Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Arrighetti and Stephan Debut for Buffalo, Perry and Stanifer Sizzle for New Hampshire

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (August 6-7)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles): 2-2
Season Record: 54-58

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox): 2-2
Season Record: 50-54

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners): 2-2
Season Record: 47-59

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs Lakeland Flying Tigers (Detroit Tigers): 2-2
Season Record: 49-54

FCL Blue Jays: Season Complete

DSL Blue Jays Blue
Week Record: 0-3
Season Record: 18-29

DSL Blue Jays Red
Week Record: 2-0
Season Record: 28-17

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 54-58
• Series vs Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles)

August 6: Thursday was a day filled with excitement in Buffalo for the Bisons game against Norfolk. Spencer Arrighetti took the mound in his first appearance with the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Although he was hoping to face his old team for the big league club, he had to settle for a rehab assignment to Triple-A. Arrighetti struck out one in his first inning of work, on a 93 mph fastball. To start the second inning, Arrighetti was wild, walking the first two batters, with the majority of his pitches not being remotely competitive. He would get a fly out and two ground outs to escape the jam, but most of his pitches were still nowhere near the zone. Arrighetti began the third with continued wildness but did get the first batter to pop up. Following the at-bat, Arrighetti was lifted when he reaggravated his foot injury. At the time, Buffalo had a 2-0 lead, thanks to Charles McAdoo's first-inning two-run home run. Heston Kjerstad tied the game up for Norfolk with a two-run home run of his own in the fourth. Rudy Martin Jr. gave the lead back to Buffalo in the seventh on a sacrifice bunt and throwing error. Later in the inning, McAdoo drove in another run with a single to center. In the eighth, Yohendrick Piñango scored on a passed ball, and Willie MacIver knocked in two with a line drive single to left. The bullpen kept Norfolk in check for the rest of the game, highlighted by Simeon Woods Richardson throwing four scoreless innings. Buffalo won 7-4, in a game marred by disappointment with Arrighetti leaving injured.

August 7: It was another exciting game for Blue Jays and Bisons fans on Friday. Newly acquired Josh Stephan was on the mound for Buffalo, facing off against a rehabbing Chris Bassitt. Bassitt had the Bisons' number from the start, and it didn't get much better as the game went on. At the end of the outing, Bassitt had thrown six scoreless innings against the Bisons, only surrendering three hits and walking two. On the flip side, Stephan matched him rather well, considering Stephan has yet to make his major league debut. Stephan threw seven innings, scattered seven hits, walked two, struck out five, and allowed just three runs (two earned). Down 3-0 in the eighth, Buffalo finally broke through and got a big-time, three-run blast from Charles McAdoo to tie the game up. The home run had an exit velocity of 107.1 and went 429 feet to center. With the game tied, it headed into extra innings, where Norfolk scored three in its half of the 10th, and Buffalo was blanked. The Bisons fell 6-3 in a very encouraging game for the future of the Blue Jays. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 50-54
• Series vs Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox)

August 6: Thursday saw New Hampshire take on Portland, and the Fisher Cats were fueled by the two-headed monster of Nolan Perry and Gage Stanifer. Perry went three innings, didn't allow a hit, didn't surrender a run, only gave up one walk, and struck out four. He was using mostly his fastball and curveball to get hitters out. Stanifer came in as the piggyback starter and was almost as equally unhittable. He went four innings, only gave up one hit, allowed one run to score, but he did issue five walks, which were countered by his five strikeouts. Stanifer just couldn't locate his fastball most of the day. His stuff was unhittable outside of the walks, though. Offensively, Alexis Hernandez started the first inning scoring with an RBI single. In the sixth inning, New Hampshire scored four on the back of a massive three-run home run from Dub Gleed. New Hampshire won this game 5-2. 

August 7: The Friday contest between New Hampshire and Portland started out as a back-and-forth game. Brooks Brannon launched a home run for Portland in the third inning, which was followed by Alexis Hernandez hitting an RBI single for New Hampshire in their half of the frame. Hedbert Perez also singled home a run in the inning. In the fifth inning, Aaron Parker increased New Hampshire's lead with a two-run home run. Things went south in the seventh inning when Portland scored six runs, the big hit coming on a Miguel Bleis three-run home run. New Hampshire lost this one 7-4. 

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 47-59
• Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners)

August 6: Peyton Williams almost won this game himself, as the Iowa Meat Truck hit a homer in the fourth inning to give the Canadians an early lead. Landen Maroudis has looked quite a bit better in his most recent starts, but gave up two homers, one to break the tie in the fourth inning and another to put the Canadians down two in the fifth inning. Over his last four starts, Maroudis has pitched to a 3.00 ERA with a 16.5 K-BB%. Carson Myers replaced Maroudis in the sixth and struck out five batters over two innings, but allowed another run to give the AquaSox a three-run cushion. Williams hit his ninth homer of the year in the ninth inning to bring it within two runs, and the Canadians were able to get runners on second and third with no outs after a Gable Mitchell double. Unfortunately, they could only muster up one more run, as Austin Smith could only get an RBI grounder to second, and they couldn’t complete the comeback, falling 4-3. 

August 7: Silvano Hechavarria had a much-needed bounce-back start, as he had his first quality start of the season, going six innings, allowing two runs, albeit on two homers given up. Austin Smith had himself a career night, as he not only had his first homer as a Canadian in the third inning to give Vancouver an early one-run lead, but he had a four-hit night, scoring two runs, and driving in two more. Hechavarria’s two homers given up lost the lead for the Canadians in the fifth inning, but in the seventh inning, the Canadians roared back to take the lead. After Peyton Williams was hit by a pitch, the Canadians hit six straight singles to score six runs, making it 7-2. They were able to bat around the order, with Williams coming back up and striking out in the same inning. Reece Fields relieved Hechavarria in the seventh inning and got the three-inning save, striking out five batters, but he did allow a two-run homer in the ninth. However, the Canadians still won this one pretty comfortably, for a 7-4 win. 

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 49-54
• Series vs Lakeland Flying Tigers (Detroit Tigers)

August 6: Postponed

August 7, Game 1: Karson Ligon hasn’t looked nearly as sharp since returning from injury, and he was unable to get out of the first inning, giving up two homers and five runs. Bradley Wilson didn’t fare much better after replacing him, as he gave up a triple to allow the inherited runner to score, then allowed two more runs the next inning. Giacomo Taschin couldn’t stop the bleeding as he gave up four more runs, putting the Flying Tigers up 11-0 heading into the seventh inning. Adrian Pinto was able to score a run after Juan Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to prevent a shutout, but it was a thrashing as they lost 11-1. 

August 7, Game 2: JoJo Parker took over this game, as Jays Centre's No. 1 prospect absolutely crushed the ball, with two doubles and a homer to give the Jays an early lead that they would not relinquish. His first was a 98.6 mph double to right to score the first run of the game, then in the second inning he hit his 13th homer of the season, 95.7 mph to left field, to make it 6-0. His last one of the day was a 105.8 mph scorching liner to right field. The biggest question for Parker now is when he’ll get the call to Vancouver. Carson Messina had his longest outing of the season, making it two straight starts where he hasn’t given up a single run. Reese Bassinger and Landon Waters both chipped in a scoreless inning apiece to complete the shutout for a great 6-0 win. 

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 38-20

Season Completed

DSL Blue Jays Blue

• Season Record: 18-29

August 6: BJB out-homered the DSL Rockies team on Thursday, but it wasn't enough for them to take home the win. Isay Veras launched his second home run of the season, with a blast to right field in the top of the third inning. The two-run shot extended an early BJB lead to 3-1. Fabian Gonzalez hit the second BJB home run of the game in the seventh inning, a solo rocket to center. While the offense had plenty of pop on the day, the pitching for BJB imploded in the fourth inning. The DSL Rockies scored ten runs, highlighted by a two-run blast by William Ferrufino. Another notable performance from the game was a two-double day by Michael Mesa. They just couldn't overcome the DSL Rockies' 10-run inning. BJB lost 14-5. 

August 7: Fabian Gonzalez followed up his homer on Thursday with a double and a run scored on Friday. Frelian Flores knocked in a run on his single to right in the fourth. Eiker Lothar followed that up with a two-run double to left, scoring Flores and Gonzalez. BJB just couldn't handle the baserunning in the game from the DSL Giants Orange team. BJB allowed them to score twice on double steals of second and home. Another time, they scored on a throwing error by the BJB catcher on a stolen base attempt of second, which allowed the runner from third to score. BJB put up another dud, losing this one 8-4.

DSL Blue Jays Red

• Season Record: 28-17

August 6: Alieski Torres continued to be one of the better looking pitchers in the DSL with his start on Thursday. He threw 5.1 scoreless innings, walked two, didn't give up a hit, and struck out two. He dropped his season ERA down to 0.89. Jose Melo pitched in relief and was just as good, throwing 3.2 scoreless innings himself, allowing just one hit, and striking out four. The game was a pitchers' duel throughout, with zeros on the scoreboard all the way until the 10th inning. In the extra frames, the Mets Orange team scored their ghost runner in the top half of the 10th. Then BJR had their turn. Luis Nunez knocked in a run with his single to right. With the bases loaded and the game on the line, Alex Linares stepped to the plate, but never had a chance to swing. He took a pitch off his body for the game-winning, walk-off hit by pitch. BJR won 2-1 in 10 innings. 

August 7: BJR walked 10 times in the game on Friday, led by Luis Nunez's four walks. They only had four hits in the game, all singles, including Aneudi Severino's RBI single in the first inning. BJR still managed to score despite the lack of hits, they scored twice in the second, thanks to two wild pitches with a runner on third. In the third inning, BJR executed a double steal of second and home by Luis Nunez and Darwin Nuñez. Then they scored three runs in the top of the seventh to pull away from the Mets Blue team. Two passed balls led to two runs, and the third run came across thanks to a wild pitch again. BJR won 8-6 on the backs of bad opposing pitching and receiving by the catcher. 

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