the Sarasota Reds. Meanwhile, New Hampshire lost as four add-on runs came back to haunt them. Oh yes, and Travis Snider continued his meteoric rise through the Jays system with JP announcing on WWJP that he'd been promoted to Triple-A, with Brian Dopirak getting a much-deserved promotion to New Hampshire and David Cooper making the jump to High-A.

The affiliates split things right down the middle last night.  Syracuse got an encouraging performance from a recently demoted starter and came away with a walk-off win, New Hampshire battled back from an early deficit only to suffer a walk-off loss, Dunedin held on in a nail-biter, Lansing's offence didn't show up against the first place team in their division and the Gulf Coast Jays split a doubleheader against the team they're chasing for first.   Auburn had the night off.

Here are the links - tell us what you find notable from last night or in general in the minors.  You can even toss in the three stars of the night if you'd like.

Four of the five affiliates in action won yesterday, with Syracuse losing a 2-1 affair in Buffalo. It was a day of great pitching and good hitting with two of the victories coming behind shutouts and Ricky Romero and Randy Boone also throwing quality starts. While Syracuse struggled at the plate the same didn’t hold true for New Hampshire or Lansing, which combined for 19 runs. Dunedin only scored six, but they had 21 baserunners. Picking between all those batters was difficult, so the third star (the first two were obvious) went to a pitcher.

Excellent starting pitching by Brad Mills, Marc Rzepczynski and Joel Carreno picked up three wins for their teams.  Brian Wolfe started for Syracuse but it was Davis Romero who was the better pitcher on this night., five perfect innings with eleven K's.  Both Lansing and Dunedin scored five runs in their first innings.  Lansing went on to win by eleven but Dunedin lost by seven.  Your first star is eighteen year old Tyler Pastornicky.

Brett Cecil had a tough debut in AAA although he did not have much support from the fielders.  Jean Machi, adrian Martin and Luis Perez each pitched well and led their teams to victory.  Auburn lost.

There is no way around it... It was a bad night for the affiliates. Perhaps the players were all too busy checking their cell phones to see if they were traded?

Revenge was sweet for the Fisher Cats after an extra-innings loss last night, Travis Snider and JP Arencibia had three hits each.  The most hits by a junior Jay was four by Raul Barron helping Lansing to the win.  On the other hand Syracuse were held to one hit by Chase Wright and two relievers.

Syracuse falls below .500 as their once-promising season heads down in the toilet, Lansing and the Gulf Coast Jays saw their losing streaks extended and New Hampshire lost a heart-breaker in extra innings.  On the positive side, Dunedin was in the winner's circle and Auburn drew closer to first place in their division with a key road victory in a 2-4 night for the affiliates.  Strange days indeed, most peculiar mama!

The Chiefs banged out 21 hits in a 14-1 rout of Indianapolis as the affiliates went 2-4 yesterday.

Syracuse was the only club with a victory yesterday, as Jesse Litsch made his minor league debut for 2008. Lansing lost by one run and New Hampshire by two, while Dunedin lost both ends of a doubleheader by a combined four runs. The GCL Blue Jays had the worst showing on the day with a 3-run loss. The Jays affiliates suffered the loss in two walkoff victories for opponents as several reliable bullpen arms had poor outings. At least the usual suspects in Double-A continued to swing a hot bat.

Only Auburn and the GCL Jays won, the GCL Jays won both ends of a doubleheader.  The baby Jays won the first end 2-1, Shannon Stewart was 2-2, scoring the first run and driving in the second.  Robert Sobolewski, the Jays fourth rouns pick in this years draft, had been scuffling at Auburn but a 5-5 night does wonders for the batting average.

Mother nature forced the early end to one game and canceled another one altogether... The full-season affiliates went 2-for-2, while the Gulf Coast League scores (a double-header) were unavailable for the original posting of the nightly wrap.

Two wins as the hitting was in short supply.  Lansing led the affiliates in hits with eight, and that took eleven innings.  The six teams combined to get 33 hits.  The poor hitting disguised good starting pitching from Davis Romero (2 hits in six innings), Ricky Romero (five hits in eight innings), and Castillo Perez (two hits in six innings).  Three of the four losses were recorded by the bullpen.

Syracuse drops to .500 again but a big hitting streak remains alive while New Hampshire "inches" closer to first place Trenton in the Eastern League's Northern Division in a game that saw a Fisher Cat record a "memorable" first.  In other action, Dunedin won its tenth game in a row in convincing fashion, Auburn won a nail-biter and the GCL Jays?  Well, the less said, the better.