Lansing starter David Rollins breezed through a clean first inning, with back-to-back swinging strikeouts and a first-pitch groundout to open the game. He then erased a one-out double in a scoreless second, where he battled through four foul balls from Whitecaps right fielder Jason Krizan before striking him out on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.

After Rollins retired the leadoff batter in the third, Whitecaps third baseman Colin Kaline skied a 2-2 pitch into the outfield for what should have been the second out of the inning. Instead, Lugnuts right fielder Markus Brisker dropped the ball and Kaline advanced to second on the play, which was ruled a hit and not an error. Then, the next batter, West Michigan center fielder Chad Wright, hit a hard grounder on a 3-1 pitch right to Lugnuts first baseman K.C. Hobson, who bobbled the ball and couldn’t get to the bag in time. Hobson was charged with the error, and instead of returning to the dugout following a 1-2-3 inning, Rollins faced runners on the corners with one out.

Both runners quickly scored after a RBI double and a sacrifice fly, but Rollins ended the inning himself when he cut off the throw to the plate and tagged Whitecaps second baseman Brandon Loy, who was trying to advance to third on the play.

The crippling blow against Rollins, however, came in the fifth, when Whitecaps shortstop Eugenio Suarez roped a two-run double down the left field line to give West Michigan its first lead of the game. That was Rollins’ only real mistake of the game, though, as he pitched better than the four runs (three earned) on his line suggest. The left-hander wound up settling for a no-decision, as reliever Brandon Berl came on in the ninth and allowed a Javier Avendano walk to score to hand Avendano the loss.

The Lugnuts’ offense opened the scoring early and never quit in the losing effort, regaining the lead midway through the game and nearly tying things up in the bottom of the ninth. The top of the lineup paced Lansing’s 12-hit attack, as struggling leadoff hitter Kenny Wilson broke out to go 3-for-5 with a triple and a RBI to improve to 9-for-33 (.273) with an .844 OPS in his last 10 games, while three-hitter Kevin Pillar also went 3-for-5 with a triple, a stolen base and two RBI.

After hitting ninth on Tuesday night and entering play with a .198 average, third baseman Kellen Sweeney found himself hitting in the two-spot for only the second time this season, a possible effort from Lugnuts batting coach and interim manager Kenny Graham to get him back on track. The move paid off, as Sweeney had his most productive game offensively this season, going 2-for-4 with a walk. It was Sweeney’s first multi-hit game of the season, and the way he managed to salvage his night was impressive after grounding out and striking out in his first two at-bats.

After working the count to 3-1 in the fifth, Sweeney hit a bloop single to right field to score Wilson and get his first RBI of the night. Two pitches later, he took off for second base and stole his first bag of the season before coming around to score on Pillar’s triple. Sweeney continued to show his patience at the plate in the seventh, as he drew a two-out walk — his 15th of the year — to prolong the inning.

The 20-year-old got on base with two outs again in the bottom of the ninth, when he singled home Wilson to cut the Whitecaps’ lead to 7-6. He also showed some heads-up, aggressive baserunning, advancing safely from first to third on a hard hit liner to right field. Sweeney has shown great all-around defense at the hot corner so far this season and has showcased his great eye at the plate but has yet to show anything offensively, so hopefully Wednesday night was a step in the right direction for him.

- JM

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Casey Lawrence Promoted to HiA Dunedin (more…)

Out of the Top 50 Jays Prospects: Kenny Wilson

image courtesy of Batter's Box

Center Fielder / 21  years old / 5’11″ 185 lbs

Born: Jan 30th 1990 in Tampa Florida

Bats: Switch-hitter  Throws: Right

Drafted: by the Jays in the 2nd rd, 68th overall, of the 2008 draft

Signed: for $644,000

Quick Facts:

• Wilson has gap hitting ability, but is below-average power wise.
• He was committed to Florida State before signing with the Jays and was considered a tough sign.
• Defensively, Wilson is well above-average.

Jersey: Wears #15 for the Dunedin Blue Jays

Stats: (more…)

• Marc Rzepczynski has recently threw 4.2 innings (59 pitches) while striking out 4 in extended spring training as he makes a return from injury. It was his second start there and he could be able to return as soon as within 2 weeks which only adds to the already deep rotation.
• Nathaniel Stoltz of Call to the Pen touches on Brett Cecil as he looks at a player for every MLB team here.
• If I told you before the season started that at this point in the season 2 of the Jays 3 top HR hitters would be John Buck (8) and Alex Gonzalez (10), I’m pretty sure I would have been laughed out of town, but such is the case. Both players have more HRs than Aaron Hill and Adam Lind combined. Although that could be viewed as a bad thing, it’s more of a security blanket in knowing that those 2 players are bound to get hot at some point and makes the future a little brighter as a result.

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Here is a review of the major events in the minors for the Jays on Tuesday, 20th of April:

AAA Las Vegas –Lost 8-5 vs Salt Lake (LAA)

• Rei Gonzalez (6.06)was not at his best Tuesday as he allowed 9 hits over 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 3 walks, and got 4 Ks. Luckily for the Jays, there is no rush for him to perform after his promotion to AAA since others are definitely proving to be up to the task of providing depth for the big club.
• Another pitching note is that Jesse Carlson gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in his 1 inning of work in relief.
• OF Chris Aguila (.375) led off and went 2 for 5 with a double (his 5th of the season), while JP Arencibia (.273), Jeremy Reed (.238), and Jorge Padilla (.262) all went 2 for 4.

(more…) ]]> http://jaysjournal.com/2010/04/21/jays-minors-review-20-apr-10/feed/ 0 http://jaysjournal.com/2010/04/18/jays-minors-review-18-april-10/ http://jaysjournal.com/2010/04/18/jays-minors-review-18-april-10/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:12:46 +0000 Mat Germain http://jaysjournal.com/?p=1051 Here is a review of the major events in the minors for the Jays on Saturday, 17th of April: AAA Las Vegas – Postponed AA New Hampshire – Won 13-8  vs Binghamton Bobby Bell had an outing to forget, lasting only 5 innings and giving up 7 ER through 8 hits and 2 walks, but [...]

Jays Minors Review: 17 April 10 - Jays Journal - Jays Journal - A Toronto Blue Jays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Ryan Shopshire had some issues in his first start of the season, allowing 4 walks, 7 hits, and 4 ER while striking out 2. However, the relief was great in this game, as both Dustin Antolin and Nestor Molina went through 2 squeaky clean innings a piece striking out 3 each with no hits or walks allowed. Evan Crawford came out after that and the game went to extra innings. He allowed the winning run to score, but not without a fight. The run was scored after he allowed a lead off single, then 2 straight groundouts pushed that runner to 3B. The runner was driven in by Didi Gregorious (what a baseball name) with a single and resulted in Crawford taking the loss for the game.