Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Pillar powers Bisons to another victory!

Welcome to the Blue Jays minor league recap for Tuesday August 11th. The Jays farm system was 3-4 including losses in both the DSL and GSL rookie league games.

Buffalo Bisons (65-57)

Playing host to the Norfolk Tides, the Buffalo Bisons earned their 65th victory of the season, final score 5-0.

Scott Copeland was lights out in his Triple-A debut, tossing seven full innings of six hit scoreless baseball to earn his first victory of the season.

Offensively, the Bisons were led by the usual Kevin Pillar who continues to dominate Triple- A pitching. Pillar homered in the third inning, taking a commanding 3-0 lead. Later on, in the fifth inning,  on a seemingly harmless play, former Blue Jay Darin Mastroianni took off from third base and stole home to make it 4-0. The Jays tacked on another run in the seventh when Mastroianni scored again, this time on newly returned Ryan Goins‘ single.

That would be all the Bisons needed as Steve Delabar and Mike Zagurski teamed up to shutdown the Tides and move to within four games of the International League lead.

Darin Mastroianni-2/2, 2 BB

Ryan Goins-1/3

Kevin Pillar- 1/4, HR (9), 3 RBI, 2 K

Brett Wallace– 0/3, BB, K

Cole Gillespie– 0/4

Brad Glenn– 2/4

Geroge Kottaras- 1/3, BB, 2 K

Jared Goedert– 0/4, 2 K

Jonathan Diaz– 1/4

Scott Copeland- (W, 1-0), 7.0 IP, 6 H, BB, 4 K

Steve Delabar- 1.0 IP, BB, K

Mike Zagurski- 1.0 IP, H, 3 K

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (58-63)

The Fisher Cats received the night off on Monday evening.

Dunedin Blue Jays (70-50)

The Dunedin Blue Jays won game one of the double header against the Tampa Yankees 3-1 in Edwin Encarnacion‘s second rehab start since his leg injury.

Roberto Osuna got the nod for the DJ’s and pitched adequately providing the Jays with two and a third innings of work, surrendering one run on three hits while walking and striking out a pair.

The Jays were backed offensively by the two run Gustavo Pierre triple and never looked back with Encarnacion’s replacement adding his own home-run to shut the lights out on the Yankees and earn their 70th win of the season.

Encarnacion started the game and was 0-1 before being removed because of poor field conditions according to Mike Wilner via Twitter.  He is scheduled to join the Buffalo Bisons Tuesday, as per the Bisons twitter account Monday evening.

Edwin Encarnacion- 0/1, K

–Kevin Patterson-1/2, HR (10), RBI, K

Christian Lopes-0/3, K

Nick Baligod– 0/3

Dwight Smith Jr.-1/2, BB

Marcus Knecht– 0/2, BB, K

L. B Dantzler-0/2, BB, K

Gustavo Pierre- 1/2, 2 RBI

Shane Opitz– 1/3

Jorge Saez– 0/3, BB

Roberto Osuna- 2.1 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Efrain Nieves– (W, 3-4), 3.2 IP, H, 2 BB, 4 K

Arik Sikula– (S, 28), 1.0 IP, 2 K

Game two spelt a different story for the DJ’s as they lost to the Yankees and split today’s doubleheader 1-1.

A three-run home-run in the top of the first inning would be all the Yankees needed to eliminate the chance of a Jays victory. Offensively, the Jays were lost in this game, collecting only five hits, leaving six runners on base and going 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.

Marcus Knecht’s 6th home-run of the season was not enough to climb their way back into the game as the Yankees tacked on another two runs in the back half of the game defeating the Jays, final score 5-2.

Christian Lopes-2/3, RBI, BB

Nick Baligod-0/3, K

Dwight Smith Jr.-0/3, K

Pierce Rankin-0/3, 3 K

Kevin Patterson-0/3

Marcus Knecht-1/3, HR (6), RBI, 2 K

Shane Opitz-2/3

Peter Mooney-0/1, 2 BB

Aaron Munoz-0/3

Jeremy Gabryzwski- (L, 1-1), 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 5 K

Tony Davis– 1.0 IP, 3 H, ER, K

Wil Browning– 1.0 IP, BB, 3 K

Lansing Lugnuts (53-65)

The Langsing Lugnuts also got the night off before opening a three game series against the TinCaps.

Bluefield Blue Jays (23-28)

The Blue Jays lost to the Danville Braves 3-0 Monday evening.

The Jays offence was extinguished by Braves starter Daniel Cordero who allowed the only three Jays hits of the game despite Francisco Rios‘ excellent start who allowed only three hits over six scoreless innings.

Richard Urena– 2/4

Lane Thomas– 0/4, 2 K

Josh Almonte– 0/4, 2 K

Sean Hurley-0/3, 2 K, BB

Gabreil Cenas- 0/4

Lydell Moseby– 1/4, K

Austin Davis– 0/3, K

Angel Rojas-0/3, K

Andres Sotillo– 0/2, K

Francisco Rios- 6.0 IP, 3 H, BB, 7 K

Jordan Romano– (L, 1-1), 2.2, 4 H, 2 ER, BB, K

Dusty Isaacs– 0.1 IP, 2 H, ER

Vancouver Canadians (33-23)

The Vancouver Canadians notched their 33rd victory of the 2014 campaign over the Tri-City Dust Devils 7-5.

The C’s claimed an early 3-0 lead in the first inning but had it erased in the fourth as starter Danny Lietz lost his command, allowing the Dust Devils to climb their way back into the game and take a 4-3 lead.

This lead wouldn’t last long as Franklin Barreto answered with his fifth home-run of the season to take the lead 5-4. The C’s added another run in the fifth inning before adding one more in the eighth to take this game 7-5.

Offensively, Barreto, Ryan McBroom and Boomer Collins all had multi-hit nights with Roemon Fields collecting his 37th stolen base of the season.

First round pick Max Pentecost is heading to Florida to evaluated by team medical staff after missing his third straight game. The C’s did not disclose the specifics on the injury.

Roemon Fields-1/4, BB

Tim Locastro-0/3

Franklin Barreto-2/4, HR (5), 2 RBI

Ryan McBroom-2/3, BB

Chris Carlson-1/3, RBI

Boomer Collins-2/3, RBI, 2 BB

Alexis Maldonado-0/3, BB, 2 K

Trent Miller-1/4, BB

Seth Conner-0/3, 2 K

–Michael De La Cruz– 0/1, BB

Daniel Lietz– 3.2, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

Adarie Kelly- (W, 2-1), 1.1 IP, 2 H, K

Yeyfry Del Rosario– 1.0 IP, ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Justin Shafer– 2.2 IP, 2 H, 4 K

Michael Kraft– (S, 1), 0.1 IP, K