Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Moon and Guerra Pitched Well, Harry Shined, and Sanchez Is Heating Up

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (May 16-May 18)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs Worcester Red Sox (Boston Red Sox): 4-2: 
Season Record: 23-22

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Reading Fighting Phils (Philadelphia Phillies): 3-4
Season Record: 22-15

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners): 3-3
Season Record: 16-23

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs Tampa Tarpons (New York Yankees): 2-4
Season Record: 15-24

FCL Blue Jays
Week Record: 4-1
Season Record: 11-1

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 23-22
• Series vs Worcester Red Sox

May 16: Buffalo got a little bit of a gift on Saturday, as it seemed the good karma they have built up by enduring an endless amount of postponed games the last two seasons was cashed in. Josh Fleming was on the mound and was excellent. Over five innings, he kept Worcester to only one extra-base hit and three singles, while only walking one. At the plate, Buffalo had the power swing going early in this one. In the second inning, Josh Rivera launched his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to left field. The blast had an exit velocity of 103.1 mph and went over the fence, landing 391 feet from home plate. Two batters later, Je'Von Ward smacked his second home run in as many games. His was nearly identical off of the bat, 103.9 mph, and it went 383 feet. After a 31-minute rain delay, the game was called after Worcester hit in the top of the fifth, giving Buffalo the 2-0 win and moving them to two games above .500. 

May 17: After a decent streak of games where the bats couldn't miss the ball, Buffalo went cold on Sunday and didn't get anything going at the plate. They were able to get three singles and four doubles, but nothing would come of it, as they were shut out in the game. Josh Kasevich had one of the hits and one of the walks, raising his batting average for the season to .293. Austin Voth pitched rather well, throwing five innings, only surrendering four baserunners (three hits and one walk). He did give up one run, a solo blast in the third to Nathan Hickey. Pat Gallagher came in for Voth to start the sixth inning, and things went south fast for Buffalo. Gallagher coughed up three runs on a single, triple, and a double to the three batters he faced, handing it off to Hayden Juenger. Juenger would not fare much better, giving up another run on an RBI single, before he loaded the bases up with a walk to Hickey. Braiden Ward would ground out and let Buffalo off the hook of a massive inning. With Buffalo down 4-0, they would go down in order the remainder of the game, 12 up and 12 down. The loss brought the Bisons back to the edge of .500 for the season. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 22-15
• Series vs Reading Fighting Phils (Philadelphia Phillies)

May 16: The Saturday tilt between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the Reading Fightin Phils was one to forget for New Hampshire. From the start of the game, things went south for the Fisher Cats. Starting pitcher Jackson Wentworth only went one inning and gave up an unearned run. After that the relievers were pile driven into submission. Reading ended the game with 22 hits, seven walks, and the Fisher Cats had three errors. That is 32 baserunners. On the other side, New Hampshire couldn't get on base, only managing four singles and one walk. New Hampshire lost this one 20-0. 

May 17, Game 1: In the first game of the Sunday doubleheader, Chris McElvain was on the mound for New Hampshire against Reading and had one of his best starts. He went six innings, only allowed two hits, didn't give up a run, and only walked two batters. He struck out four hitters. Conor Larkin came on for the seventh and pitched a clean inning with a strikeout to finish off the seven-inning shutout. The New Hampshire offense was not its usual dominating self, but they did manage five hits and two runs. Victor Arias had an RBI single in the third, and Eddie Micheletti Jr. launched his sixth home run of the year in the sixth inning. New Hampshire would win game one 2-0. 

Game 2: Game two of the doubleheader was just as lacking in the hitting department for both teams. New Hampshire managed just four hits, and only two hitters (Jay Harry and Nick Goodwin) collected those four hits. Goodwin had an RBI single and an RBI double, with Victor Arias adding an RBI groundout. It wasn't enough, as Reading managed five runs on five hits, and New Hampshire lost 5-3

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 16-23
• Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners)

May 16, Game 1: Landen Maroudis had his first blow-up start for the Canadians, as he gave up eight hits, a walk and six runs in a little over three innings of work. That raised his season ERA to 4.61 and earned him his first loss of the season. The offense tried to catch up, with Tucker Toman leading the charge with a three-RBI night, but the AquaSox got up to a 7-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning after Reece Wissinger replaced Maroudis and gave up a two-run double. An error from Peyton Williams made the lead even bigger in the sixth inning, and although the Canadians scored two more runs off of a bases-loaded walk from Williams and a sac fly from Dub Gleed, that was the closest it got, as they couldn’t hit Brock Moore, who took the win for Everett. 

Game 2: Gilberto Batista started for the Canadians in the second game of the doubleheader and gave up an RBI double in the first inning with two outs. Kendry Chirinos tied it up with an RBI double of his own, and it remained tied until the fourth inning, when Batista’s shaky command led to a bases-loaded walk to lose the lead for Vancouver. Kelena Sauer took over in the fifth inning for Vancouver and faced trouble himself, with a leadoff triple setting up the inning for failure. He allowed two runs in two innings, while giving up three hits and two walks, despite striking out four batters. Matt Scannell’s first homer of the season brought the lead to two, but Jonathan Todd gave up two more runs in the seventh, for another disappointing Vancouver loss.

May 17: The Canadians were able to turn it around on the last game of the series, as an Alexis Hernandez solo shot and a two-RBI Peyton Williams double made it an early 3-0 lead. Daniel Guerra’s newfound velocity has led him to be a breakout pitching prospect for the Jays, as he had his second double-digit strikeout game of the season. He allowed a single run in the third on a triple to Josh Caron but was able to limit damage other than that. Danny Thompson Jr. relieved Guerra in the fourth inning, and although he immediately gave up a solo shot, he also pitched well despite some shaky command, striking out four batters in 2.1 innings. The Canadians' offense also took those runs right back, as after Peyton Williams hit a triple, Carter Cunningham hit a two-run homer to bring the lead back to three. Another two-run homer, this time from Manuel Beltre, gave the Canadians their seventh run of the game and gave them insurance for a shaky Trace Baker appearance, who came in after Juanmi Vasquez pitched two scoreless innings, allowing the Canadians to win at least the last game of the series.

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 15-24
• Series vs Tampa Tarpons (New York Yankees)

May 16: The Dunedin Blue Jays got 12 hits on the night, but were outhit by the Tarpons in a near blowout. Eric Snow got it going for the Jays with an early RBI single to score Blaine Bullard, but starter Dylan Watts gave up the first run for the Tarpons in the first after two errors were committed in a row. Watts gave up four singles in the second inning to allow another two runs. The Jays were able to get to Henry Lalane again in the fifth inning with two RBI doubles from Snow and Juan Sanchez, to even up the game. Eduar Gonzalez replaced Watts in the fourth inning, and in the fifth inning loaded the bases, before walking in a run. Franly Urena was able to replace him and get out of the inning, however. A David Beckles double tied it up once again for the Jays, but Urena gave up four runs in the seventh inning, and Luis Victorino gave up two more runs, putting the Jays in a big hole that they couldn’t recover from. 

May 17: Jack Nedrow’s second professional appearance and first start was another scoreless one; this time, Nedrow had his first quality start and first win. Dariel Ramon was able to get on through a fielding error to the pitcher and stole second, and Jake Cook moved him over to third on a single. Blaine Bullard grounded into a force out, but Ramon was able to score. Bullard stole second base and after Parker struck out, Juan Sanchez just missed a homer off the top of the wall for a booming RBI double to give the Jays a two-run lead. The Tarpons could not touch Nedrow, who only gave up four hits and a walk all day, and after he was replaced by Edgar Gallegos, they still couldn’t get anything going off him either, as he went three innings with only one hit given up for his first save of the season. Aldo Gaxiola had the cherry on top with a two-run shot in the top of the ninth inning to end the series off with a bang. 

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 11-1

May 16: In the Saturday FCL matchup for the Blue Jays squad, Seojun Moon was on the mound to start against the FCL Yankees. Moon pitched well again, going two innings and allowing just an infield single, to go with three walks, and no runs. He struck out three batters. Miguel Pantoja came in after him and was equally as good. He threw three innings, allowing just one hit; he struck out six, didn't give up a run, but did surrender four walks. On the offensive side, Sam White drove in a run in the first, as did Brock Tibbitts. A couple of bases-loaded walks, a wild pitch, and a Kennew Blanco single put the Blue Jays team up six in the sixth. The Yankees got things going in the bottom of the seventh, putting up six runs to push the game into extra innings. In the seventh, Tim Piasentin doubled in a run, Owen Gregg tripled in three runs, and Angel Guzman had an RBI single. The Blue Jays won this one, 11-7.

May 18: Jake Bloss started this one for the FCL Blue Jays and pitched 2.1 clean innings, only allowing one hit and striking out three batters. Tim Piasentin drove in a run when the Yankees team committed an error in the second inning. A double steal for the Yankees tied the game in the third inning. Sam Shaw would quickly break the tie with a two-run blast to right field. In the sixth, five runs would score for the Blue Jays, this time on an Owen Gregg single, a Brock Tibbitts single, and a Pascual Archila bases-loaded walk. The Blue Jays would go on to win this one, 8-4. 

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