There was good pitching in the lower levels of the minors yesterday. Auburn played a doubleheader where the teams combined to score four runs. Lansing won an extra inning game 3-1, while the Gulf Coast Blue Jays lost an extra inning game 2-1. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s 36 innings of baseball with 11 runs scored. Brett Cecil got his first victory for Syracuse while Dunedin won a nail-biter by continuously chipping away at the Sarasota Reds. Meanwhile, New Hampshire lost as four add-on runs came back to haunt them. Oh yes, and Travis Snider continued his meteoric rise through the Jays system with JP announcing on WWJP that he'd been promoted to Triple-A, with Brian Dopirak getting a much-deserved promotion to New Hampshire and David Cooper making the jump to High-A.
Charlotte 3 @ Syracuse 7 – Boxscore
Jack Egbert, one of the White Sox top pitching prospects, continued his rough year at Triple-A. He gave up six runs over 5 innings on eleven hits and a walk and fell to 3-10 on the year. The big blast came in the fifth inning when Russ Adams hit a 3-run homer to score Buck Coats and Marcos Sandoval and give the SkyChiefs a 4-1 lead. Syracuse would score two more off Egbert to begin the sixth and would add another run in the late innings. Adams went 2-5 with a run and the aforementioned 3 RBI. Wayne Lydon also had two hits and a walk and scored a run. Every other SkyChief but one had a solitary hit in the game. The other hits of note were a Hector Luna double and a solo homer by Kevin Melillo. The other SkyChief who didn’t have one was Marcos Sandoval, who went 5-5 with a run and an RBI.
Brett Cecil got the start for Syracuse and went 5 plus innings. He allowed two runs on six hits and three walks. Cecil notched seven strikeouts and retired six of the eight batters on balls in play on groundballs. Overall, it was a successful second start in Triple-A, although the control will need to improve. However, it’s not unusual to see control problems the first few starts after someone jumps a level. Sean Stidfole got a hold with two scoreless innings and Jonah Bayliss gave up one run as he finished the game.
New Hampshire 7 @ New Britain 11 – Boxscore
Jean Machi started for New Hampshire and continues to perplex us as to why he’s on the 40-man roster. Machi went 4.2 innings and gave up seven runs on eight hits and a pair of walks. Machi also hit a batter and retired five of seven batters on balls in play with ground balls. Jason Burch pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, surrendering only three hits, but he did allow two of his three inherited runners from Machi to cross the plate. Jared Gothreaux pitched an inning and gave up four runs, which didn’t seem like a big deal until the Fisher Cats scored three times in the top of the ninth.
Chris Gutierrez lead off and went 0-4, but he reached base twice through bases on balls. Ryan Klosterman and JP Arencibia each went 1-5 and the cleanup batter, David Smith, went 1-4 with a double and a walk. The bulk of the offence came from the 5-6-7 batters, as Jacob Butler went 3-4 with a solo homer, a walk and two runs scored. Eric Nielsen and Ryan Patterson each went 2-5, as Patterson had a double and a home run, scored twice and had 2 RBI. Erik Kratz went 1-4 with a run, an RBI and a walk and Jonathan Diaz went 1-2 with an RBI, a run and three bases on balls.
Sarasota 5 @ Dunedin 6 – Boxscore
Adrian Martin started for Dunedin and went 6 innings. He gave up all five runs on eight hits. Martin didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. Edward Rodriguez, Cody Crowell and Connor Falkenbach combined for 3 shutout innings of relief. Crowell inherited two runners from Rodriguez and didn’t allow either to score in 0.2 innings of relief during a 5-5 tie. Dunedin scored in the bottom of the eighth to pull ahead and Falkenbach came in for his 24th save of the year.
Trailing the Reds 5-2 after four and a half innings, Dunedin came back to win 6-5 by scoring one run, and only one rune, in the last six consecutive innings. Shannon Stewart led off and went 0-2 with a pair of walks. He’s hitting .125 in Dunedin. Chris Emanuele went 1-5 and both he and Stewart had an RBI. Cory Patton hit third and went 1-4 with a homer. Brian Dopirak said goodbye to High-A with a 2-4 night that included a solo home run, as well. Anthony Hatch went hitless, while Jesus Gonzalez and Sean Shoffit went 1-4. Marcos Cabral went 2-4 with a run and an RBI and Carlos Quintana went 3-4 with a couple of runs scored. The tying run scored on Patton’s solo homer in the bottom of the seventh and the winning run came the next inning on an RBI single by Shoffit that scored Cabral.
Lansing 3 @ South Bend 1 (10 innings) – Boxscore
Trystan Magnuson continues to turn his season around with another fine pitching performance. Magnuson went 5 innings and allowed four hits and two walks. He struck out two batters and didn’t allow a run. Joe Wice came in and gave up a run over 2 innings. After seven the score was tied at 1-1, so who do you turn to if you’re the Lansing manager? If you answered anyone other than Tim Collins, you’ve not been paying enough attention to this season. Collins struck out five over 3 innings and gave up one hit and one walk. He picked up the victory and lowered his ERA to 1.24.
Both Lansing and South Bend had seven hits apiece. Nearly half of the Lugnuts hits came from Justin Jackson, who went 3-5 with a pair of doubles. Raul Barron was 1-3 and John Tolisano was 1-4. The other two hits came from Manny Rodriguez, who was 2-4 with a home run in the fifth inning. The other Lugnuts all had 0-fers, including Jonathan Jaspe and Kevin Ahrens, the latter going 0-4 with three strikeouts.
The Lugnuts scored their first run on a Rodriguez home run. The other two runs came in the top of the 10th as Rodriguez led off with a single and Jonathan Baksh came in as a pinch runner. Baksh stole second as Ahrens struck out and advanced to third on a Darin Mastroianni ground out. Eric Eiland walked and ball four was a wild pitch, which allowed Baksh to score. Eiland then stole second and Jackson singled him in for the insurance run.
Auburn 2 @ Batavia 1 – Boxscore
The game, the first of two for Auburn on the afternoon, was the completion of an earlier game that was suspended during the first inning. That’s why Josh Wells got the start and left the game after 0.2 innings with no runs having scored. Danny Farquhar came in and pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and striking out three. Jason Roenicke gave up one run over 2 innings and gave the ball over to Robert Bell, who pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save.
Auburn had already scored in the top of the first, before the game was suspended, on a Bartolo Nicolas double that drove in Chris Demons. The Doubledays scored again in the third when Adam Amar singled home Nicolas for what would turn out to be the winning run. Nicolas went 3-5 with a pair of doubles and the aforementioned run and RBI. Demons and Amar each had one hit, as did Jonathan Del Campo, Bryan Kervin and Leance Soto. Demons, Kervin and Karim Turkamani each drew a walk and Amar worked a pair of bases on balls.
Auburn 0 @ Batavia 1 (7 innings) – Boxscore
This regularly scheduled game was shortened to seven innings as it was the second game for both teams on the day. Matthew Wright started for Auburn and went 5 innings. He gave up one run on five hits and struck out four batters. It was a solid pitching performance and would normally be enough for the victory, but Batavia’s Arquimedes Nieto and a pair of relievers pitched even better.
Nieto gave up one hit over 5 innings and Batavia’s staff combined to pitch a three hitter. Michael McDade, Robert Sobolewski and Kervin each had one hit and the Doubledays drew four walks. Bryan Van Kirk had two of them. Kervin was the only batter to touch Nieto for a hit, as Arquimedes sent down the last ten Doubledays he faced. It was the end to a day of good pitching, as both Auburn and Batavia scored twice over 16 innings of baseball.
GCL Phillies 2 @ GCL Blue Jays 1 (10 innings) – Boxscore
Three Phillies pitchers combined to throw a three-hitter with 14 strikeouts. The Blue Jays could do nothing at the plate and there are 0-fers up and down the lineup. The Blue Jays scored their one run in the bottom of the first inning when Tyler Pastornicky singled and advanced to second on a throwing error. He stole third and Jonathan Talley cashed him in with a sacrifice fly. This run tied the game at 1 and neither team would score again until the top of the tenth. Marcus Brisker got both of the Blue Jays other two hits.
Chris Holguin started and went 5 innings. He gave up one run on four hits and a walk and struck out three. He turned the ball over to Dan Miller and Miller pitched 3 scoreless innings of relief. Corey Bachman came in for the ninth and got through that unscathed, but in the tenth he gave up a leadoff double and then a walk and a passed ball later and the Phillies had runners on first and third with no out. Bachman got a shallow fly ball for the first out and then got the grounder he needed, but Luis Fernandez and Pastornicky were unable to turn the double play and the winning run scored.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Marcos Sandoval, 5-5, R, RBI, 5 TB
2nd Star – Tim Collins, 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
1st Star – Danny Farquhar, 5.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
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