On an afternoon in which Blue Jays’ pitching was anything but Major League, Jays’ fans can take solace in the efforts of two pitching prospects. Aaron Sanchez no-hit an impressive Tampa Yankees line-up through five innings down in Dunedin, while Deck McGuire turned in a two hit (one earned run) effort further north in Binghamton.


Tampa 2 Dunedin 3 (11 Innings)

For Sanchez, this was the type of performance prospect-watchers have come to expect. Sanchez pitched cleanly through four, working around a third inning error by third baseman Andy Burns. He then ran into trouble in his fifth and final inning, walking two before finishing the inning with a groundball out and strike out. He finished the night with three strikeouts and an impressive 9-1 groundball-flyball rate. Fox Sports’ prospect guy Kiley McDaniel was at the game and had Sanchez at 95-97mph, touching 98mph.

The Jays won on a “ridiculous play” in extra innings according to Dunedin Blue Jays announcer. A two-out Marcus Knecht groundball to shortstop scored Nick Baligod from second, where the Yankee shortstop attempted to force-out Gabe Jacobo at second base. Here is where confusion ensued. Yankees second basemen Angelo Gumbs thinking there was only one out in the inning straddled the bag (as second basemen do when turning the double-play), and as a result the umpire ruled Jacobo safe. Gumbs was then a tad tardy in his through to first to retire a hustling Knecht, while Baligod scooted around from second to score the winning run. Jays win!

Evan Crawford made his first appearance this season and had a rough outing. Crawford walked two, gave up two hits, and yield two runs. The announcers had nothing but good things to say about Peter Mooney’s defense, and Marcus Knecht had two hits and two RBI’s, including the aforementioned game-winning RBI, and is now hitting .321 on the year. Readers should be cautioned that Knecht struck out three times on the night, and has seven strikeouts to one walk through the first five games of the season.

New Hampshire 3 Binghamton 1

For Deck McGuire the hope will be he can build upon tonight’s success and start to re-establish his prospect status. Tonight was one of those nights—few for McGuire in his professional career—in which it was quite clear why he was drafted so high. He was clinical and methodical. McGuire needed only 80 pitches (55 for strikes) to work seven innings. He threw first pitch strikes to 17 of the 24 batters he faced, and finished the night with a 7-5 groundball-flyball ratio to go along with five strikeouts and a walk.

Joining McGuire in the category of weather doesn’t matter much to me—it was 6 degrees Celsius at first pitch—Kevin Pillar doubled and clubbed his first homerun of the year and has continued to hit so far at New Hampshire. Good for him and good for the Blue Jays as they sorely lack position player prospects at the upper levels. Adam Loewen also went deep and off-season acquisition Clint Robinson went 2-4 and is hitting .391 so far.

Both Buffalo and Lansing were postponed. Lansing was scheduled to play their annual Crosstown Showdown with Michigan State and that game has been rescheduled for May 1. That game is usually carried by the Big Ten network, so fans with super cable packages might want to tune in.

Thanks for reading!

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