Portland 6 @ Las Vegas 8 - Boxscore
Brett Cecil went 6 innings and only gave up one run. He struck out five and surrendered three hits and a pair of walks. Bryan Bullington had two scoreless innings of relief before Davis Romero and Jeremy Accardo ran into problems and turned an 8-1 lead into an 8-6 final. Romero gave up four hits to the five batters he faced and turned the ball over to Accardo who allowed three hits of his own without retiring a batter. Four of Romero’s runners scored, half of which Accardo inherited, and Accardo gave up a run of his own before striking out Craig Stansberry and inducing a groundout from top San Diego prospect Kyle Blanks.
Every starter but Bryan Harper had a hit and five 51’s had mutlihit games. Aaron Mathews went 3-4 with an RBI and JP Arencibia, Buck Coats, Jason Lane and Kevin Phillips each had a pair of hits. Arencibia and Lane each scored a pair of runs while Phillips and Randy Ruiz each drove in a pair. Jonathan Diaz reached base three times with the help of a pair of walks and Ruiz and Lane also drew a free pass. Coats, Ruiz and Angel Sanchez had doubles in a very solid 14-hit night at the plate.
New Hampshire 0 @ Harrisburg 1 – Boxscore
Justin Jones started for Harrisburg and shut down the Fisher Cats offence. Jones may not have a unique name, but he was part of one of the most famous trades in the last decade, as he was dealt from the Cubs to the Twins on July 31, 2004. If you remember, that was the four-team trade that sent fan favourite Nomar Garciaparra from the Red Sox to the Cubs. Five years later Jones is in Double-A, but he had his stuff working yesterday as he held the Fisher Cats to three hits and a trio of walks. Todd Donovan and Brian Dopirak each had a hit and a walk, while JP Arencibia picked up a base on balls and Al Quintana had a hit. The Fisher Cats couldn’t get a runner on base against the pair of Senators relievers.
Mark Rzepczynski started for New Hampshire and struck out five batters in 6 innings. Rzepczynski allowed five hits and three walks, but managed to keep Harrisburg off the scoresheet. Rzepczynski benefited from a pair of strike-em-out-throw-em-out double plays. He also picked a runner off first, as Harrisburg’s Jemel Spearman had a day to forget on the bases with a caught stealing to go along with his pick off. Rommie Lewis threw a scoreless eighth and turned it over to Danny Farquhar in the ninth. My favourite reliever in the Jays minors took his second loss in 5 Double-A appearances after allowing his first earned run for New Hampshire. Farquhar surrendered a walk, a hit and wasn’t helped by Brad Emaus’s second error of the game. This pitcher’s duel took under two and a half hours to play.
Palm Beach 5 @ Dunedin 9 – Boxscore
Chuck Huggins’s second start for Dunedin went better than his first. He went 5 innings, just like he did five days ago, but this time he only surrendered half as many runs. Huggins allowed four runs on 6 hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. Trystan Magnuson had his finest outing of the last month with 3 hitless innings out of the bullpen. Celson Polanco gave up an unearned run on an Adam Loewen fielding error.
Loewen didn’t have one of his best games, as he was one of three Jays to not pick up a hit and he struck out a team-high three times. Kevin Ahrens also went 0-for-4, although both he and Loewen drew bases on balls. Despite this lack of production from the fifth and sixth hitter in the lineup, Dunedin scored 9 runs. Darin Mastroianni went 0-3 in the leadoff position, but he drew a pair of walks. John Tolisano had a hit and Moises Sierra had a pair and each also drew a walk. Jesus Gonzalez was 2-5 with a double and a pair of RBIs in the cleanup spot and combined with Tolisano and Sierra to score four runs.
The 7-8-9 hitters combined for five runs and five RBI and were instrumental in Dunedin’s victory. Jonathan Jaspe was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs and two RBI. Justin Jackson was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs, while Sean Shoffit was 2-for-4 with a double, a run and two RBI. Dunedin was 3 out of 4 in the stolen base department, with Mastroianni unfortunately getting thrown out on his only attempt of the game.
Lansing 4 @ Fort Wayne 2 – Boxscore
Chad Beck’s third start of the season fit somewhere between his first two. In all three starts Beck gave up two runs, this time in on five hits over 4 innings. He struck out six, which was his season high. It wasn’t his shortest start of the season, nor was it his longest, as he turned the ball over to Jonas Cuotto for the fifth. Cuotto went 2 scoreless frames and left with the Lugnuts in the lead. Frank Gailey preserved the lead with two hitless innings and then Matt Daly picked up his ninth save of the year.
Much like the parent club, the top three of Lansing’s lineup went hitless, as Tyler Pastornicky, Luis Fernandez and Brian Van Kirk went 0 for 12. Lansing had six hits during the game, with Mark Sobolewski and Balbino Fuenmayor each picking up two. Chris Emanuele and Justin McClanahan each had one hit, but McClanahan’s was the one that changed the game. With two out, Yohermyn Chavez on second and Emanuele on first McClanahan came to bat against Simon Castro in the top of the sixth. McClanahan deposited one of Castro’s pitches over the left field fence and gave Lansing a 3-2 lead. Sobolewski hit a solo homer in the ninth to give Lansing an insurance run and make Daly’s job a little bit easier.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Marc Rzepczynski, 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K
2nd Star – Brett Cecil, 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K
1st Star – Justin Jackson, 3-4, 2 R, 2B, RBI, SB, 4 TB
