Minor League Recap: System goes 0-for-4

I am going to let you into a little secret about myself. I love minor league baseball because the odds are greater that one of my favorite teams will win, making every night a guarantee win night. That makes me happy. Well that didn’t happen last night. All four Toronto Blue Jays minor league affiliates lose, and 0-for-4 day in my minor league recap…so sad.

Buffalo Bisons (14-9, 2nd)

The challenge for the Bisons right now is to assimilate all the new players and find which roles they will play. On Saturday, the Bisons lost their 2nd straight game to fall out of first place and now 0.5GB of Boston Red Sox affiliate, Pawtucket. Louisville Bats beat the Bisons 5-2.

RHP Casey Lawrence, making his first start since being recalled from New Hampshire, didn’t have his best game. It was terrible, but definitely not what he was hoping for. Casey made it to the 7th inning, pitching six and a third, allowing 4 runs and a home run on 9 hits. Some of those balls were hit hard, as Louisville collected two doubles, a triple and home run off Lawrence. He throw 92 pitches, 66 for strikes, inducing 8 groundballs, walking none and striking out 6. Not terrible.

Ryan Tepera had another solid relief appearance for Buffalo. If he keeps this up Toronto may come knocking sooner than later. He pitched 1.2 innings with 3 strike outs, lowering his ERA to 0.68. Of his 18 pitches, 12 were strikes.

Preston Guilmet worked the 9th, giving up one run on two hits and walk.

The Bats pitchers held the Herd to 2-runs on 4 hits, none were of the extra variety. 2B Andy Burns, Matt Hague, Chris Colabello and Ryan Schimpf each collected singles.

The Bisons were held hitless until Schimpf singled to right in the 4th.  The next three hits were bunched together in the 6th, which produced the clubs only two runs. Burns singles to lead off the inning. Hague and Colabello followed suit, with Burns coming to score on Colabellos’ single to LF. Hague advanced to third on Schimpf’s sac fly and scored on a Brad Glenn ground ball.

The Bisons didn’t put up much of a fight the rest of the game.

Up Next: Randy Wolf vs Louisville’s David Holmberg