A 4-1 night on the farm featured some good starting pitching, including the professional debut of a 2010 draft pick, and a standout offensive performance from yet another catcher.

One win outta four for the affiliates on Sunday but by far the most impressive performance came in a losing cause.

Saturday night on the farm, seven games, three losses and a triple play.  Sorry about the late submission, but your humble correspondent attended the Dunedin game, stayed up late to catch the late Las Vegas game, then fell asleep and woke up just a bit ago.

Kyle Drabek folowed up his no-hitter with six shutout innings as New Hampshire won easily.  JP Arencibia hit his 23rd home run as Vegas held on for a narrow win.  Egan Smith pitched six shutout innings as Lansing shut out Great Lakes.

Dunedin and Auburn both lost in extra innings.  The GCL Jays were well beaten although Jake Marisnick had three hits.

Travis Snider's rehab looks like it should be ending soon and David Cooper hit a couple of dingers and the affiliates went 4-3 on the day thanks to some good starting pitching.

Mike Green is back with the third and final episode of his travels in the North Eastern US.

We coasted into Auburn on the scenic two lane highway from Interstate 81 in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York .  “Likes sort likes”, the line from the great Dutch film Antonia’s Line, came into my head as we passed through an obviously Republican town with accusingly well-manicured lawns, mandatory American flags in front of the houses and denizens in perfect nautical summer wear. Auburn was not one of those places.

The affiliates went 0-5 and were outscored 38-11.

If you read the headline into a microphone, remember to pop those "P's".  Program directors at radio stations just love that!  Anyways, as you may have gathered, the bats were working just fine for the visitors in Portlands Maine and Oregon Tuesday night in a 5-3 night for the affiliates.  The number two and three stars of the night had big nights at the plate but they were overshadowed by a great pitching performance and he earned star number one.  All this and a bag of chips (except for the bag of chips part) in today's edition of the MLU!

Our own Mike Green, a former member of the roster and minor league reporter, contributes this pinch-hit.  Parts 2 and 3 to follow.....

Seeing new places is the kind of mind-altering experience that the middle aged can tolerate with equanimity.  So it was that my companion and I headed out through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York on a baseball trip.  First stop, Lansing, Michigan, for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games.

 

Um, well, kind of. Two affiliates played in completely different Portlands, but got the same result: a win. A couple of rain-outs in Florida meant there were only four games last night.

Sorry for the delay.  Some technical difficulties (and work) kept this from posting this earlier.  By now you're well aware of Kyle Drabek's no-hitter.  So let's just get right to it.

Jays farm clubs went 3-3 on Saturday.  Notable was the 6 RBI performance by Fisher Cats Left Fielder Eric Thames.

It was a wild night on the farm.  Dunedin had two hits through eight innings but won the game in eleven innings with four hits total.  Mike McDade hit a game tying, two-out, two run home run in the ninth to tie the game and the winning run scored thanks to two wild pitches in the eleventh.  Lansing had a comfortable 9-2 lead, that became an uncomfortable 9-8 lead, before winning 11-9.  Las Vegas won behind anoother home run from JP Arencibia.

New Hampshire lost by a run and left the bases loaded in both the eighth and ninth.  Auburn lost with the eventual winning run for Batavia coming on a bases loaded hit batter.

It was a Canada Day performance in a similar vein to the big league club in the minosr, as the top 5 affiliates combined to go 1-4, scoring 6 runs between them. The DSL and GCL Jays combined for more than double that and both won. Go figure.

With the 51s resting, New Hampshire and the GCL Blue Jays provided the only offence on the evening. The Fisher Cats won by a run while the GCL Blue Jays posted the only victory. Meanwhile, Lansing, Dunedin and Auburn were each held to only four hits in their losses. However, there were a highly anticipated debuts from a rehabbing player and a highly publicized prospect, one of which certainly surpassed expectations.