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The affiliates were able to win five out of eight games Monday. Two of the losses were of the one-run variety.


Buffalo 4 Lehigh Valley 2

Buffalo, NY
- The Phillies affiliate scored the game's first run but the Bisons overcame that with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the first inning. Adron Chambers drew a one-out walk before the exiled Kevin Pillar put one over the fence in right center field. A Jonathan Diaz sacrifice fly and a Ryan Schimpf fielder's choice in the second and third innings provided the winning margin. Pillar had the only two-hit game while Chambers and A.J. Jimenez both had a knock and a walk. Diaz and Brett Wallace had the other hits.

Radhames Liz
(1-0) rummaged his way through five innings and gave up both runs (including a homer) on six hits and three walks. He struck out three and induced seven groundouts. Mike Zagurski pitched two perfect frames with four punchouts. Sergio Santos allowed one hit but struck out two in the eighth. Bobby Korecky also pitched a one-hit frame but struck out a batter to earn his 16th save.


New Hampshire 5 Binghamton 1

Binghamton, NY - The Fisher Cats were able to boot a field goal against the Mets in the first inning. Andy Burns drove in the first run with a single before Sean Ochinko laid waste to one over the wall to left-center field to score Burns for a 3-0 lead. New Hampshire added two more runs on a Jon Berti RBI groundout in the fifth and a Cory Aldridge RBI single in the sixth. Ochinko, Aldridge and Jorge Flores all had a pair of hits with Aldridge adding a walk and Flores stealing a base. Berti had a single, a walk, a hit by pitch and two stolen bases. Mike McDade singled and walked while Andy Burns singled and swiped a base.

Kendall Graveman
(1-0) got through six innings in his first Double-A start. He surrendered just the one run despite 10 baserunners on eight hits and two walks. He struck out four and collected six outs on the ground. Blake McFarland pitched three no-hit frames with two walks and five strikeouts to pick up his second save.


St. Lucie 7 Dunedin 6 (12 Innings)


Port St. Lucie, FL - Three two-run leads were not enough for Dunedin in the end. Continuing with the football parlance, the D-Jays sacked the Mets in the end zone for a safety. A wild pitch with the bases loaded accounted for the first run and a Marcus Knecht ground ball plated the other. A run-scoring fly ball by Peter Mooney in the fourth made it 3-1 Dunedin. However, the Jays needed a three-run eighth inning to regain the lead. Kevin Patterson doubled in a run, Pierce Rankin popped a sac fly and Gustavo Pierre singled to give Dunedin a 6-4 advantage. Patterson had three of Dunedin's 10 hits, including two doubles. Knecht doubled, singled and walked. Nick Baligod doubled and walked twice while Ian Parmley singled and earned two free passes. Emilio Guerrero singled and was hit by a pitch. Rankin had a hit and a base on balls.

Jesse Hernandez
was jacked around for four runs on seven hits and a walk over four innings while striking out a pair. Griffin Murphy overcame a 1-2 K-BB total with three no-hit innings and Justin Jackson pitched the eighth without incident. The shutout relief ended when Arik Sikula blew just his second save opportunity by surrendering two runs in the ninth. Chad Girodo gave up two hits and two walks but struck out two over two shutout innings. Tony Davis (1-1) struck out the first batter he faced but he was dinged for an unearned run in the 12th on two singles accompanied by a Guerrero error at short.


Lansing 9 Burlington 2

Burlington, IA
- The Lugnuts started the buzzkill with three runs in the third inning and another five in the fourth. Mitch Nay doubled home the first two runs before Matt Dean plated another with a ground out. Jason Leblebijian took one for the team with the bases loaded before Chaz Frank cleared them with a three-run triple. Frank would scamper home on a Nay ground ball and Nay would single home the final run in the ninth. Nay, Frank and Derrick Loveless shared the team lead with two hits apiece with Loveless also drawing a walk. Leblebijian added a double with his HBP. Dean, Dawel Lugo and D.J. Davis also made a dent in the hit column.

Brent Powers
(3-3) downed the Angels affiliate to a pair of runs on five hits and two walks over six innings in which he struck out four and got nine groundouts. Alonzo Gonzalez worked his way around five hits to post three shutout innings that included two K's to get his first save.


Spokane 6 Vancouver 2



Tim Locastro doubled twice, scored a run and stole his 17th base of the season in 18 attempts Monday night in Spokane.

Spokane, WA - The Rangers affiliate continue to have the C's number, winning six of the eight games so far in the season series. All the scoring in this one came in twos. The Indians were up 2-0 before the Canadians rallied for a pair of runs in the third on RBI singles by Max Pentecost and Chris Carlson. Tim Locastro had two doubles and Ryan McBroom had one. Locastro was also hit by a pitch and stole a base. Ryan Metzler was 1-for-4 while Franklin Barreto was 0-for-3 with a walk.

Chase Mallard (2-1) coughed up four runs over 4.1 innings on eight hits and an HBP while whiffing a pair. Andrew Case could not strand his lone inherited runner but threw 1.2 innings of scoreless ball thanks to 4 K's. Kamakani Usui was burned for two runs over two innings on three hits and a walk. He had zero strikeouts.


Johnson City 2 Bluefield 1


Johnson City, TN - The Jays scored first but unfortunately the Cardinals scored next and last. Sean Hurley, recently demoted from Vancouver, drove in Bluefield's only run with a fielder's choice in the fourth inning. Lydell Moseby was 2-for-3 with a walk. Dan Jansen had a double and was hit by a pitch. Rowdy Tellez, Austin Davis and Trent Miller had singles.

Ryan Borucki kept the Cards off the board in his four-inning outing, yielding just three hits and two walks. He struck out two and induced four groundball outs. Alberto Guzman (1-3) allowed both runs in his three innings of work. Chase Wellbrock struck out three of the four batters he faced in the eighth with the lone runner reaching on a Moseby error at first.


GCL Blue Jays 5 GCL Yankees1 0

Dunedin, FL
- The parent club's recent dominance over the Yankees also extended itself to the boys on the Gulf Coast. The winning run came in the third when Lane Thomas singled and scored on a throwing error at short. The Jays put the game away with three runs in the sixth. A Frankie Rodriguez fielder's choice scored the first run and Yeltsin Gudino drove in the second with a ground ball out. They finally scored a run with a hit as Edwin Fuentes picked up an RBI single. Back-to-back doubles by Juan Tejada and Rodriguez in the eighth rounded out the scoring. Tejada was the only one with more than one hit with three, two of them doubles. Gunnar Heidt and Matt Morgan were both 0-for-3 with a walk.

Daniel Rodriguez (1-3) averaged a baserunner, strikeout and groundout per inning over five frames. He permitted just four hits and a hit by pitch with zero walks. Only two of his seven outs were airborne. Jacob Brentz also kept baserunners to a minimum by allowing just a double and a walk in the ninth to get the four-inning save. The lefty overcame a Thomas error at third to retire nine straight hitters on the way to save number two. He did not strike anybody out but he kept the outfielders busy as they converted eight of his 11 outs in play.


DSL Blue Jays 10 DSL Braves 3


San Pedro de Macoris, DR
- A converted touchdown in the third was all the Jays needed to chop their way to victory. An error and a strikeout-wild pitch combination allowed the Jays to tie the game at 2-2 before a Manuel Herazo bases-loaded walk gave them the lead for good. Rodrigo Orozco followed up with a triple that plated four runs as he came in to score on an error. The Jays would put one through the uprights with a three-run seventh. Miguel Almonte had a run-scoring single while the other runs came in on an error and a passed ball. Almonte and Edward Olivares had two hits apiece with Olivares also reaching via the base on balls. The most interesting batting line belonged to Herazo. He was 0-for-0 with two runs scored, three walks and a hit by pitch. Ronniel Demorizi singled and walked. Enmanuel Moreta drew a walk and took one for the team.

Wilmin Lara went the first four innings, yielding two runs on four hits and two walks but racked up four K's. Erick Hurtado (1-0) hurled three innings of one-run ball on three hits. Jeffry Martinez and William Zambrano were able to post a zero in the eighth and ninth innings.


Monday's Linescores


*** 3 Stars!!! ***


3. Brent Powers, Lansing - Midwest League hitting just .244 against the former Oakland farmhand..


2. Kevin Pillar, Buffalo - An 1.147 OPS over his last 10 games and a .319 batting average on the season.


1. Mitch Nay, Lansing - Hitting .307 with runners on base and .314 when they're in scoring position.


*** 3 Stars images from MiLB.com ***


Tuesday's Schedule & Probable Starters

DSL Blue Jays @ DSL Braves, 10:30 am ET - TBA.
GCL Blue Jays @ GCL Yankees1, 12:00 pm ET - TBA.
Dunedin @ St. Lucie, 6:30 pm ET - TBA.
New Hampshire @ Binghamton, 6:35 pm ET - Matt Boyd (1-4, 6.96).
Vancouver @ Spokane, 9:30 pm ET - TBA.
Bluefield @ Johnson City, 7:00 pm ET - TBA.
Indianapolis @ Buffalo, 7:05 pm ET - Raul Valdes (4-3, 3.80).
Dayton @ Lansing, 7:05 pm ET - Chase De Jong (0-6, 5.27).


Extra Innings...

  • SpringTrainingOnline.com says Dunedin officials have a potential new site for a ballpark complex.
  • The Toronto Sun has a story on Lydell Moseby and a prospect update.
  • Metro News brushes up on Vancouver's Ryan McBroom.
  • Canadian Baseball Network gets closer to Bobby Korecky and has the scoop on Baseball America's updated Top 10 prospects for the Jays.
  • MiLB.com catches up with A.J. Jimenez and stops in on Franklin Barreto.
  • The Buffalo News gets down to business with Adron Chambers.
The Say Nay Kid! | 10 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Richard S.S. - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 11:25 AM EDT (#290779) #
Something's wrong. In the Buffalo report, either the score is transposed or the article is inaccurate.
#2JBrumfield - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#290782) #
In the Buffalo report, either the score is transposed or the article is inaccurate.

Noted and corrected. Thanks! The Herd did win.

Meantime, WBNG in Binghamton has video highlights of the Fisher Cats win last night.
Nigel - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 12:45 PM EDT (#290793) #

A little late, but I was at the Nat on Friday and managed to catch both Labourt (who started) and Lietz (who came in to do the back half of the tandem start).  A couple of thoughts:

- Labourt and Seth Conner put on the worst pitching and catching display that I have ever seen during the first 15 pitches or so of the game - Labourt was unbelievably wild (he was bouncing 95mph fastballs 2 feet in front of the plate (yes that was intentionally plural) but Conner did not block one of them, he had a passed ball and he half-caught 2 or three others - whatever Conner is, he isn't a catcher

- the good news on Labourt - he regularly sat 93-95 with more 94s and 95s than 93s and he hit 97 four or 5 times (the gun on the day was not hot as the Hillsboro starter was having trouble getting it over 85); he generates that velocity incredibly easily - a very simple easy motion and the ball comes out effortlessly;  multiple times it was hard to believe the pitch speed given it looked like a warm-up toss.  His FB has great life as the Hillsboro hitters could sit FB all game (Labourt was behind in the count all game) and they were not able to make hard contact on the FB once.  Labourt also threw 4-5 Steve Carlton like sliders which produced wild swings from RH batters even though they almost hit the hitter in the back leg

- the bad news on Labourt - he has no control or command (at least not on this day); his release point was all over the place and he was not able to consistantly throw strikes with any pitch; all of his hard contact was given up to LH batters on sliders that really didn't do much;  his slider varied from a plus pitch to terrible;  he only threw 3 CH that I noticed and he telegraphed all of them by slowing his arm speed down; his slider and his change both came in at the same 85 mph speed so his change in velocity was not good between the two pitches

- in sum there is a really really electric arm there but it is incredibly raw

- Lietz suffered in some ways (from an impression perspective) from following Labourt.  Lietz has the identical repitoire to Labourt (FB,SL,CH).  His FB sat 91-92; not a ton of movement on the pitch but he does a good job of keeping the ball down in the zone and he really can pitch to the inside corner on RH  batters.  His slider is also 85; not great movement on the pitch but he can consistantly throw it for strikes.  He also threw four or five CHs one or two were good ones at 79 but the others not so good and came in harder.  Although he has walked a few too many since he arrived in Vancouver I think he will generally have both control and command of the FB and SL.  I think he will need to develop the CH or another pitch to have success as a starter higher up the organization.  If his SL sharpens up a bit he also has a future as a LOOGY as he hides the ball quite well and LH batters seemed to have some trouble picking up the FB.

metafour - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 12:53 PM EDT (#290795) #
Ryan Borucki has been promoted to Vancouver.  Going to assume this finally allows Conner Greene to move up to Bluefield.
bpoz - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 04:11 PM EDT (#290832) #
Good to see some promotions.
Thanks for the scouting report Nigel. J Labourt was not this wild last year as I recall. He is throwing harder this year as well.
Was there anything exceptional on the hitters. Hitting & defense?
greenfrog - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 10:37 PM EDT (#290850) #
Davidi says nine scouts were in attendance for the Buffalo-Indianapolis game tonight. Nolin had a good outing: 6 2 0 0 1 3. Whatever happens with the Jays, the next couple of days should be pretty fun to follow.
Richard S.S. - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 11:03 PM EDT (#290852) #
Lester scratched from yesterday's start.
Richard S.S. - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 11:04 PM EDT (#290853) #
Oops, I mean tomorrow's start.
greenfrog - Tuesday, July 29 2014 @ 11:05 PM EDT (#290854) #
The Pirates seem like a good match.
John Northey - Wednesday, July 30 2014 @ 12:25 AM EDT (#290869) #
Better Pirates than Orioles.
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