April 10 Minor League Report

Buffalo Bisons (3-3)

Game Postponed due to rain.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (4-3)

Ryan Schimpf had the big blow for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats as they get back into the victory column with a 6-3 victory over the Yankees farmhands from Trenton.  CF Kevin Pillar, 2B John Tolisano, and LF Brian Van Kirk all had great days with the bats with multiple hit days in piling the six runs onto the Thunder. Tolisano continues to struggle in the field at second base with his fifth error of the season that led to the Thunder’s third run of the game off Clint Everts in the eighth inning.

Starting pitcher Marcus Walden was pitching well until the fifth inning when he got himself into a jam after getting the leadoff man to ground out.  He then gave up a double, a single, and a walk and skipper Gary Allenson decided to go get the 24-year-old righty.  Matt Wright came on to relieve and gave up a single that scored one before shutting the door with an infield popup and a ground out.  Wright went on to pitch a big two more innings of shutout ball to keep the Fisher Cats on top until he handed it off to Everts and Beck.   Closer Chad Beck struck out three in a row after giving up a walk and a hit to close the game out.

Hitting:

Kevin Pillar – 3/5, 2 R, 2B

John Tolisano – 2/3, 2 R, 2B, BB, E

Ryan Schimpf – 1/3, R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, K

Brad Glenn – 1/3, RBI, BB

Ricardo Nanita – 0/4, 2 K

Brian Van Kirk – 3/4

                Kenny Wilson PR – R, SB

Kevin Ahrens – 1/4, K

Jack Murphy – 1/4, RBI

Amadeo Zazueta – 0/4, K

Pitching:

Marcus Walden – 4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K

Matt Wright – W, 2 2/3 IP, 1 H, 2K

Clint Everts – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 0 K

Chad Beck – S, 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game: Matt Wright

Dunedin Blue Jays (4-2)

The Dunedin Blue Jays pulled out a squeaker with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning coming off the bat of Gabe Jacobo as his one out triple drove Peter Mooney home to give the D-Jays a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Yankees.  Starter Scott Copeland logged another quality start, throwing seven innings and giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts.

It was another generally quiet game with the bats as the Jays only managed to get five hits, four of them off Tampa starter Bryan Mitchell, who MLB.com ranks as the 15^th best prospect in the Yankees system this year.  Aside from Jacobo’s two hits, both 3B Andy Burns and RF Matt Newman hit doubles while CF Jonathan Jones stroked the only other hit.

Hitting:

Jon Berti  - 0/4, K

Peter Mooney – 0/2, 2 BB

Andy Burns – 1/4, R, 2B, RBI

Gabe Jacobo – 2/4, 3B, 2 RBI

Kevin Patterson – 0/4, K

Marcus Knecht – 0/4, 2K

Matt Newman – 1/2, R, 2B, BB, K

Derrick Chung – 0/2

Jonathan Jones –1/3, RBI, K

Pitching:

Scott Copeland – 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K

Dustin Antolin – W, 1 IP, 1 K

Blake McFarland – S, 1IP, 1 BB, 2 K

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game: Gabe Jacobo (a very tough decision today, due to Copeland’s strong start)

Lansing Lugnuts (3-4)

The Lugnuts got blown out 10-1 Wednesday night in the final game of their series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods.  They’ll have until Friday to lick their wounds before continuing their season with their home opener against the South Bend Silver Hawks.  Tonight’s starter, Taylor Cole, coming off an outstanding start in his last outing, couldn't stay out of trouble after a 3-up, 3-down first inning.  The third inning proved to be his undoing: after Cole retired his first batter, Andrew Toles tripled and scored on a ground out.  Cole just couldn’t get that third out as he walked the next batter and gave up four consecutive singles that scored three more runs.  Three pitchers went the rest of the way and all in all, the damage was ten runs for the Hot Rods off sixteen hits and six walks. 

While all that was going on, the hitters only managed six hits of their own, and nothing beyond Gustavo Pierre’s solo home run in the top of the first inning.  Another troubling aspect of Wednesday night’s game was catcher Santiago Nessy committing his sixth passed ball in only his fifth game of the season.  This is definitely something that we’re going to keep an eye on since Nessy’s supposed to be quite strong defensively.  Balbino Fuenmayor’s mini-slump continues as he was hitless for the series against Bowling Green after a fantastic opening series against Lake County.  He has now struck out twelve times in twenty-six at bats while taking only three walks – another troubling trend, if it continues.

Hitting:

Dalton Pompey –  1/4, 2 K

Gustavo Pierre – 2/4, R, HR, RBI, 2 K

Christian Lopes – 1/4, K, E

Balbino Fuenmayor – 0/3, 2K

                Seth Conner PH – 0/1, K

Carlos Ramirez – 1/4, K

Santiago Nessy – 1/4, 2B, K, PB

Emilio Guererro – 0/3, K

Jorge Flores – 0/3

Ronald Melendez – 0/3, 2 K

Pitching:

Taylor Cole – L, 2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 K, WP

Ben White – 3 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 2 K, 2 WP

Matt Johnson – 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R

Ian Kadish – 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game:  GustavoPierre