Jay Blue: De Jong, Pompey, Reid-Foley, Urena

June 12 Minor League Report
By Jay Blue
Blue Jays From Away
With no action from the Buffalo Bisons and the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Lansing Lugnuts and New Hampshire Fisher Cats took center stage and neither disappointed on Friday.

Buffalo Bisons
Scheduled Off Day

New Hampshire Fisher Cats 14, Altoona Curve 1
The Fisher Cats headed out on the road but probably benefited from running into an exhausted Altoona Curve squad who had just returned from their road trip after losing an 18-inning match with the Reading Fightin Phils. In this one, the Fisher Cats jumped out to an early lead, getting home runs in the third inning from Pierce Rankin and Dalton Pompey and the ‘Cats turned up the juice, scoring eight runs in the final two innings to put the cap on the 14-1 victory. The offense went bananas, getting 18 hits including a 4/6 game from Ryan Schimpf who launched a home run to go with two doubles. Pompey didn’t have a bad game himself, going 3/4 with two home runs and four RBI while Jon Berti, fresh off the DL was 3/6 with two runs scored. Also filling out the stat sheets were Dwight Smith, Jr. who went 2/3 with two doubles, two walks and four runs scored, Pierce Rankin (2/5, R, HR, 3 RBI) and Shane Opitz (2/5, R, 2B, 2 RBI).

Joel Pineiro got the start and was excellent allowing just one run on five hits and no walks with three strikeouts over seven innings. Greg Burke and Blake McFarland finished with an inning each of scoreless ball.

Roster Notes: IF Ronald Torreyes was traded to the L.A. Dodgers for cash.

Player of the Game: Schimpf, Pompey and Pineiro

Dunedin Blue Jays, Lakeland Flying Tigers
Postponed due to rain.

Lansing Lugnuts 1, Quad Cities River Bandits 9
In Game 1 of a double header, making up Thursday’s rainout, the Lansing Lugnuts relievers got hit hard after an interesting start from young righty Sean Reid-Foley. Reid-Foley only allowed three hits (but five walks), giving up just one run in 4 1/3 innings and struck out seven River Bandits. He was followed by Michael Kraft who stranded the two runners Reid-Foley left on bu was lit up for six runs (five earned) over one inning. Mark Biggs couldn’t strand his runners, however, and he surrendered two runs of his own (in addition to the two runners of Kraft’s who scored) over 2/3 of an inning.

The offense didn’t do a lot in the first game but Tim Locastro notched two more hits (2/3) and Richard Urena hit his team-leading 10th home run.

Player of the Game: Reid-Foley and Urena

Lansing Lugnuts 2, Quad Cities River Bandits 0
Game 2 of the double header provided a completely different result with the Lugnuts taking home a 2-0 victory thanks to a two-run single off the bat of Gunnar Heidt which broke a 0-0 tie in the eighth inning.

Had the bats gotten going a little bit earlier, the extra inning wouldn’t have been needed and Chase De Jong would have owned a complete-game shutout for his efforts. De Jong had his best outing in a long time, posting a Game Score of 77 by allowing just four hits and two walks over seven innings with 10 strikeouts. Jose Fernandez pitched the eighth to earn the save.

Player of the Game: De Jong

DSL Blue Jays 5, DSL Reds 7
Three players had two hits each for the DSL Blue Jays but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Reds who beat the Blue Jays for their second consecutive win. Kevin Vicuna was 2/3 with a walk and a run while Jesus Severino was 2/2 with a run and an RBI. Manuel herazo was 2/2 with a run and a walk while Sterling Guzman was on twice with a triple and a walk, driving in a run and scoring once but also made two errors at third base.

The pitching was let down by its defense, giving up only two earned runs on the day. Guadalupe Chavez allowed three runs on five hits but only one was earned in his 1 2/3 innings. Elio Silva took the loss but none of the three runs he surrendered were earned and he gave up only one hit and walked two in 3 1/3 innings, tallying four strikeouts. Joel Espinal blew the save, allowing two of Silva’s runners to score (and allowing one of his own to cross the plate), giving up one run on one hit and a walk in three innings.

Player of the Game: None

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