Well, it’s been a busy morning in Blue Jays ville and we’re just getting you caught up. Here’s a brief minor league report from yesterday but there were only two and a half games played by the Jays’ minor league affiliates. I’m keeping things a bit on the brief side today, but you can always head to Jays Journal for their minor league report. They also have a great interview with Dalton Pompey who has been a favourite of Blue Jays from Away. If you’re looking for more Dalton Pompey content, look no further. Check out Podcast 4 for a brief interview of our own and Podcast 21 for an extended interview with Dalton and his parents, Valerie and Ken.
Buffalo had a scheduled day off and New Hampshire had their game rained out.
Dunedin Blue Jays 0, Tampa Yankees 6
Kendall Graveman did indeed get his first High-A start for the Blue Jays but had a rough first inning, allowing three runs and the Dunedin offense couldn’t get on track against Brad Gerritse and the rest of the Yankees, getting only two hits. The defense was also very poor, making three errors and causing three of the six runs to be unearned. Graveman only went four innings, allowing four runs (two unearned) on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts. Kramer Champlin allowed the other two runs (one unearned) on just one hit and one walk in three innings of work with two strikeouts. Dalton Pompey had one of the hits (a double) while Kevin Patterson had the other.
Player of the Game: None
Lansing Lugnuts 7, Dayton Dragons 5
In the completion of the suspended game from Tuesday night, the Lugnuts’ offense kicked into high gear. B.C. boy Justin Atkinson led the way and pumped his batting average up to .339 with a 5/5 night with four singles and a double. Jorge Saez added a single to his two doubles and he also took a walk, going 3/3. L.B. Dantzler had a pair of singles and D.J. Davis had a single and a home run, driving in two. Picking up for Chase DeJong’s solid start, Phil Kish went four strong innings allowing just one run on three hits and walk with four strikeouts. Scott Silverstein had probably his best outing of the year, retiring all six batters he faced including three on strikes.
Player of the Game: Justin Atkinson
Lansing Lugnuts 3, Dayton Dragons 1
In Game 2, Tom Robson took the mound and had his best game of the season, going six innings and giving up just one run on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Griffin Murphy threw an inning for the save. The offense only accounted for four hits (including two by Mitch Nay) while two of the three runs came in from RBI outs in the top of the fourth inning.
Player of the Game: Tom Robson
May 1 Preview
Buffalo Bisons (13-10)
The Bisons send Liam Hendriks to the mound to face the 10-15 Charlotte Knights with Tommy Hanson on the slab. Hanson’s made only two starts and has one good outing and one not so good one on his record for the year. In his first outing, Hanson gave up four runs in four innings (with three walks) and in the second, he also walked three batters but didn’t give up a hit and struck out six over five innings. Which Hanson will the Bisons (featuring Ryan Goins and Jonathan Diaz) see today? Going for Buffalo is Liam Hendriks who has been outstanding this season. Hendriks is 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA and hasn’t walked a man in 21 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do.
New Hampshire Fisher Cats (11-12)
The Fisher Cats have the opportunity to get back on the positive side of the ledger by sweeping a double header against the Trenton Thunder. Going in game one is Shawn Hill who was ok in his first start of the season against Reading last week. The 33-year-old veteran should bring some guile to the proceedings against 25-year-old Matt Tracy. The 6-foot-3 lefty hasn’t been great, walking 10 batters in 20 2/3 innings with 14 strikeouts and he’s posted a 4.79 ERA.
Game two will feature the Double-A debut of Matt Boyd who didn’t get the chance to pitch in last night’s rained-out game. He faces Jeremy Bleich who has allowed three home runs in 24 1/3 innings which likely have contributed to his 5.18 ERA despite a solid 3-1 strikeout to walk ratio.
Dunedin Blue Jays (20-6)
Taylor Cole gets the nod for Dunedin as they host the Lakeland Flying Tigers, a team that has played them very well so far this year. Cole is 2-0 with a 2.73 ERA and has found his strikeout touch once again this year, notching 40 Ks in 29 2/3 innings. He faces 23-year-old righty Kevin Eichhorn who hasn’t been as overpowering, striking out only 13 on his way to a 2.42 ERA. He gets a lot of ground balls and hasn’t given up a home run in 22 1/3 innings.
Lansing Lugnuts (12-13)
With two wins yesterday, the Lansing Lugnuts are creeping ever closer to the .500 mark and send Alberto Tirado (0-0, 3.60 ERA) to the mound against rehabbing major leaguer Aroldis Chapman. Chapman, he of the 100+ mph fastball, is likely going to pitch only one inning for the Dayton Dragons before giving way to a minor leaguer. Tirado hasn’t been as good as his 3.60 ERA suggests, walking 14 batters in 15 innings and getting himself out of jams. While he’s struck 16 batters, more than one per inning, he’s only been striking them out 21.6% of the time, slightly above his rate last year in Bluefield where his walk rate was almost half of what it is so far this year. With Chase De Jong and Tom Robson starting to turn their poor starts around, we can hope that Tirado follows suit tonight.
Who are these players? Find out in The 2014 Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Handbook, now available as an ebook at Smashwords.com for $7.99 US. It’s coming soon to Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo and other fine retailers. You can purchase and preview the book at our Smashwords.com page! If you like us here,“like” us on Facebook!
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