Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Stanifer, King, and Barriera Took the Mound, and Buffalo Played Another Doubleheader

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (April 30-May 1)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (New York Yankees): 1-3
Season Record: 14-17

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs. Binghamton Rumble Ponies (New York Mets): 4-1
Season Record: 14-9

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs. Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks): 1-3
Season Record: 10-15

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs. Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami Marlins): 1-3
Season Record: 10-15

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 14-17
• Series Opponent: Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (New York Yankees)

April 30: Buffalo took on a tough challenge Thursday, having to face one of the New York Yankees’ top pitching prospects, Carlos Lagrange. After falling down a run in the first, the Bisons jumped on Lagrange in the third and fourth innings, with an RBI double from Carlos Mendoza and an RBI single from Josh Rivera. Austin Voth would exit the game in the fourth inning after a suboptimal performance, only pitching 3.2 innings, giving up seven hits, and surrendering two runs. With the bullpen into the game, the Bisons allowed runs to trickle across home plate. Brendon Little gave up one run in the seventh inning from an RBI single. He had one of his worst outings since being demoted from the major league team. He was touched up for a hit and walked two. Tanner Andrews then replaced Little and got tagged for a solo home run to right field. Down two runs and headed into the ninth inning, Buffalo got a rally going. Rivera doubled home Willie MacIver, and then William Simoneit hit a ball to center that was misplayed, allowing Rivera to score. The Bisons almost took the lead on the play as well, but Simoneit was thrown out at home going for the little league home run, after the error on Spencer Jones. In the bottom of the 10th, Chase Lee couldn't keep the game going, as Jonathan Ornelas walked it off and gave the RailRiders a 5-4 win.

May 1, Game 1: It was another doubleheader for Buffalo on Friday afternoon. Chad Dallas took the mound for the Bisons and had his longest outing of the season. He pitched 4.2 innings, only giving up five hits and two runs. He didn't walk anyone and struck out two. He used his four-seam fastball and sinker (93-94 mph) a lot more this game than in past starts, giving the appearance that he is getting more comfortable after missing last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. The bats couldn't take advantage of Dallas keeping the Bisons in the game, though. They would only get three baserunners all game and had no chance to take back the lead from the RailRiders, falling 2-0 in the doubleheader-shortened game. 

May 1, Game 2: In the second game of the doubleheader, Grant Rogers was on the mound for the Bisons and actually outperformed game one starter, Chad Dallas. Rogers gave up a lot of hits (seven) and walked one, but was able to pitch around the traffic. He would only surrender three runs (two earned) over his five innings. Unlike in game one, the bats were dialed in for this game. Ismael Munguia, who was called up to Triple-A Buffalo on Friday, had himself a nice day at the plate, going 2-4 with a run scored. The Bisons broke out on top in the first innings with a massive five runs to open the game, highlighted by Josh Rivera's three-run, bases-clearing triple. William Simoneit added two runs, with his first home run of the season at Triple A. Yariel Rodríguez pitched a flawless seventh, getting a one, two, three inning and earning the save, as Buffalo won 8-3. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 14-9
• Series vs. Binghamton Rumble Ponies (New York Mets)

April 30: In the Thursday game between New Hampshire and Binghamton, Adrian Pinto put the Fisher Cats up one from the start with a leadoff home run. Binghamton tied it back up in the fourth inning off a sacrifice fly against New Hampshire starting pitcher Gage Stanifer. Stanifer did not have his fastball command at all in this one, and things went south in the fifth inning. Stanifer managed to get through four pretty easily despite the fastball, but in the fifth, he walked two and gave up an RBI single before leaving. Two more runs would be charged to Stanifer, and his final line was four innings, four hits, two earned runs, six walks, and six strikeouts – some good mixed in with his bad fastball command on the day. Eddie Micheletti Jr. added an RBI single and Pinto an RBI groundout, but it wasn't enough as New Hampshire lost this one 6-3.

May 1: The Friday night game started off with another huge inning from the Fisher Cats. Jace Bohrofen drove in a run with a single, Sean Keys doubled him home, Jay Harry and Nick Goodwin added RBI doubles, and Jorge Burgos finished the run-scoring outburst with an RBI single. Six runs had crossed the plate in the bottom of the first for New Hampshire. In the seventh inning, New Hampshire piled on again, this time with Aaron Parker and Jackson Hornung launching solo home runs. Alex Amalfi got the three-inning save, and New Hampshire won an easy one, this time 11-4. 

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 10-15
• Series vs. Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks)

April 30: The sloppy play continues to rear its ugly head for the Canadians, as despite excellent pitching performances from Johnny King and Holden Wilkerson, who both pitched four strong innings, they ended up losing in extra innings once again. With two outs left in the top of the eighth, Wilkerson induced a hard hit grounder to Dub Gleed, who was unable to field it, leading to two runs scoring for the Hops. In the bottom of that inning, Tucker Toman walked, then advanced to third on a passed ball, before Alexis Hernandez walked, leading to runners on the corners with no outs. Toman made the first out at home plate on a J.R. Freethy grounder to the pitcher, but Jacob Sharp got the first run for Vancouver on a sac fly, and Freethy was able to get to third. Matt Scannell walked, and with Manuel Beltre at the dish, Scannell got hung up between the bases, allowing Freethy to score in the distraction. This brought the game to extra innings, and Jonathan Todd was able to get two outs but ended up loading the bases before throwing a wild pitch, allowing two runners to score with another error from Sharp this time. The Canadians couldn’t capitalize on their own ghost runner in the 10th, leading to a 4-2 loss.

May 1: The Canadians once again took it to extras. This time, they took an early deficit, as Austin Cates pitched well but allowed two homers, which gave the Hops a three-run lead. The Canadians cut the lead to one as Hayden Gilliland crushed his first homer of the season in the fifth inning to score Beltre and himself. Gilly once again took to the plate in the bottom of the seventh and once again launched a ball over the fence, tying the game up in the seventh. The score remained unchanged once again, with Kelena Sauer and Carson Pierce pitching four and a half shutout frames, leading to Matt Scannell leading it off in the bottom of the 10th inning, where he walked it off with a double in the gap, finally breaking the Canadians’ losing streak.

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 10-15
• Series vs. Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami Marlins)

April 30: Dariel Ramon led the charge offensively for the Blue Jays, as the diminutive hitter hit his third home run of the season already, scoring three runs and putting the Jays up early. Blaine Bullard continued to impress with an RBI single the same inning, giving the Jays a 4-0 lead. Dayne Pengelly didn’t allow a run despite four walks, and Yondrei Rojas looked good in his first rehab appearance. Things fell apart in the eighth inning as the Hammerheads got on the board with a two-run double against Lluveres Severino, and a disastrous ninth inning from 14th rounder Noah Palmese led to five runs scoring for the Hammerheads, losing the lead for good. With the bases loaded in the ninth, the Jays had a chance to come back, but Victor Arias grounded into a fielder’s choice double play, with Cresswell’s aggressive baserunning to home ending the game as he was hung up between third and home. 

May 1: The Jays got to an early lead after loading the bases in the first, and Aldo Gaxiola knocked in two runs with a single. However, Brandon Barriera did not have it in this game’s start, as he didn’t get out of the second inning, walking three batters, allowing four runs and not striking out anyone. The 'pen didn’t fare much better, as they gave up a total of 10 runs in an absolute rout of the Dunedin Blue Jays. The Jays only struck out four batters on the night, and gave up fourteen runs in total, and although they got a four-run scoring outburst in the bottom of the eighth, they were still down 11-6, before the Hammerheads got a three-run homer in the top of the ninth for extra insurance. 

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