Saturday was ike Friday, three affiliates won, Las Vegas being the only loser, and Adam Calderone was the hitting hero again. Calderone drove in the first three Fisher Cat runs in support of Kyle Drabek. Drabek was matched up against Casey Kelly, one of Boston's top prospects. Drabek pitched seven shutout innings for the win.
Henderson Alvarez had to face Jimmy Rollins as well as the rest of the Clearwater side and he pitched six shutout innings and kept Rollins off the bases. Jon Tolisano had three hits including a home run. Dunedin and Clearwater also finished a game suspended earlier in the season and Dunedin won that one too. Adeiny Hechavarria hadone hit in each game and so far is hitting the ball on the ground most of the time.
Lansing were down 3-0 in the eighth but came back to win. Brad Mills had a rough start and Las Vegas were blown out.
So hooray for Dallas Braden for his recent perfecto, but what's with the Texas-themed given first name to a native of Phoenix, Arizona? And couldn't we have arranged it so that somehow the final batter in the gem was Austin Kearns or Austin Jackson? And wouldn't it have been WAY cool if the double-Texas-town-named Tyler Houston had been catching?
Okay, naybe not. But heads up for a Hall of Names team composed entirely of players who share a name (given first or middle, or family -- all good, unless noted otherwise) with one of the largest towns in the great sovereign nation -- er, U.S. state -- of Texas.
I get that this is a rebuilding year. In fact, I'm all for it. As I've said before, I was and remain well prepared for 95 losses this season.
The Jays affiliates managed a winning night by going 2-1 that included a shootout, an extra innings win and a game postponed due to the G20 Summit. I'm not buying one word of this "postponed due to rain BS". However, the best news of the night came from the mound in Dunedin.