The Jays narrowly avoided losses at every level yesterday thanks to one team which ruined the possibility of a minor-league organisational sweep. While the Jays won’t be as disappointed as they were to not sweep a major league series until late June, a series of abysmal offensive performances don’t inspire a lot of confidence in a system often called weak in impact bats. So which team managed to play the role of saviour? Read on to find out.
Toledo 9 @ Syracuse 4 - Box Score
Two-hit nights by Wayne Lydon, John Hattig and Mike Mahoney were not enough to rescue the SkyChief offence last night. Jamie Vermilyea pitched six strong innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and a pair of walks and left to a 3-1 deficit. Jordan de Jong pitched a scoreless seventh, but he fell apart in the eighth and was charged with four runs. Vinnie Chulk came in with the bases loaded and allowed a single and then threw a wild pitch, which brought home all of de Jong’s runners. Interestingly, Chulk struck out 3 batters in his 0.2 innings, as the wild pitch struck out Josh Phelps, but he beat the throw to first. Ben Weber allowed two unearned runs in the ninth on a pair of errors by Sergio Santos, which were only 2 of the 5 Syracuse made that day. A solo homer by Hattig in the eighth and a pair of runs in the ninth made the game marginally interesting, but Toledo was never really scared. Canadian Maxim St. Pierre went 3-5 for Toledo with 2 runs scored.
New Hampshire 0 @ Trenton 3 - Box Score
Danny Hill took his third loss despite allowing 4 hits, only one for extra-bases, in his 5 innings. Brian Wolfe and Paul Phillips pitched three scoreless innings of relief. The problem for the Fisher Cats was that their offence only managed two hits in eight innings against Danny Borrell. Unless you’re the Chicago White Sox that’s not going to get you a victory. David Smith and Eric Arnold each had doubles for the Fisher Cats and Smith even got to third with one out, but then John Schneider grounded into a double play. Dustin Majewski went hitless in his debut for New Hampshire. Every offence has nights like this and it’s best to put it all behind you and have forgotten it by the time you wake up the next day. This saying is applicable to several other teams in the Jays system.
Dunedin 1 @ Lakeland 2 - Box Score
Dunedin managed an identical total of two hits as they were shut down by Kevin Ardoin. However, one of those hits was a solo homer by Eric Nielsen, which plated a run for Dunedin in the seventh. Aaron Matthews had the other D-Jay hit, while Cory Patton also went hitless in his debut. Eric Fowler gave up a key two-out hit to Brent Dlugach in the second inning which scored both runners for Lakeland and gave them a lead they would not relinquish. Nevertheless, Fowler pitched a fine game. He lowered his ERA to 3.65 by allowing 5 hits and no walks in 8 innings, while striking out 5.
Lansing 3 @ Beloit 4 - Box Score
Another one-run loss for a Jays affiliate as Yesson Berroa allowed a two-out RBI single to Caleb Moore in the bottom of the eighth that sent the Lugnuts to defeat. Chi-Hung Cheng gave up 3 runs in 5 innings with 3 walks. However, Cheng struck out 5 and, perhaps more impressively, picked off two runners in the game. Cheng had pitched 5 scoreless innings before allowing the first three batters of the sixth inning to reach base. Stidfole allowed his two inherited runners to score and ended up with a blown save, even though he would go onto pitch two scoreless innings of relief. The Lugnuts ended up with an impressive total, relatively speaking, of five hits, which they democratically divided up evenly up between Brian Bormaster, Joey Metropoulos, Brian Pettway (who also walked twice), Yuber Rodriguez and Jesus Gonzalez. Bormaster hit a solo homer, but also allowed his seventh passed ball of the season.
Auburn
2 @ Batavia 7 - Box Score
The bad defence continued as the Doubledays committed five errors in their third game, which meant only 1 of Batavia’s seven runs was earned. The only offensive player of note in the five-hit performance was catcher Matthew Lane, who went 2-4 with 2 doubles and half of Auburn’s run scored.
Pulaski
4 @ Princeton 2 - Box Score
Francisco Mateo gave Toronto affiliates another strong start, but finally sometimes was allowed to exit with the win. Mateo allowed three hits and a walk in five innings and his six strikeouts overshadowed his one earned run. Four relievers combined for four innings of three-hit, one-run, five-strikeout performance. DH Jonathan Jaspe hit his first homer of the year, while outfielders Heliezer Aguilar and Johemyn Chavez combined for four of Pulaski’s eight hits. Leance Soto and Wesley Stone went a combined 0-8 but didn’t strike out once.
3 star selection
3rd star – John Hattig, 2-4, R, HR, RBI, 5 TB
2nd star – Francisco Mateo, 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
1st star – Eric Fowler, 8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
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