The farm splits four with Dunedin splitting a pair, and it’s time for another Three-Star update.
Louisville 5 @ Syracuse 9
The SkyChiefs sent 11 men to the plate in the bottom of the 8th, and 5 of them walked. They also hit the ball a little, enough to score 6 runs and turn a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 advantage. Jesse Carlson vultured the win, having recorded the last out of the top of the 8th, and he finished the sudden blowout allowing a solo homer in the 9th.
Francisco Rosario started the game for Syracuse, and while he wasn’t great his outing has to be considered encouraging after some recent misadventures. Frank went 6 innings, charged with 4 runs on 5 hits, striking out 6 and walking 3.
The Chiefs had just 7 hits to go with their 6 total walks, but as mentioned they made a lot of the walks count. 3B John Hattig notched two singles, RF Chad Mottola two doubles, and C Andy Dominique was good for a single, a homer, and a walk in his 3 plate appearances. LF Gabe Gross and DH John-Ford Griffin each went 0-for-3 with a walk.
Boxscore - MinorLeagueBaseball.com
New Hampshire – Off Day
Dunedin 2 @ Fort Myers 7
Dunedin 6 @ Fort Myers 1 (7 innings)
After rain halted the proceedings following the top of the first on Sunday, the Dunedin Blue Jays finished off that game before playing 7-inning contest Monday. Dave Purcey had been the scheduled starter Sunday, and though he did not throw any pitches in earnest he did warm up and the braintrust played it safe with the prized prospect, benching him Monday in favour of Davis Romero. The Littlest Lefty punched out 5 Miracles in 3 innings, but allowed one run of the earned variety and one of the unearned sort on 5 hits and a walk. Yesson Berroa fared worse for the 5 hits allowed in his three innings, as they added up to 5 runs. Tracy Thorpe was untouched over the final two frames, striking out 2.
The D-Jay hitters mimicked the SkyChiefs and then some, walking 6 times while stroking just 4 hits, but they were unable to maintain the impressive runs-to-baserunners ratio of their fellow farmhands. Their 11 strikeouts didn’t help.
The shorter contest was sweeter for the Jays, featuring an encouraging outing from Dustin McGowan. In his second start back from Tommy John, Dustin pitched 3-2/3, charged with an unearned marker on 2 singles, a hit batter, and 2 walks, with 3 whiffs. Brad Mumma and Justin James picked him up with 3-1/3 of shutout relief, James receipting for the Win.
After 15 innings of not much offence to speak of, the Dunedin bats came alive in the top of the 7th of this game, as they batted around (despite the first 2 batters of the inning grounding out) and plated 5. Carlo Cota sported the best line of the twinbill at 4 hits (including a triple and a homer) and 2 walks to show for his 8 plate appearances. Chip Cannon rebounded from 3 strikeouts in the opener to notch 3 hits in the nightcap.
Boxscores - Game 1, Game 2 - MinorLeagueBaseball.com
Lansing 5 @ Peoria 7
In a game which saw scoring in 7 different half-innings on the strength of 29 hits, 6 walks, and 4 errors, the Nuts came out on the short end. The good news is they collected all 6 of the bases on balls, including 2 each for 3B Christian Snavely and the newly arrived 1B and cleanup hitter Charles Anderson). The bad news is they committed 3 of the errors – 2B Jason Armstrong, SS Ryan Klosterman being charged fielding errors, C Curtis Thigpen a throwing error as well as a passed ball.
A.J. Wideman started for Lansing and was rattled for 6 runs on 10 hits in 4-2/3 as he struck out 3. Jordy Templet scattered 7 safeties over the remaining 3-1/3, allowing just a single run on a solo homer and striking out 2.
Armstrong and RF Eric Nielson each had a double among 3 hits, while Anderson had two singles and 2 walks. CF Yuber Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with a double. It was a tough night all around for Thigpen, as he went oh-fer at the plate.
Boxscore - MinorLeagueBaseball.com. Recap - Lansing State Journal
Three-Star Selection!
The Third Star: Jason Armstrong, Lansing. 3 hits including a double.
The Second Star: Andy Dominique , Syracuse, a perfect walk-single-homer night.
The First Star: Carlo Cota , Dunedin, on base 6 of 8 times up in a double-header.
Three-Star Standings
Another month, another Three-Star medal for Casey Janssen. How do you top a 1.69 ERA in 32 April innings? If you’re Casey, you post a 1.13 ERA in 40 May innings. Oh yes, and you post a 33-2 K-BB ratio. And move up from Single-A Lansing to High-A Dunedin.
Janssen’s May crown was hotly contested by Lansing catcher Curtis Thigpen. The 2004 2nd-round pick matched the 35 points accumulated by Janssen, but trailed Casey in being named a star 3 times in the month, to Janssen’s 5 times. (For an explanation of the scoring system, see the April update). Thigpen batted .310/.430/.460 in May, including these memorable performances:
May 9: A walk, a single, and a homer
May 12: A double, a triple, and 3 walks
May 28: 4 hits, including a triple, and a walk
Rather coincidentally, a round total of 50 different Blue Jay farmhands were named at least once as a star in the month of May, exactly the same total as April (69 players have now been named this season). Here’s the May top ten:
Player Points Stars Casey Janssen 35 5 Curtis Thigpen 35 3 Shaun Marcum 31 4 Ryan Roberts 28 4 Kevin Barker 25 3 Clint Johnston 24 3 Mike MacDonald 24 2 Kurt Isenberg 23 3 Chi-hung Cheng 23 3 Carlo Cota 23 2Meanwhile, Janssen is quickly running away with the overall lead for the season:
Player Points Stars Casey Janssen 87 11 Shaun Marcum 59 8 Ryan Roberts 47 7 JF Griffin 43 6 Josh Banks 43 5 Carlo Cota 39 4 Chip Cannon 36 4 Jamie Vermilyea 36 4 Mike MacDonald 36 3 Curtis Thigpen 35 3
