Dodgy Defending

Wednesday, April 26 2017 @ 11:00 PM EDT

Contributed by: Gerry

Only one win in six games for the affiliates. Some of the hot hitters are cooling off and batting averages are returning to normal levels. The affiliates defense was poor on Wednesday. Each of Jon Harris, Francisco Rios and TJ Zeuch were not helped by their defense and had unearned runs allowed. The error rolls for Wednesday included Anthony Alford, Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Tim Lopes, Brad Jones, Ryan Hissey and Emilio Guerrero.

Buffalo

The Bisons split a doubleheader. Christian Lopes had three hits in game one and one hit in the nightcap. Lopes played third base in both games, having been a second baseman through most of his career. The four hits moved Lopes batting average up to .311. However Lopes has just three extra base hits and two walks so his OPS is just .727.

Hotshots Dwight Smith and Jason Leblebijian had just one hit each over the two games. Leblebijian played left field in one game. Rowdy Tellez was hitless over the two games.


New Hampshire

New Hampshire lost both ends of a double header. The Fisher Cats had just three hits in game one. Francisco Rios gave up three unearned runs to take the loss.

Jon Harris took the loss in game 2. He pitched 5.1 innings and just allowed three hits. Through five innings Harris had just allowed one run. The first two hitters of the sixth reached base and when Harris was pulled, Tim Mayza let the other two runs in to score, running Harris's runs conceded to three. Anthony Alford had one hit in the nightcap to keep his average at .400. Richard Urena had two hits in the second game. He has had a slow start to the season, can he get his bat going?


Dunedin

TJ Zeuch cruised through five innings on Wednesday. But a couple of hits led off the sixth and they were followed by a couple of errors, a walk and an infield hit and suddenly Zeuch had allowed four runs, one of which was earned. He just had two strikeouts.

Youngster Kevin Vicuna was the only hitter with two hits and he has bumped his average to .300 in three games. It's good experience for the 19 year old. There was some debate at the start of the season as to whether the Jays had promoted Cavan Biggio too quickly. Its Biggio's first full season but he is a college grad, age 22, who could possibly handle that level. Biggio has been hanging in OK, hitting around .280. On the negative side Biggio has struck out 20 times, an approx. 30% K rate. Prior to Wednesday Biggio had just three walks but he doubled that total in this game. Biggio was somewhat thrown in the deep end and it could take him some time to adjust. May's numbers will be interesting to see if he learns and adapts.


Lansing

If you like runs Lansing is the place to be. The Lugnuts have scored 49 runs in their last five games, their offense is on fire. Unfortunately their defense and pitching are not performing well at the moment. Their opponents have scored 42 runs over the last five. That's a total of 91 runs over five games or an average of 18 per game. Lansing have used seven starters this season. The best ERA belongs to Justin Maese at 5.57. Half of the starts have gone to starters with ERA's over 8.

Bo Bichette had two hits on Wednesday including his second home run. He also made his fourth error of the season. Josh Palacios had two hits as well, he has been scuffling some since coming off the DL, his bat should start coming around soon. Jake Thomas has gone unnoticed but he has a 975 OPS. He is a 27th round draft choice and is 23 years old but good for him. He has more walks than strikeouts, 14 v 9. Vlad Jr. had the day off.



3 Stars

3rd star: Kevin Vicuna

2nd star: Bo Bichette

1st star: Christian Lopes


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