Five wins for the affiliates. Buffalo used the Hague machine to win again, Scott Copeland, John Diaz and Dalton Pompey also had good contributions. New Hampshire got a lead off home run from Roemen Fields and strong pitching from John Anderson. Vancouver won in extra innings, Rodrigo Orozco stayed hot with three hist in Bluefield's win. And the GCL Jays won a rain shortened game with Justin Maese on the mound. Dunedin and Lansing were the losers.
Buffalo 8 Syracuse 5
The Bisons had to face Stephen Strasburg and they got to him for three runs in the second inning. Matt Hague and Melky Mesa singled, Munenori Kawasaki then walked to load the bases. One run scored on a balk and two on a Jon Diaz single. Hague singled in two more runs in the fifth, not off Strasburg, to make it a 5-1 game. Scott Copeland started and was excellent, two of the three runs he allowed were unearned.
Buffalo doubled their lead with two runs in the seventh, Diaz singled, Dalton Pompey doubled him home, and Pompey scored when Andy Burns singled. Phillippe Aumont made his Bisons debut and surrendered a couple of runs to make it a 7-5 game. Buffalo's final run came with a bunt single by Pompey and a double by, who else, Hague. Joba Chamberlain got the save while walking one and striking out two. Hague was 4-5 to raise his average to .353.
Harrisburg 1 New Hampshire 6
Roemen Fields gets neglected somewhat in the shadow of Anthony Alford. Now I don't think that Fields has Alford's potential but what Fields is doing is quite outstanding. He became a professional baseball player at age 23. He played last year in Vancouver. He was jumped over Lansing to Dunedin for 2015 and he hit well there and was promoted to New Hampshire. With a 3-4 day on Wednesday, Fields is hitting .349. At this stage Fields is a singles machine who puts the ball on the ground and runs hard. He has little power, he did hit his first home run of the year on Wednesday, and he doesn't walk or strikeout much. He has 9 K's in 86 at-bats at AA and 6 walks. He profiles somewhat like Ben Revere, a good centrefielder who has a high, but empty, batting average. The caveat with Fields is will he continue to improve? He has played just over 150 professional games, less than a major league season. Will the continued professional instruction he gets help him improve even more?
Fields led off the game with a home run. Jorge Flores doubled in two runs in the fourth and Matt Newman did the same in the fifth. The Fisher cats led 6-0 before Harrisburg got on the board in the seventh. Johnny Anderson went seven innings and the only run he gave up was unearned. Blake McFarland, back in AA, pitched the ninth.
Dunedin 0 Charlotte 2
Only four gits for the Jays in this one, LB Dantzler had two. Anthony Alford was 0-3 and left the game with what was described as dehydration.
The hard luck loser was Jeremy Gabryszwski who pitched six innings and gave up one run. Brad Allen gave up the other run in two innings of relief.
Lansing 6 Lake County 7 - 10 innings
Lansing trailed 6-1 after four innings but they scored in the seventh, eighth and ninth to tie the game. The comeback came to naught in the tenth. The winning run was a strikeout victim who reached on a wild pitch by Mark Biggs. A walk and a single later and the game was over. Chase Mallrd started and was done after four with six runs and eight hits on the record. Dusty Isaacs pitched three great innings of shuwdown relief with 6 K's. Biggs was in his third inning when the game ended.
DJ Davis had three hits including a home run in the fourth. He also singled and scored in the eighth. The Lugs scored two in the seventh on a ground out and a single by Austin Davis. Davis also drove in the fifth run in the ninth and the tying run scored on a balk. In addition to Austin Davis, Boomer Collins had two hits.
Vancouver 5 Boise 4 - 12 innings
Vancouver scored the winning run in the 12th without getting the ball out of the infield. A walk was followed by a bunt single by Andrew Guillotte. Gunnar Heidt tried to bunt them over but the lead runner was gunned at third. Justin Atkinson then singled to shortstop and Guillotte scored from second. I am not sure of the details, whether Guillotte was running on the play or if the ball got away from the shortstop but there was no error on the play. Atkinson had three hits, Sean Hurley had two. The C's were outhit 15-9 and Vancouver made 4 errors but didn't concede an unearned run.
Vancouver used five pitchers with Andrew Case the only one who didn't allow a hit. Boise had 9 hits and scored three runs off starter Jon Wandling in 4.1 innings.
Princeton 3 Bluefield 7
The Jays scored early and often to rack up a 6-0 lead and end the game with 13 hits. Aaron Attaway and Rodrigo Oroxco did most of the early damage. Attaway doubled and scored in the first. Orozco doubled in two runs in the second. Orozco had a double and Attaway an RBI single in the fourth. Andres Sotillo singled in two runs in the fifth. Orozco and Juan Tejada each had three hits.
Angel Perdomo gave up a run in 5.2 innings. Grayson Huffman continued his rough 2015 by conceding two runs. Matt Smoral finiahed with two strong innings with 4 K's.
GCL Braves 2 GCL Jays 3 - 5 innings
There has been a lot of rain in Florida over the past week but they just managed to get this game in, the rains came with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. The winner was Justin Maese, the Jays third round pick this year. Technically he pitched a complete game. He was charged with both runs, one unearned on his own error on a fielders choice. He gave up six hits with just 2 punch-outs. He did have 10 ground balls to 3 fly balls.
The Jays scored all their runs in the first inning. A couple of walks and a bunt single loaded the bases. A third walk brought in a run, a groundball scored the second, and a single from Bryan Lizardo scored the third. Reggie Pruitt had a single and a walk to keep his average over .300.
3 Stars
3rd star: Justin Atkinson
2nd star: Roemen Fields
1st star: Matt Hague
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20150729163721286