Addison Barger had three more hits bringing his average up to .538. We know it wont last but its an impressive start in AA. Barger struck out almost 40% of the time last season which seriously impacted his prospect status. He cut that down to 30% in Vancouver and now in three games in AA he has three K's in 13 at bats. That leaves his BABIP at .700, unsustainable but nevertheless a fine start.
They say if you watch baseball you can see something new every night. Well I did on Thursday. In the Bisons game, ninth inning, Bisons down 3-2 with two outs but the tying run is on third. Pitcher throws a ball in the dirt that the catcher blocks but it rolls away from him. He takes off the mask as he goes for the ball but the mask hits the baseball. That's called a catchers balk and the runner scores. I don't remember seeing that before. I also saw three batters getting hit in a tied game in the ninth inning, that's a new one too.
It was close games day for the affiliates. Buffalo won in extra innings. Dunedin lost in extras. Vancouver walked it off in the bottom of the ninth while New Hampshire won by two.
Buffalo 5 Iowa 4 - 11 innings
New Hampshire 7 Reading 5
Hillsboro 6 Vancouver 7
Dunedin 4 St Lucie 5 - 10 innings
This is what I noted from yesterday's games.
Gabriel Moreno was back in the lineup catching starter Bowden Francis. Francis got seven outs and gave up seven hits, but escaped with just conceding one run. New Bison Matt Peacock threw one inning, gave up a home run. The game was close all the way and the Bisons tied it in the ninth with the catchers balk mentioned above. After a quiet tenth Chavez Young singled in a run in the eleventh. Jordan Groshans grounded out to bring in another run. They needed that second run because Iowa got one back in the bottom of the inning.
Moreno doubled, singled and walked twice. LJ Talley and Chavez Young had two hits, Nick Podkul three.
Addison Barger was 3-5, scored two runs and drove in one. He is hitting .538 in his brief time in AA. Rafael Lantigua homered, Davis Schneider has his average up to .250 with a two hit night.
Trent Palmer and Nick Fraze are both on the IL, so Sean Mellen started. Reading scored two off him in three innings.
Vancouver took a 6-1 lead to the ninth but blew it. Will McAffer did most of the damage but Hugo Cardona made a throwing error at 6-4 and with two outs. Hillsboro must have felt bad about that because they hit the first three batters in the bottom of the ninth before Miguel Hiraldo delivered an infield single for the win.
Chad Dallas started and had a very good start, six innings, one run on three hits with eight K's. Hiraldo had three hits. Zach Britton two, including a triple. Leo Jimenez had just one hit but scored twice and drove in two runs.
Michael Dominguez went 5.2 innings, the longest outing by a starter for Dunedin this season. He allowed one run.
Seven hits for the D Jays, Angel Del Rosario had two and scored two runs. He stole four bases to give him 21 for the season.
Three Stars
Third Star - Chad Dallas
Second Star - Addison Barger
First Star - Miguel Hiraldo
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