Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Buffalo's Bullpen Is Jekyll and Hyde

[Brian Labude]

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (May 21-May 22)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets): 1-3
Season Record: 24-25

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies): 1-3
Season Record: 23-18

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs Spokane (Colorado Rockies): 2-2
Season Record: 18-25

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (Minnesota Twins): 2-2
Season Record: 17-26

FCL Blue Jays
Week Record: 1-2
Season Record: 12-3

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 24-25
• Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets)

May 21: Thursday's games against the Syracuse Mets really came down to whose bullpen flipped the worst. Buffalo was patient at the plate, walking 10 times in the game, and leading the way was Josh Kasevich. He would walk twice, have two singles, and score three times in the game. Charles McAdoo was also one of the big bats at the plate, knocking in three runs for the game. In the first inning, he started off his night with an RBI single, scoring RJ Schreck, who reached with a double. McAdoo got the lead back in the third inning, when he doubled home Kasevich and Schreck. Jonatan Clase extended the Buffalo lead to 4-2 in the fifth inning, with a big home run on a middle-middle fastball. With the game tied at four in the sixth inning, Brendon Little replaced CJ Van Eyk, as a runner was on first base. Little walked the first two batters he faced before hitting the third, allowing a run to cross home plate. After a strikeout, Ryan Clifford got a hold of a Little sinker and roped it for a bases-clearing double. Following another walk, Little was yanked with Buffalo in a huge hole. Pat Gallagher was almost as bad as Little, giving up three runs himself, in the bottom of the eighth. The Bisons would mount a little comeback, scoring four between the eighth and ninth innings, but the hole their bullpen dug was far too deep to climb out of, and Buffalo fell 12-8.

May 22: Friday night's game was a much better display of pitching for Buffalo. Josh Fleming gave up a lot of hits (seven), but managed to work around them for the most part and make it into the fifth inning before being pulled. He would give up just two runs, both on sacrifice flies in the second and third innings. The runs would tie up the game, as Buffalo scored two in the top of the first, on a two-RBI double from Willie MacIver. The bullpen was magnificent in this one, combining to get 4.2 one-hit innings from Devereaux Harrison, Michael Plassmeyer, and Tanner Andrews. The performance was just enough to allow Buffalo to take the lead late in the game. In the eighth, Charles McAdoo launched his eighth home run of the season, a solo shot to left center. They added another run in the top of the ninth, on an RBI groundout by Josh Kasevich. Buffalo took a close game, 4-2, to begin their season record to 24-25. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 23-18
• Series vs Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies) 

May 21: In the Thursday game between New Hampshire and Hartford, Gage Stanifer took the mound for the Fisher Cats and fired off his fourth start of zero or one earned runs in his last five games. He gave up three runs, though, and New Hampshire was having trouble with the bats. Stanifer went 4.2 innings, gave up three hits, only walked one, and struck out four. The first two runs scored on a home run by Bryant Betancourt, after an Arjun Nimmala errant throw on a routine ground ball extended the inning. It was the only bad pitch from Stanifer on the night. His lone walk should have been a strikeout as well, but a bad ball call ended Stanifer's night, and after he left, the first batter doubled in the run. Overall, Stanifer didn't have his best stuff, but his split/change was a key in this game and has been improving immensely. Offensively for New Hampshire, Jay Harry homered in the second inning, and Jackson Hornung did so in the eighth. Both weren't enough, though, as New Hampshire lost this one 6-2. 

May 22: Friday night was another rough night for New Hampshire as the bats seemed to have been slowing down recently. A Jorge Burgos home run in the third inning was the whole offense in the game for the Fisher Cats. Sean Keys got on base four times, with two hits and two walks, but the team only managed six hits and the lone run. Roc Riggio had the big hit for Hartford, a home run in the sixth inning. The Yard Goats would get to New Hampshire for eight runs over the third, fifth, and sixth innings. The Fisher Cats lost this one as well, this time 8-1.

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 18-25
• Series vs Spokane (Colorado Rockies)

May 21: Landen Maroudis seems to have been figured out, as although the defense didn’t help him with a few errors, he gave up three homers on the night, with two coming in the third inning before being taken out after taking a comebacker. The Canadians were able to load the bases up the next inning, but all they could come up with was a bases-loaded walk for Brennan Orf. Gilberto Batista was the replacement for Maroudis and was solid, although he gave up another three runs in the fifth inning to make it 9-1 for Spokane. The Canadians showed some signs of life with a three-run homer from Jacob Sharp in the seventh inning, but they couldn’t surmount such a large lead, leading to another loss. 

May 22: The Canadians’ offense had an explosion, as the team combined for 15 runs on seven hits and 10 walks. Daniel Guerra was also excellent starting for Vancouver, going five shutout innings with six strikeouts. Juanmi Vasquez matched the strikeout total in just three one-hit innings, and then Trace Baker also brought the punchies with three of them himself. On the offensive end, there were huge games from Alexis Hernandez, who hit his sixth homer of the season with a grand slam to break the game open in the fifth inning. Dub Gleed and Maddox Latta both also hit homers on multi-hit nights, each being a three-run shot. The Canadians just ran away with this one thanks to that power surge on the night. 

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 17-26
• Series vs Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (Minnesota Twins)

May 21, Game 1: The Dunedin Blue Jays just couldn’t close this game out. They went down early in the first inning as Silvano Hechavarria gave up a two-run shot in the first inning, adding on to his early-season woes, and then he gave up another two runs in the second inning to put the Jays behind. Blaine Bullard and Nathan Lukes cut the lead to two with two RBI-hits in the second inning, and in the fifth inning, the Jays were able to take the lead with a Lukes homer, a hard RBI single from Juan Sanchez, and then David Beckles had himself a two RBI double to make it six to four for the Jays. Newly signed Bradley Wilson could not hold the lead, however, as he gave up a two-run homer in the seventh inning to force the game to go to extras. Wilson struggled even more in extras, as the Mighty Mussels scored four runs in the eighth. Beckles had another big extra-base hit in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run homer, but the Jays could not score another run in a close loss.

May 21, Game 2: It was another nailbiter in the second game of the doubleheader. Troy Guthrie and Matthew Dalquist both went five innings with four strikeouts, but Guthrie gave up two earned runs compared to Dalquist’s single earned run given up. Austin Smith then gave up a homer in the sixth inning, giving the Mighty Mussels a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Jays were able to get within one after a wild pitch scored Jake Cook, but they were still down heading into the final inning of the game. Dariel Ramon hit a single to put the tying run on base, and Raimundo De Los Santos drove him in on an RBI triple to even it up. Cook was on deck and drove in De Los Santos for a walk-off victory in another close one. 

May 22: Walk-off magic happened again, this time with the other speedy outfielder for the Dunedin Blue Jays. Karson Ligon returned from the 7-day IL, sitting 95 mph and striking out five batters. The Jays scored the first four runs of the game unanswered, and the Mighty Mussels were only able to get on the board in the seventh inning against Dylan Watts, who went four innings with three strikeouts. Josbel Garcia allowed a couple of base runners in the eighth inning after Watts was taken out, and gave up a three-run homer to Luis Fragoza, making it a one-run game. An error led to an unearned run scoring in the bottom of the ninth, and the Jays yet again headed into extra innings. 

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 12-3

May 21: The FCL Blue Jays had their hitting shoes on for the Thursday game. They would pour in 12 hits, four walks, and 12 runs. They were doing damage with those hits as well, with the team hitting three home runs. Jean Joseph homered in the second, Sam White in the fifth, and Brock Tibbitts in the eighth inning. All of the starters had at least one hit, and Angel Guzman led the way with three of them. The FCL Blue Jays won this one 12-5. 

May 22: It was the opposite of the Thursday game for the FCL Blue Jays on Friday. They had seven hits, with two each from Angel Guzman, Franklin Rojas, and Andres Arias. Owen Gregg added a single as well, but the six singles and double from Rojas weren't good enough to score a run. The FCL Tigers scored two in the third inning and didn't look back in this one. They would add three more in the sixth inning, as the FCL Blue Jays lost easily, 5-0. 

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