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A 2 for 4 night on the farm. The Skychiefs (3-3) and the Lugnuts (4-1) lose, but the Fisher Cats (3-3) and D'Jays (4-2) win.



Syracuse 3, Buffalo 5

One rough inning was all it took for the Skychiefs opening day starter to take his second straight loss as Scott Downs was yanked after 3 1/3, trailing 4-0. Downs was cruising fairly comfortably until the 4th inning when he gave up five consecutive hits including a three-run blast by Andy Abad. The Skychiefs loaded the bases the very next inning and plated three runs off consecutive singles from Bryant Nelson, and Gabe Gross. But that was all the Skychiefs could muster, and Bisons tacked on an insurance run in the 8th.

In the silver lining column, reliever Spike Lundberg came up with a big strikeout, pop-out combo to save Downs from further damage in the 4th. Spike then went on to pitch two strong innings after that as well. Gabe Gross picked up his first hit since returning to the Syracuse lineup.

Box score
Matt Michael’s Game story -including notes on could-have-been-a-Skychief Andy Abad

Norwich 0, New Hampshire 1

Ismael Ramirez bounced back from a rough debut last week, this time pitching 6 shutout innings on 2 hits, a walk and a strikeout. The Fisher Cats managed only four hits in the game but three of them came in the same inning off the bats of Rob Cosby,Eric Kratz, and Miguel Negron. That string resulted in the only run the Cats would need. Jamie Vermilyea threw a pair of perfect (as always) innings with 3 K’s for the hold while closer Lee Gronkiewicz accomplished his job in the 9th.

Box score
John Habib’s Game Story

Dunedin 6, Sarasota 5

David Purcey was on. He threw 6 innings giving up only 1 run with 7 strikeouts. He left the game leading 5 to 1. Danny Core however, was not on. Core gave up, in order, a walk, a homer, a single, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout before being relieved. Just incase the crowd hadn’t seen enough variety that inning, Jeremy Harper balked home the tying run.

But no worries, Dunedin fans. In the top of the 9th, Brian Patrick hit his fourth single of the game, advanced to third on an Adam Lind single, and scored on a groundball to short. Milton Tavarez shut down the Reds in the bottom half for his second save of the season.

Box score

South Bend 5, Lansing 3

The Lugnuts were handed their first loss but it took the Silver Hawks 11 innings to do so. Casey Janssen once again proved too much for the Midwest League to handle, but the bullpen couldn’t hold down the strong offense from South Bend. Janssen threw 6 innings giving up on an unearned run after Curtis Thigpen’s errant throw gave Mark Reynolds a steal and a free pass to 3rd base. Reynolds then scored on a sac fly. Juan Peralta hit a bases loaded single to score two in the second, while Christian Snavely had 3 hits and drove in the Nuts’ third run in the third.

Jordy Templet held the opposition at bay for 2 inning but closer Danny Hill blew his first save, tying the game at 3-3. In the two extra innings, Thigpen and Ryan Klosterman drew leadoff walks but mental errors on the basepaths, sent both of them back to the bench prematurely. The game was lost in the 11th when Eric Rico gave up a two run shot to Jereme Milons, whom the Dodgers traded for Elmer Dessens last year.

Box score
Mike Feather’s Game story

Three-Star Selection!

The 3rd Star Casey Janssen

The 2nd Star Ismael Ramirez

The 1st Star Brian Patrick

Patrick One-Ups the Reds but the Skychiefs Get 'Down'ed | 40 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Jordan - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:13 AM EDT (#111137) #
I have a feeling David Purcey might not be long for the Florida State League.
Pistol - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:43 AM EDT (#111139) #
Control seems to be what will make or break Purcey. Last night he only had one walk. If he keeps it up he'll spend his summer in NH.

Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:56 AM EDT (#111141) #
Purcey's definitely on the Bush/Banks track, promotion to double A in June.

I am pleased that the organization is taking its time with McGowan after the surgery. The key is not the time frame for recovery, but the achievement of complete recovery and adjustment.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:59 AM EDT (#111143) #
Today's schedule:

Buffalo at Syracuse (Gaudin) 6 p.m.
Norwich at NH (Banks) 11:05 a.m. (i.e 5 minutes from now)
Dunedin (Jackson) at Sarasota 7 p.m.
South Bend at Lansing (Wideman) 6 p.m.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 11:29 AM EDT (#111146) #
99 games for the Fisher Cats are streamed live over the internet. Today's 11 am start not being one of them.

:-(
MatO - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#111148) #
I tried the Norwich feed but couldn't get a connection.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 11:49 AM EDT (#111153) #
0-0 after 3 innings from the 2 teams that can't hit (New Hampshire and Norwich). Josh Banks has given up only 1 hit and has 1 K so far.
Jonny German - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 11:56 AM EDT (#111155) #
I got the Norwich feed to work but they weren't broadcasting the game either.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:01 PM EDT (#111157) #
The Norwich site is working now!
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:02 PM EDT (#111158) #
I managed to pick up a Norwhich feed that is covering the game here:

http://www.sportsjuice.com/providers2/index.php?tname=nnavigators

Look for "Click to Listen" on the right side of the page.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#111159) #
BTW, extended periods of silence on the feed are to be expected between innings:

"This broadcast is a pre-commercial rebroadcasting of the radio feed. As such you may experience periods of silence during the broadcast where radio listeners would be hearing commercials. Please be patient during these periods of silence, the broadcast will continue normally once the commercials have ended."
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:05 PM EDT (#111160) #
Up until 5 minutes ago that site said "No feed provided by team" or something like that. So if you clicked on the Listen Here you got a stream of nothing.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:17 PM EDT (#111162) #
Dead feed comes to life
This must be our lucky day
Cosby cashes in run

Seems to be a relatively noisy crowd - *lots* of shrieking when Cosby doubled home a run in the bottom of the fourth as the Fisher Cats jump into the lead. Guess there's a lot of young'uns in attendance for the day game.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:23 PM EDT (#111164) #
Temperature at game time today was 40 degrees. Last night it hovered around 33 and rained lighly throughout. End of 5, 1-0 New Hampshire after the Fisher Cats went 1-2-3.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:28 PM EDT (#111167) #
Banks still pitching in the top of the 6th.

The announcers mentioned that Norwich has (an unusually high) 7 players on the Giants 40-man roster. 5 of which are pitchers.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:31 PM EDT (#111169) #
Fred Lewis' drive to the right field wall was fielded by Jova who threw to Cota to nail Hutting at the plate on a beautiful cut off throw. Lewis made it into third with a triple. Throw beat him by 5 feet and Umbria blocked the place nicely. Hutting never made it to the plate!
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:33 PM EDT (#111170) #
Actually, San Francisco placed 10 of their top 30 prospects in Norwich, 7 of them pitchers:

Accardo, Jeremy (19) R-R 6-2 180 24 Giants (AA)
Begg, Chris (29) R-R 6-4 195 25 Giants (AAA)
Burres, Brian (22) L-L 6-1 171 24 Giants (Hi A)
Sadler, Billy (20) R-R 6-0 197 23 Giants (AA)
Simon, Alfredo (6) R-R 6-4 170 23 Giants (Hi A)
Threets, Erick (30) L-L 6-5 240 23 DNP--Injured
Valdez, Merkin (2) R-R 6-3 170 23 Giants

Infielder
Buscher, Brian (14) L-R 6-0 201 23 Giants (Hi A)

Outfielders
Lewis, Fred (3) L-R 6-2 191 24 Giants (AAA)
Ortmeier, Dan (12) B-R 6-4 220 23 Giants (AA)
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:35 PM EDT (#111172) #
Still 1-0 New Hampshire as they bat in the bottom of the 6th. Banks has gone the distance for the Fisher Cats.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:36 PM EDT (#111173) #
The 7 Norwich players on the Giants 40-man are:

Pitchers
- David Aardsma
- Brian Burres
- Erick Threets
- Alfredo Simon
- Merkin Valdez

Hitters
- Fred Lewis
- Dan Ortmeier
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#111175) #
Today is New Hampshire's 7th game of the year. They will be heading to Binghamton to open a series versus the BMets tomorrow night. By my calculations, Raul Tablado will be ready to be activated (only needed to serve 7 games to finish his suspension). So that means someone of the roster will be going off it.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#111176) #
Kevin, not only did you beat me to it but you provided more information to boot.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:47 PM EDT (#111181) #
Banks cruising right along, giving up only 3 hits through 7 full innings. He punched out Ortmeier (swinging) and Von Schell (looking) to end the 7th.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#111185) #
Bottom of the 7th:
- Davenport flies out on the 1st pitch
- Cosby hits an infield single off a 3-1 pitch. Threets comes out of the game, relieved by Anthony Pannone.
- Umbria grounds into a double play ending the inning.

DeJong in to replace Banks. Josh's final line was 7IP 3H 0R 0BB 5K.
Gerry - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:06 PM EDT (#111189) #

Pictures from Syracuse at Buffalo....

Aaron Hill doubling and ready for BP.

John Ford Griffin hitting.

Jason Arnold pitching.

Spike Lundberg pitching.

butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:07 PM EDT (#111190) #
DeJong sets them down in order in the top of the 8th.

Pannone still in for Norwich in the bottom half and it's a quickie:
- Vito flies out to left on an 0-1 pitch. Vito doesn't seem to be having a good day, he's already struck out twice.
- Brad Hassey grounds out.
- Negron lays down a bunt but the throw beats him to first.

We're heading to the 9th with the Cats still up 1-0. Lee Gronkiewicz in to close.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:10 PM EDT (#111192) #
Game over, Fisher Cats win 1-0. Banks with the win, Gronkiewicz with the save. New Hampshire is now 4-3 and Norwich is 1-6.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:11 PM EDT (#111193) #
Second straight 1-0 victory by New Hampshire over Norwich.
butteredcat - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:13 PM EDT (#111195) #
Lee Gronkiewicz preserves the shutout in the 9th:
- Hutting gets ahead 3-0 but flies out to Jova in right on a 3-1 pitch.
- Lewis grounds out to Cota on a 2-2 pitch
- LaBarbera strikes out swinging on a breaking ball

The game is a wrap. Banks moves to 1-0. Gronkiewicz gets his 3rd save. That's 21 consecutive scoreless innings for the Navigators. Ouch.
kpataky - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 01:32 PM EDT (#111201) #
Josh Banks went 7 innings, gave up only 3 hits, no walks and had 5 Ks, lowering his ERA to 1.50 and improving his record to 1-0.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 02:13 PM EDT (#111218) #
With several more starts like this, Banks will be ripe for promotion around the same time that Purcey is. The affiliates' pitching universe is unfolding as it should.
Lugnut Fan - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 02:25 PM EDT (#111222) #
I will be in Lansing tonight watching the Nuts Vs. the Silverhawks tonight. One interesting angle on this series is that the Silverhawks are owned by Palisades (sp?) which is the same organization that owns the West Virginia Power (Charleston AlleyCats). Take Me Out To The Ballgame LLC (Lansing / Montgomery Biscuits owner) sold them to Palisides. Just interesting from my stand point.
R Billie - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 03:38 PM EDT (#111240) #
Great performance for Banks but it doesn't sound like Norwich has a good lineup at all.
jim854 - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 03:51 PM EDT (#111245) #
Mike, tonight's Dunedin game against Sarasota is in Dunedin. With a number of teams in the league (namely the Western Division, except Ft. Myers) being approximately 1 hour away or less, teams often split homestands between the 2 parks: eg, 2home-2away, 2home-1away. This is the case tonight. I will provide more info after the game.

Thanks for all those involved in the minor league reports - really enjoy them. First thing I read each day.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 04:47 PM EDT (#111257) #
Gerry,

Great pictures. Thanks.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 05:05 PM EDT (#111264) #
Jim854, I checked Dunedin's website this morning, and I could have sworn that it said Jays at Reds. It is correct on the site this afternoon. This is the second time that I have had this problem, and both have been with the Dunedin game, so that I suspect the problem is the site and not me.
From now on, I will check an alternate source for the Dunedin games.

Thanks for the correction.
Mike Green - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 09:04 PM EDT (#111311) #
Tonight, Syracuse lost 2-1 to Buffalo in extras, as Chad Gaudin pitched well. Dunedin leads 7-3 in the 5th inning, as Adam Lind has homered and driven in 5. Lansing won 4-3 in extras; Ryan Klosterman hit his 2nd homer, and is looking like he may be ready for Dunedin at any time.
jim854 - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 10:42 PM EDT (#111349) #
Just got back from the Dunedin game - 11-3 for the good guys. Jackson did not pitch as well as last week. He pitched 5 innings but had only 1 bad inning - the 2nd, giving up 2 runs. He was however hit rather hard.

Justin James pitched the 6 - 8th inning and and was also hit hard but with good defence and pitching he escaped with no runs given up. Thorpe pitched the 9th and, as he has in every innng he has pitched, gave up a run. His ERA before tonight was 12.00 - that will be a little higher after tonight.

My favourite players on this team - Ryan Roberts & Robinson Diaz. Both are solid to spectacular at their respective positions and can hit the ball hard and get on base.

The best pitcher on the team is Purcey who may not be long for the Florida St League. He needs to pitch against hitters who are more experienced. How is this for a sure bet:he is pitching for the Jays by the end of the 2006 season.
Gerry - Wednesday, April 13 2005 @ 11:05 PM EDT (#111361) #
Thanks Jim.

How does Adam Lind look?
jim854 - Thursday, April 14 2005 @ 12:16 AM EDT (#111425) #
Thanks Gerry.

Adam Lind can hit - he hit a homerun tonight to left and played a decent left field. He is not the most fluid leftfielder and seems to have trouble picking up the ball when it's hit. Although, he did make all the plays called for in left in the games I saw him play. And his arm is accurate and all throws went to the cutoff man.

But at the plate he is very good. His line before tonight's game was -
BA-.346 SLG-.538 OBP-.321
I'm sure you can interpret those stats much better than I can.

He doesn't stand out at least to me like the other 2 players I mentioned. Roberts' defence is excellent - he made several highlight reel plays in the 4 games I watched and he can also hit.

Diaz is an excellent catcher with a superb arm and a good bat. He kept Jackson in the game tonight with his catching skills, and also by encouraging him. There seemed to be a good deal of mutual support between the 2 of them. As they left the field after each inning, they met at the baseline and exchanged comments and tapped gloves together as they entered the dugout.
Thomas - Thursday, April 14 2005 @ 12:54 AM EDT (#111459) #
Nice pics, Gerry.

Wow, that crowd looks incredibly sparse.
Patrick One-Ups the Reds but the Skychiefs Get 'Down'ed | 40 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.