Pawtucket 8 Buffalo 3
In game one of the doubleheader with the Boston affiliate our Bisons gave up eight runs in an ugly sixth inning. A Ryan Goins error and a Mike Nickeas passed ball were soon followed by a walk, a few hits, and two big blasts. When all was said and done, eight runs had crossed the plate. Starter Dave Bush retired the first thirteen batters in order, but was a victim of the madness in the sixth. He pitched five and a third giving up five runs, two of which were earned. At the plate, Moises Sierra continued his hot start, doubling twice. Pawtucket’s win snapped a nine game winning streak by the Bisons.
Pawtucket 0 Buffalo 4
The nightcap saw the Bisons triumph behind a stellar five shutout innings from Ramon Ortiz. Ortiz was followed by Bobby Korecky who preserved the shutout over two innings of work. Luis Jimenez and Mike McCoy went deep and Anthony Gose stole a bag and walked twice (to one strikeout). Former Blue Jays’ farmhand Jonathan Diaz is now plying his trade with the Pawtucket outfit and is sporting a .091/.211/.301 batting line.
New Britain 4 New Hampshire 1
The Fisher Cats were in tough tonight as they faced recently acquired Alex Meyer. Meyer is the gigantic power righty the Twins received in the offseason from the Nationals for Denard Span. He has top-top power stuff, but is still working on repeating his somewhat wonky delivery. So far this season he has pitched well and tonight was no different. He held the Fisher Cats to one run over six innings. The New Hampshire team too kicked around the ball and an error in the seventh contributed to the go ahead run. At the plate Kevin Pillar and Kenny Wilson had two hits, while Ricardo Nanita had three, and Jack Murphy drove in the lone run.
Dunedin 2 Brevard County 3
Dunedin lost a close one to the Milwaukee affiliate down in Florida tonight. Jesse Hernandez who has pitched more like his Lansing-self last year than his Dunedin-self so far was excellent through five (needing only 48 pitches), but ran into trouble in the sixth, yielding three runs. The offense was led by Andy Burns, who seems to be just about the only hitter for the Dunedin ball club swinging the bat this season. Burns had three hits, but committed an error on defense. Aaron Sanchez gets the ball tomorrow.
Lansing 6 Quad Cities 2
Lansing got the win on the back of another very impressive start from the eighteen-year-old Roberto Osuna. Osuna struck out eight over five innings of one run, one hit baseball. Those eight strikeouts raise his strikeout to walk ratio on the season to 26:3. Surprisingly, Osuna also had four wild pitches on the night, which tied a Lansing Lugnut record apparently. Osuna has been, according to his manager John Tamargo Jr., anywhere from 89-90mph with the two-seamer, and up to 97mph with the four-seamer. While it seemed that anyone who got on base against Osuna stole, Osuna would simply strike out the next batter. Among those strikeouts were several from last year’s first overall selection Carlos Correa. He also held Rio Ruiz in check, who was also a highly regarded draft prospect from last year. Chris Hawkins’ first homerun and Carlos Ramirez three RBI’s led the offense. Every Lugnut had a hit except Kellen Sweeney, who has disappointed so far in his second go around at Lansing. My understanding was the Jays had high hopes for him this year. I remember at draft time a few years ago, most talent people said he had the best “eye” they had ever seen and they could easily see him walking a hundred times at the big league level. I saw him in Vancouver last year and he flashed a lot of big league tools—bat speed, good size, and pretty good defense. He’s got to hit, plain and simple. The Lugnuts send Daniel Norris to the mound and he’ll look to continue making progress repeating his delivery and keeping the ball down.
Three Stars
3. Jesse Hernandez
2. Ramon Ortiz
1. Roberto Osuna
