A mixed night on the farm as New Hampshire scored more runs than the other three affiliates combined as the Junior Jays finished 2-2.
Colorado Springs 1 at Las Vegas 3
Robert Ray, or Bobby Rae, or Bob Rae, or whatever he is called now, matched his best start of the season, going six strong and allowing a single run on five hits and four strikeouts. Encouragingly he walked none, the first time in 4 starts so far he has walked fewer than 3. The 51s meanwhile did their scoring in the first two innings, as Chris Aguila would score on a groundout in the first and a double by Chris Lubanski and singles by Luis Figueroa, Aguila and Jarrett Hoffpauir, the latter three with two outs, would score two more. Aguila and Hoffpauir would each have two of Las Vegas' 8 hits, Brett Wallace went 0fer and Brian Dopirak had a single. Steven Register, David Purcey and Jeremy Accardo each contributed an inning of scoreless relief. Meanwhile Chris "Oh My God AA Please Make an Offer for Me" Iannetta went 0 for 4.
New Hampshire 14 at Trenton 12
Woah! The Fisher Cats completed a three game sweep against the Trenton Thunder, scoring 14 runs on 11 hits (8 singles) and 9 walks Most of the damage came in a seven run fifth where the Cats went out, walk, single, walk, single, double, single, double, walk, out out, giving New Hampshire a lead they would not relinquish. Yes, eight straight batters reached safely. Rather than going through all the scoring (which occurred in only 4 innings) why don't we just summarize so I'm not still writing this when you wake up... Every Cat hit safely except for the 3 and 4 hitters David Cooper and Brad Emaus, who both drew walks. Particularly deserving of recognition are Al Quintana who went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI filling in for Brian Jeroloman, Shawn Bowman who went 1 for 2 and drew 3 walks, and pretty much every other Cat: 6 of them scored 2 runs. As you may have surmised this was not a night for pitching, as Luis Perez, who has been having an excellent season, was chased after 3, allowing 5 runs, 3 earned. He walked 2 and struck out 3. Zach Dials and Tim Collins (side note: noooooooooooooo!) both got hammered in single innings of relief, giving up 3 runs apiece. The runs were the first allowed by Collins all season, though he did strike out 2 batters. Bubbie Buzachero fared a little better, allowing 1 run in his three innings. Danny Farquhar picked up his sixth save with a scoreless ninth.
Dunedin 4 at Tampa 7
Damn Yankees! Tampa scored in 4 of the first 5 innings and that would be all they'd need, as the D-Jays couldn't get on the board until the 6th. 2008 draftee Ryan Page was the victim in this one, an boy was it ugly. Page gave up 10 hits and 5 runs in 3.1 innings, walking 1 and whiffing 1. His 2010 FSL campaign is not going as well as his 2009 one. Meanwhile the offense wasn't much to speak of; Justin McClanahan had 2 hits, Welinton Ramirez and Dan Perales had home runs and Raul Barron doubled and walked.
Lansing 3 at West Michigan 7
Another losing effort, though in this one the affiliate took the lead briefly before Western Michigan put up 3 in the third and four in the fifth. After 3 good starts Ryan Shopshire got knocked around, giving up 6 runs in 4.2 innings, allowing 10 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Sean Ochinko had 2 hits and 2 RBI and no one else did much of interest as the Lugnuts could only muster 8 hits and 2 walks.
3 Stars!
3rd Star: Shawn Bowman - 1-2, 3 BB, 2 R, RBI
2nd Star: Bobby Rae - 6 IP 5 H 1 ER 0 BB 4 K
1st Star: Al Quintana - 3-5, 2 2B, R, 3 RBI
Bonus Question: What would you be willing to give up for Chris Iannetta? I would part with Brad Mills and perhaps even Zep. I'm fairly confident Iannetta would be one of the 10 best catchers in baseball, if some team *coughtheJayscough* would give him a chance.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20100430003752487