Blue Jays MiLB Recap: Three of the four power up

Jays Journal takes its daily look into the Toronto Blue Jays minor league system. Three of the four teams powered up their offence for a blastoff.

Buffalo Bisons vs Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays)
3-0 L

The Buffalo Bisons mustered just four singles against a dominant Jacob Faria, who threw six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts. On the hill for the Bisons was T.J. House, who took his first loss of the season. It was his fourth start of the year, and the first in which he gave up more than one earned run. He went five innings, giving up three earned runs on eight hits and struck out eight.

Murphy Smith pitched three scoreless innings in relief. He has not given up a run in 8.1 innings since his promotion from New Hampshire.

Not much was happening for the offence. Not only did they have just four singles, they had only four opportunities with runners in scoring position, of which they went 0-for-4.

MVB: Murphy Smith (3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 3 SO) 

Brett Oberholtzer will take the mound on Saturday. First pitch is at 6:35 ET.

New Hampshire Fishercats vs Binghamton Rumble Ponies (New York Mets)
7-5 W

The New Hampshire Fishercats snapped a three-game losing streak with by busting out the offence in a win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Every Fishercat was on base at least once except for Harold Ramirez. Richard Urena paced the offence with a pair of hits and an RBI, Emilio Guerrero hit a two-run homerun in the first and nearly everyone else had a hit in the win.

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On the mound was Canadian Shane Dawson, who pitched well enough to win. He threw six innings of ball and gave up three runs.

MVFC: Emilio Guerrero (1-3, HR, 2 RBI, BB) 

Game Two of the series goes at 1:05 ET on Saturday. Sean Reid-Foley (1-1, 3.97) goes up against Mickey Jannis (2-0, 1.59).

Dunedin Blue Jays vs Fort Meyers Miracle (Minnesota Twins)
8-4 W

The Dunedin Blue Jays doubled up the Fort Meyers Miracle for their fourth win in five games this week, thanks to another hot night at the plate. The team came into the game leading the league in nearly every offensive category.

That trend continued, led by Max Pentecost who had three hits, including his sixth homerun of the season. Chipping in with two hits each were Matt Dean, Danny Jansen and Derrick Loveless. Cavan Biggio also hit a homerun, the first professional homerun of his career. The lineup combined for 13 hits in the onslaught.

Conor Fisk started for the Blue Jays, and pitched a quality start in one of his best outings in the young season. He has looked good this season, specifically his K:BB numbers (21 K-4 BB). In this one, he gave up two earned runs in six innings of work.

MVBJ: Max Pentecost (3-5, HR, RBI) 

Another Canadian, Jordan Romano, is in line for the start tomorrow. He is 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA to start the season.

Lansing Lugnuts vs Bowling Green Hot Rods (Tampa Bay Rays)
8-5 W/11

Bo Bichette had himself another great game in his hot start to the season to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, but the news wasn’t all positive. The Toronto Blue Jays #1 prospect, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left the game in the third inning and was replaced by Bradley Jones. There’s no explanation as of yet why he was removed from the game.

Bichette paced the offence with a 3-for-6 day to raise his average to .394. He also stole a base and scored two runs. Yeltsin Gudino also had a big game, with a pair of hits, a homerun and three RBIs. But J.B. Woodman was the hero in the 11th inning, scoring a pair of runs with a single to give Lansing the lead. The Lugnuts went 5-for-13 with RISP.

Justin Maese started the game and struggled. He went seven innings and gave up five runs on 11 hits. He did strike out 10, which brings his total to 20 in 28 innings. 22-year-old Geno Encina was a rock out of the bullpen, throwing four scoreless innings to get his second win of the season. He gave up just one hit, putting the Lugnuts in a great position to score in the 11th and holding down the fort in the bottom half of the inning to finish things off. Encina has now pitched 17.1 innings this year without giving up an earned run. Since being assigned to Lansing, he still hasn’t given up an earned run in 20.2 total innings in the Midwest League.

MVL: Geno Encina (4.0 IP, W, 1 H, 3 BB, 2 K) 

On Saturday night, the series continues with Patrick Murphy on the mound.