It was an even night on the farm, as victories in Dunedin, Lansing and the Gulf Coast League offset losses in the high minors and NY-Penn League. The Lugnuts had a good night at the plate in Fort Wayne and Syracuse managed a good number of hits, even if they came up short in the end. There was a lot of 5 inning starts amongst the starters with few standout performances.
Rochester 8 @ Syracuse 5 – Boxscore
Old friends are everywhere in Rochester, with Howie Clark manning right field for the Red Wings, Sergio Santos at first base and Bobby Kielty in centre. Santos had the best day of the three, going 2-3 with a walk, but his OPS is still under .700. The SkyChiefs used five pitchers in the game and all of them were touched for runs. John Parrish started and gave up a two-run homer over 5 innings.
Rochester went on to score six runs over 3 innings off the Syracuse bullpen. Chris George was the first out of the pen and surrendered one run over 1.1 innings. Sean Stidfole gave up a pair of runs over an inning and took the loss, but his ERA for Syracuse is still only 2.88. Mike Gosling pitched two-thirds of an inning and gave up a run on a hit and two walks. Jeremy Accardo pitched the ninth and gave up two runs, although one came on a Russ Adams error.
Six of the nine SkyChiefs had a multihit game and only one went hitless. Unfortunately, that one was Travis Snider, whose 0-5 evening dropped his average to .387. Kevin Melillo and Curtis Thigpen went 1-5. The first four SkyChief batters – Buck Coats, Wayne Lydon, Danny Sandoval and Russ Adams – each had two hits. All but Lydon scored a run and Lydon and Adams each added an RBI and a walk. Hector Luna went 3-4 with an RBI and a run, while Robinzon Diaz went 3-5 with a pair of doubles, 2 RBI and a run.
Altoona 7 @ New Hampshire 2 – Boxscore
This one finished as a 7-2 loss, but it could have been noticeably worse. Marty McLeary surrendered 10 hits and three walks over 5.1 innings, but only allowed 2 runs. Seth Overbey gave up a pair of runs over 2.2 innings, one scoring on his own error. Michael MacDonald, back in the Eastern League, where he was a 2006 All-Star, gave up three runs over an inning on three hits and two walks.
The Fisher Cats had nine hits on the evening. Six Fisher Cats, including a pinch-hitter had one hit, three went hitless and the other had a 3-hit game. Chris Gutierrez, Ryan Patterson and Jonathan Diaz all went hitless, although Gutierrez drew a pair of walks and Diaz had an RBI. Diaz drove home Brian Dopirak, who went 3-4. Dopirak is hitting .306 for New Hampshire, but has yet to walk or homer. The rest of the Fisher Cats had one hit, including Erik Kratz, who pinch-hit for Kyle Phillips in the fourth. Kratz would go on to hit a solo homer in sixth, but I haven’t yet been able to determine why Phillips was lifted from the game so early.
Sarasota 1 @ Dunedin 5 – Boxscore
A four-run seventh propelled Dunedin to victory. Doubles by Cory Patton and Anthony Hatch scored Dunedin’s first run in the fourth. Then, Al Quintana led off the seventh with a home run. After Adam Calderone was retired, Luis Sancez singled and Chris Emanuele doubled him to third. Up stepped Brad Emaus and he connected for Dunedin’s second homer of the game and the three-run shot gave the D-Jays a little bit of breathing room. All the damage in the seventh came off Sarasota reliever and Montreal native Pierre-Alexandre Valiquette. Hatch, Quintana and Patton each had a two-hit game, adding a single to the aforementioned extra-base hit. David Cooper went 1-4 and made his second fielding error with Dunedin.
Nathan Starner went 6 strong, surrendering one run on three hits and a walk. He struck out six and retired 9 of 12 batters on balls-in-play on the ground. Celson Polanco struck out three over 2 one-hit innings and retired the other three batters on ground balls and Cody Crowell struck out a batter and got two ground ball outs while pitching the ninth.
Lansing 9 @ Fort Wayne 5 – Boxscore
James Dougher improved to 3-0 as he gave up two runs over 5 innings. Both runs score on a two-run shot in the fifth inning. Dougher didn’t walk a batter and struck out six. Edgar Estanga surrendered three runs over 2 innings on three hits and two walks before Tim Collins continued with his bag of tricks. Collins pitched 2 hitless innings and struck out four.
Lansing pounded out 16 hits in the victory, with every starter but Manny Rodriguez getting a base hit. Jonathan Jackson was 2-4 with a walk and an RBI and Darin Mastroianni was 1-4 with an RBI. CJ Ebarb went 1-5 with a solo homer in the cleanup spot before Kevin Ahrens put up a 2-4 line with a double, a pair of runs and a walk. Jonathan Baksh continued his hot streak with a 4-5 evening, which included a pair of runs, a double and an RBI. The last three hitters in the lineup – John Tolisano, Yohermyn Chavez and Moises Sierra – each had a 2-hit game. Tolisano was 2-4 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored. Chavez and Sierra each had 2 RBI, with Chavez hitting a double and Sierra scoring a run.
Batavia 3 @ Auburn 2 – Boxscore
Marcus Walden went 5 solid innings for the Doubledays. He allowed three hits and three walks, but didn’t give up a run and struck out seven. Andrew Liebel came in and gave up three runs on four hits in the seventh after a scoreless sixth. Danny Farquhar then pitched 2 hitless innings with for strikeouts.
Andy Amar and Robert Sobolewski each went 2-4 and had the only multihit games for Auburn. Sobolewksi’s double was the team’s only extra-base hit on the evening. Sobolewski had one of the team’s RBI and the other came from Joel Collins, who was 1-1 with a walk and two hit-by-pitches. Bryan Van Kirk, who got on base through a base on balls, and Amar scored the team’s two runs and the other two hits came from Chris Demons and Bartolo Nicolas, each of whom was 1-5. Demons stole his 19th base of the season.
GCL Phillies 2 @ GCL Blue Jays 3 – Boxscore
The GCL Blue Jays faced off against Kyle Drabek, Doug Drabek’s son, and handed him his first loss (and first decision) of the year. Drabek only lasted 3 innings and surrendered all three runs on a pair of hits and three walks. The Jays manufactured their first run, as Tyler Pastornicky singled and stole second. Kyle Gilligan advanced him to third on a ground ball and then Pastornicky scored on a wild pitch. In the third the Jays scored two runs on a Balbino Fuenmayor triple that cashed Luis Hurtado and Pastornicky. Both reached on walks as control problems came back to haunt Drabek. The Jays only got three hits over 5 innings off reliever Kyle Slate.
Chase Lirette started for the Jays and pitched 3 one-hit innings with five strikeouts. Venezuelans pitched the last 5 innings, as Jonas Cuotto pitched 4 innings and gave up both runs, although only one was earned, before Yorman Mayora picked up the save with a scoreless inning.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Robinzon Diaz, 3-5, R, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 5 TB and James Dougher, 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
2nd Star – Nathan Starner, 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
1st Star – Jonathan Baksh, 4-5, 2 R, 2B, RBI, 5 TB
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