Blue Jays MiLB recap: Bisons and Fisher Cats roll

Jays Journal takes it’s daily look into the Toronto Blue Jays minor league system. On Saturday the offence and defence were on display for the Buffalo Bisons (AAA), and New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA).

AAA- Buffalo Bisons: 4-0 win over Charlotte Knights (Red Sox)

The Bisons improved their record to 30-23 and got another strong outing from T.J. House, who has put together an excellent campaign in Buffalo thus far. The left-hander went 6 innings, allowing just 5 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 5. His record improves to 5-4 and he lowered his ERA to 3.20.

Will Browning threw a scoreless 7th before Murphy Smith came on in the eighth and threw two hitless frames, closing out the afternoon for the Knights. MLB veteran, James Shields, started for the Knights and threw 4 innings, allowing 3 runs (1 earned) on just 3 hits.

The Bisons didn’t hit terribly well in this one either, managing just 5 hits and a walk themselves, but they cashed in 4 runs in the process, so they made it count. Ian Parmley had a pair of hits, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Dwight Smith Jr. each singled, and Shane Opitz doubled. That was it.

However, the combination of strong pitching and timely hitting were enough to overtake the Knights and guaranteeing a series victory for the Bisons. They’ll look to finish off the sweep on Sunday in a game that gets underway at 1:05pm EST.

MVB: T.J. House (6 IP,

AA- New Hampshire Fisher Cats: 11-0 drubbing of the Hartford Yard Goats

It was an offensive explosion for the Fisher Cats on Saturday as they broke out in a big way and snapped their scoreless inning streak in style. They had been held without a run for 22 innings prior to Saturday’s contest, but that’s a distant memory after this performance.

With an early lead, the Cats put this one away early in the fourth, scoring 7 runs in the frame and taking a 9-0 lead before Jack Wyncoop could escape the inning, which ended his start. In a rare feat, the Bisons actually had all 9 players reach base in the fourth, as they collected 8 hits from the 11 batters they sent to the dish.

The offence was lead by Danny Jansen, Tim Lopes, and Gunner Heidt, who each had 3 hits a piece, but the action was spread around as well, as every starter collected at least one hit, totalling 19 as a team. Harold Ramirez and Richard Urena each collected 2 RBI a piece as well, as they each had run scoring hits in that wild fourth inning.

Sean Reid-Foley had another strong outing, this time throwing 6 scoreless frames, striking out 8 Goats’ hitters, and finishing the outing without allowing a walk.  John Stiltson, Jose Fernandez, and Alonzo Gonzalez combined to throw the final 3 innings and allowing just 1 hit from the Goats.

The deciding affair of the three game set will get underway at 1:35 EST on Sunday, featuring Jon Harris on the hill for the Bisons against Parker French for the Goats.

MVFC: Sean Reid-Foley (6 IP, 8 K’s)

Single A- Dunedin Blue Jays: 4-2 loss to the Daytona Tortugas

The D-Jays opened a 4 game set in Daytona with the Tourugas on Saturday and lost by a score of 4-2. They received a decent start from Ryan Borucki who threw 5 innings and allowed just one earned run on 6 hits, and striking out 5. The bullpen also did an admirable job as well, but unfortunately the D-Jays weren’t able to generate much offence against the Tortugas’ pitching staff.

Vladimir Guttierez allowed just 2 earned runs before giving way to the bullpen, who managed to shut down the D-Jays from mounting any kind of come back. They managed just 5 hits as a team, with just one extra base hit, a double from Ryan Hissey.

The D-Jays have actually hit a skid lately, dropping 5 straight games, including the first 3 to start the month of June. Their overall record still sits at 29-27, but they’ll need to get back on track in a hurry if they want to remain above .500.

Their game gets underway at 5:35pm EST tomorrow night in Dayton.

MVDJ: Ryan Borucki

Single A- Lansing Lugnuts 7-3 loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps

The Lugnuts’ record dropped to 29-24 on Saturday after a loss at the hands of the West Michigan Whitecaps by a score of 7-3. It wasn’t all bad news though, as Bo Bichette collected 4 hits and raised his batting age to .390. He actually also factored in all 3 runs scored by the Lugnuts, scoring twice and knowing in another during his stellar day at the plate.

Unfortunately the rest of the team didn’t fare as well, and neither did Lugnuts’ starter Osman  Gutierrez allowed 6 earned runs in just 1.2 innings of work, obviously not the start he was hoping for. The Lugnuts bullpen reliever him and fared much better, but unfortunately the damage was done.

In addition to Bichette’s stellar day at the plate, fellow top prospect and teammate, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also picked up a pair of hits in the loss.

The Lugnuts have dropped the first two game of this set with the Whitecaps and will look to avoid the series sweep in their matinee at 1pm EST.

MVL: Bo Bichette (4-5, 2B, 3B, RBI)

Next: Blue Jays: The next generation is gonna be fun