The top half of the system has not been producing a lot wins but they took care of business on Thursday. The Bisons used a distributed attack to win 7-2. Patrick Murphy did not need much support but the hitters relaxed and produced 11 runs. Dunedin's bats went cold and they wasted a good start from Maximo Castillo. Lansing also lost.
Buffalo 7 Gwinnett 2
Braves prospect Touki Toussaint was no match for the Bison hitters. Jonathan Davis led off the game with a home run, he also walked three times. Andrew Guillotte had three hits. He singled in the second Bisons run in the second inning and doubled in the third run in the fourth. Lourdes Gurriel and Cavan Biggio also drove in runs and had a hit each. Andy Burns picked up two hits. Gurriel played left field again.
Shawn Morimando has not pitched well for Buffalo but this was his best start of the season. In six innings he allowed one earned run on five hits while picking up seven K's. Jordan Romano was another who was glad of a good outing, two perfect innings. Kirby Snead finished up.
New Hampshire 11 Portland 1
Patrick Murphy was hot. He had a slow start to the season but each start recently has been better than the last. It will be hard to top this one, seven shutout innings with one hit and one walk allowed. Murphy had seven K's. Murphy used his mid 90's fastball to both sides of the plate to keep the hitters off balance. The hitters included Dustin Pedroia who went 0-3 against Murphy.
The Fisher Cats scored their 11 runs on 12 hits. Two lighter hitting players went deep to get the offense going. Vinny Capra hit his first home run of the season in the third, a solo shot, followed by Nash Knight's second home run of the season, also a solo shot. Capra finished at 2-4 and Knight 3-4. Brock Lundquist doubled in two runs and scored another on a ground out. Riley Adams had a double and Forrest Wall a triple. Chad Spanberger drove in a couple of runs.
Clearwater 5 Dunedin 2
Dunedin were out-hit 12-4. Alejandro Kirk doubled in the first run. Luis De Los Santos homered for the second run. De Los Santos was a call up from extended spring but he has hit, in a very small sample. His BA is .375. Cal Stevenson had a hit and a walk but he also threw out two runners in the same inning.
Maximo Castillo pitched five shutout innings, four hits, four walks, three K's. Kyle Weatherly and Connor Law were responsible for the five runs, Weatherly took the loss.
Lansing 1 Kane County 3
Otto Lopez has had a quiet campaign so far but he went 3-4 on Thursday to raise his average to .287. Lopez will take a walk but his OPS is hurt by his lack of extra base hits. Ryan Gold also had three hits. In total the Lugnuts had eight hits, Lopez and Gold had six of them. Groshans was 0-3. Lansing's only run came on a double steal, Nick Podkul stole home.
Troy Miller started and he allowed all three runs. Cre Finfrock came up from extended and pitched two innings. He struck out five. Jackson Rees pitched the eighth. Rees is racking up the K's so far, he is averaging close to two per inning.
3 Stars
3rd star: Andrew Guillotte
2nd star: Nash Knight
1st star: Patrick Murphy
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