Where Are The Hits?

Thursday, July 09 2026 @ 07:33 AM EDT

Contributed by: Gerry

Buffalo registered just three hits in their loss, New Hampshire also had three in their game one loss, Vancouver had four in, yep, their loss. The hitting was better in the second New Hampshire game and in Dunedin but New Hampshire had the only win on the night. Dunedin outhit Lakeland but lost by six runs.

Plus comments on Jay Harry, Jasen Coleman and Juan Sanchez.

Scranton 5 Buffalo 1

Portland 3 New Hampshire 2 - game one

Portland 2 New Hampshire 6 - game two

Everett 7 Vancouver 1

Lakeland 8 Dunedin 2


Three Stars

Third Star - CJ Van Eyk

Second Star - Jean Joseph

First Star - Nick Goodwin


Boxes


NOTES


Scranton scored four runs off Max Scherzer in the first inning and another in the second and that was about it. Buffalo had only one hit until the ninth inning. They needed two passed balls in the ninth to score their only run. The only notable performance was by CJ Van Eyk who followed Scherzer and threw five shutout innings, no walks, four K's and four hits. Van Eyk had eight ground ball outs and no flyball outs.


Jay Harry has had a great season but before we get too excited, note that he is hitting .125 in July (24 AB's). He has only struck out four times so his BABIP is .150. It could be bad luck or it could be that the pitchers have discovered they don't need to throw him strikes.


Gage Stanifer battled his control again in the first NH game. He needed 80 pitches to get through 3.1 innings with almost the same number of balls as strikes. He walked four, struck out five and was taken deep three times. It has been an up and down season for Stanifer.


NH had just three hits in game one. They scored two runs on solo home runs by Nick Goodwin and Arjun Nimmala. It was Nimmala's first AA home run, a shot to right centre off a curveball.


Nimmala did not play in game two as he works his way back from injury. His replacement as shortstop, Nick Goodwin, went 3-3 with two doubles. Carter Cunningham hit a two run home run.


Austin Cates just couldn't do enough to get the win. With 86 pitches he had to go after 4.2 innings and two runs. The seven hits and two walks added to his pitch count. Jaen Coleman pitched the seventh inning. He should be getting close to a promotion. In June he pitched in nine games, 11,.1 innings and he was scored upon in just one appearance. He struck out 17 in those 11 innings and which WHIP was under one. In three July games he has ten K's and just one walk in five innings.


A five run seventh inning did in Vancouver. Holden Wilkerson had started and Everett scored just one run off him in six innings. But Jay Schueler gave up five run in the seventh. The C's just had four hits in the game.


Dunedin outhit Lakeland 13-11 but lost 8-2. There are two reasons for the loss, Lakeland hit four home runs, Dunedin zero, and the Jays left 15 men on base. Giacomo Taschin started and gave up three of the home runs and four runs in total on 3.2 innings.


Jean Joseph had three hits, Brock Tibbets, Blaine Bullard, Dariel Ramon and Jake Cook had two each. Juan Sanchez has similar numbers to Jay Harry in July. He is hitting .125 in 24 AB's. He has one more strikeout, five. Again his BABIP is low, is it luck or his approach? His BB:K ratio is 19:73 in 237 AB's. That's almost 1:4, whereas it should be closer to 1:2. I know you can't walk off the island but he, like Harry, might need to improve his approach. If we check the other two "amigos", Jojo Parker's BB:K is fine while Bullard's is similar to Sanchez's.


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