Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Baseball Is Back, With thea DSL and FCL Taking Center Stage

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (July 14-17)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets): 1-0
Season Record: 45-49

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals): 1-0
Season Record: 45-41

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs Tri-City Dust Devils (Los Angeles Angels): 1-0
Season Record: 38-50

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia Phillies): 0-1
Season Record: 41-46

FCL Blue Jays
Week Record: 3-0
Season Record: 37-17

DSL Blue Jays Blue
Week Record: 1-2
Season Record: 14-20

DSL Blue Jays Red
Week Record: 2-1
Season Record: 17-16

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 45-49
• Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets)

July 17: Bisons baseball is back, and they got back in a groove right away. They opened up a series against the Syracuse Mets on Friday and played a tight game all the way until the end. Buffalo got on the board first in the second inning. Eloy Jiménez singled to right field, moving Willie MacIver to third base, but he scored on the play when the Syracuse right fielder threw the ball away trying to throw him out. Ismael Munguia then sent a ball over the right field wall for a two-run home run. In the bottom of the third inning, Ronny Mauricio got a hold of a Grant Rogers splitter for a two-run home run. Buffalo extended their lead in the fourth, with RBI singles from Jay Harry and Yohendrick Piñango. Rogers then gave up another home run to the Mets in the sixth. Things stood pat at 5-4 until MJ Melendez homered for the Mets to tie the game up in the eighth. Davis Schneider would come up big though, smoking a two-run blast to left field in the top of the ninth and giving Buffalo the win, 7-5. Schneider now has hits in 11 of his 13 games since being sent down to Buffalo, including three multi-hit games. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 45-41
• Series vs Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals)

July 17: Gage Stanifer was on the mound for New Hampshire in their first game after the break on Friday night. They were taking on the Harrisburg Senators. Stanifer was good on the night, minus one or two batters where the command wasn't there. He went 4.1 innings, only allowed three hits, gave up just one run in the fifth inning, walked three, and struck out six. He generated 15 whiffs on the night over 84 pitches. New Hampshire grabbed the early lead in this one in the first inning. Hedbert Perez and Dub Gleed each had RBI singles, then in the seventh and eighth innings, Jorge Burgos drove in three runs. That was enough, as New Hampshire went on to win this one 5-2 in a sloppy game that saw seven errors combined between the teams. 

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 38-50
• Series vs Tri-City Dust Devils (Los Angeles Angels)

July 17: Holden Wilkerson had the best start of his professional career, going 5.2 no-hit innings against the Dust Devils, with the only base runner being a walk in the fifth inning. He struck out seven batters for his second straight great start in a row. The Dust Devils starter Jose Atencio also pitched well, with a quality start, but gave up a couple of runs. Peyton Williams started the scoring in the second with a homer to right-center. Edward Duran added an extra run with a sac fly in the fourth inning to make it two to nothing. Ryan Sprock made his Blue Jays organization debut with a hit and two walks, starting at third in this game as well. Unfortunately for Wilkerson, he was taken out in the sixth, but Carson Myers kept it scoreless over two innings, despite losing the no-hitter immediately after replacing Wilkerson. The Canadians got some insurance runs in the ninth, with Alex Stone and Jake Casey both driving in runs with singles to make it five to nothing. Jonathan Todd got the save despite giving up a run in the ninth and losing the shutout, but it was an impressive game for the Canadians after the All-Star break. 

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 41-46
• Series vs Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia Phillies)

July 17: The runs just kept on coming as the Threshers and the Blue Jays were just throwing haymakers back and forth against each other. The pitching was poor all around, as every pitcher who came into the game gave up at least one run. The Threshers had a better outing from their starter, as Zuher Yousuf went five innings, giving up three runs, whereas Giacomo Taschin was unable to get out the second inning, giving up four runs. It wasn’t much better as Bradley Wilson replaced him, giving up two runs over three innings, and the Jays were down 6-3 early on. The sixth inning was where it got interesting, as after Juan Sanchez was hit by a pitch to load the bases, an error from shortstop Juan Villavicencio allowed all three base runners to score, tying it up, before Enmanuel Bonilla took the lead with a sac fly. Villavicencio made up for the error, tying it up on a homer against Josbel Garcia. In the eighth JoJo Parker hit a sac fly to take the lead, but a throwing error once again tied it up from pitcher Lluveres Severino, who replaced Garcia. It looked like the Jays clinched the game in the eighth inning, with Will Cresswell and Jake Cook coming up with clutch RBI singles to make it a two-run game, but Severino gave those right back up, which sent the game to extras. The Treshers were able to finally pull away, as they dropped a six-spot on Diego Dominguez in the 10th, and the Jays were unable to answer with just one run scored on an error in the bottom of that inning, in a crazy loss. 

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 31-17

July 14: The Tuesday game between the FCL Blue Jays and the FCL Yankees was a wild one, at least for the pitchers. The Yankees walked nine times and the Blue Jays walked 11, for 20 combined walks between the teams. There were also 16 hits and 21 runs. One pitcher that didn't seem to have an issue was Seojun Moon. He pitched four innings and gave up four hits and three walks, but was able to limit the damage with five strikeouts, while only allowing two runs. The Yankees got home runs from George Lombard Jr. and Wilberson De Pena, but it wasn't enough. The Blue Jays scored early and often in this one. Max Viera hit a three-run home run in the second inning, and in the sixth, the Blue Jays scored five. Angel Guzman singled in a run, followed by Pascual Archila bringing in two. Later, Viera would triple in a run and double in a run, as he fell a single short of the cycle. The Blue Jays would win big on the day, winning 13-8. 

July 16: Postponed

July 17, Game 1: The first game Friday was the continuation of a suspended game from July 10 between the FCL Blue Jays and the FCL Phillies. In the game before the suspension, Angel Rivero went four innings, allowing five hits, and didn't give up a run. When the game picked up on Friday, Daniel Guerra was pitching on a rehab appearance. He allowed a run in his first inning on a walk and a single, then a double steal scored the run. In the second, he struck out all three batters, and then finished his day getting the first two hitters of his third inning. He went 2.2 IP, gave up one hit, one run, one walk, and struck out four. Andres Arias had driven in three runs with a double before the suspension, and Renyel Campos tripled in a run. After the game resumed on Friday, both teams combined for just three hits and the lone run. The Blue Jays won this one 4-1. 

July 17 Game 2: The second game on Friday between the FCL Blue Jays and the FCL Phillies was much more exciting. Angel Rivero pitched and didn't allow a hit, walked one, hit two batters, and struck out five. Connor O'Halloran came on for a rehab appearance and only allowed a single hit, while also striking out five. Offensively, Pascual Archila reached base four times without a hit, three walks and a hit-by-pitch. Alexis Hernandez, who was rehabbing, had a two-run single and was followed by Andres Arias hitting a three-run double. An RBI single and a bases-loaded walk would put the Blue Jays up 7-0. They would add two more runs, and the Blue Jays would win the second game, 9-2. 

DSL Blue Jays Blue

• Season Record: 13-16

July 14: While the rest of baseball was off on Tuesday, baseball was still being played down on the island. BJB faced off against the Giants Black team in a rare nine-inning game. BJB pitching was terrible, and it started with Tomoya Kinjo and his bad command getting him into trouble. He walked three, gave up five hits, four runs, and only pitched 1.2 innings. It was a theme that would continue for the other pitchers BJB sent to the mound out of the pen. In total, BJB pitchers walked 14, gave up nine hits, and it all led to 11 runs. It was the complete opposite for BJB hitters. They only managed to get three base knocks, but did walk nine times. They just couldn't get runs across home plate, just three for the game. A wild pitch scored Sebastian Casanova in the first, Cristopher Polanco singled home Juarlin Soto in the fourth, and Fabian Gonzalez scored on Juan Caricote's groundout in the sixth. BJB lost big 11-3.

July 16: It was another light-hitting day down on the island for BJB; they only managed to get two hits in the game and just two runs. The first run came in the bottom of the sixth, Sebastian Casanova tripled and then scored on a throwing error by the second baseman. With the game tied at one in the bottom of the seventh, Randy Soto and Isay Veras walked to open the inning. Eiker Lothar came to the plate and then singled to left field, bringing home the walk-off winning run. BJB won 2-1 in a game that featured just five combined hits. 

July 17: BJB continued a recent streak of light hitting games, only getting five hits on Friday. Sebastian Casanova led the way for BJB on the hitting side. He collected two of the five hits on the way to a 2-for-3 day. Michael Mesa had an RBI double in the top of the third inning, scoring Cristopher Polanco (who walked) and Casanova (who singled). Down 5-2, BJB made an attempt at a comeback in the top of the seventh inning. Juarlin Soto singled, Luis Felipe walked, then Casanova singled in Soto to cut the deficit to two. Unfortunately for BJB, Juan Caricote struck out and Mesa grounded out to end the game. BJB lost 5-3. 

DSL Blue Jays Red

• Season Record: 15-13

July 14: It was a crazy game for BJR on Tuesday. The offense went wild, to say the least: 15 hits, 10 walks, and 14 runs. Darwin Núñez, Samuel Orellana, Ayberson Ortega, and Frelian Flores each had two hits. Alex Linares would top them, though. He ended the game with three hits. Some of the scoring highlights were Gabriel Porras' RBI triple to center in the fifth, Linares’ RBI single to center in the sixth, and Aneudi Severino's RBI double also to center in the seventh. Down 9-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Linares had his biggest hit of the game, a two-RBI double to left field that tied the game up. After exchanging runs in the 10th, Elian Reyes came up to the plate in the bottom of the eleventh with the bases loaded and the game all square at 10. With one swing, he ended the ball game in grand style: He smacked a walk-off grand slam to right, his only hit on the day. BJR won 14-10 in 11 innings. 

July 16: BJR was involved in another walk-off win on Thursday, but it would unfortunately not be them with the final at-bat. Aneudi Severino started the scoring in the top of the third inning, blasting his fifth home run of the season, a three-run shot to left. He has rather quickly become a must-watch name in the DSL; he has shown the power, but his batting average needs more work for sure, sitting below .225. After BJR scored a run on a wild pitch in the fifth, Darwin Núñez launched his second home run of the season in the sixth, a solo shot to left. Severino added an RBI single in the seventh to put BJR up 6-2. Their bullpen would waste it away from there, though. The Mariners DSL team scored three in the bottom of the seventh and then, down one run in the bottom of the ninth, walked it off with a two-RBI double. BJR lost another fun one, 7-6. 

July 17: BJR had more walks than hits on Friday, but it was enough to take home the win. They ended the day with 10 walks to five hits and, in the end, didn't score on any of the base knocks. They scored three runs on bases-loaded walks, a run on a wild pitch, and a run on a groundout. Alex Linares led the scoring charge; he didn't have a hit in the game, but walked three times and scored two of BJR's runs. Aneudi Severino tallied two more hits on the season, while the pitching was excellent in this game. Abrahan Diaz threw three scoreless innings and struck out five batters. Carlos Olivo came on in relief of Diaz and upped him. He also threw three scoreless innings but struck out six and walked just one. BJR won the game 5-0.

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