Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Vancouver Goes For The Sweep In High-A Championship, While Buffalo And New Hampshire Struggle

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (September 10-11)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox): 1-3
Season Record: 66-74

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Harrisburg Senators (Washington Senators): 1-2
Season Record: 59-74

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Championship Series vs Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants): 3-0
Season Record: 64-66

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays: Season Complete

FCL Blue Jays: Season Complete

DSL Blue Jays Blue: Season Complete

DSL Blue Jays Red: Season Complete

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 66-74
• Series vs Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox)

September 10: Thursday provided an opportunity for Buffalo to get back on track against the Charlotte Knights. The bats for the Bisons came ready to rock and roll; they jumped out to an early lead and just kept on hitting. Lenyn Sosa smoked a 107 mph, 432-foot solo home run in the top of the third inning, which was followed by a Daz Cameron RBI double. With the game tied at two in the sixth, Buffalo got hot and just kept rolling. Yohendrick Piñango hit a solo home run to start the scoring for the frame, Sosa knocked in Jay Harry on a double to left field, CJ Stubbs singled in Josh Kasevich, and Rhylan Thomas’ single brought home Sosa. Buffalo would keep things going in the seventh, as Stubbs had an RBI single, Rudy Martin Jr. lined a two-RBI triple to right, and Thomas had another RBI single. Harry would cap off the Buffalo scoring for the game with an RBI single in the eighth. In all, Buffalo tallied 17 hits, led by Thomas’ four base knocks, while Piñango and Sosa also added three hits each. Gage Stanifer and Daniel Guerra both pitched out of the bullpen, with mixed results. Stanifer threw two innings, struck out three, and gave up just one run. Guerra made it through the seventh without giving up a run and walked just one. It was the eighth that gave Guerra trouble; he walked the first two batters before striking out Jake Cave, then walked Tim Elko to load the bases. Brendan Cellucci came in to relieve Guerra once the bases were loaded, but walked in a run and allowed another to score on a groundout. Guerra didn't give up a hit, but was ultimately charged with two runs. Having a big lead, Buffalo was able to absorb those runs and take the easy 11-4 win.

September 11: Friday was September 11 and brought with it a national day of remembrance, as Buffalo and Charlotte faced off against each other on the baseball diamond. Charlotte would jump out to the early lead in this game. Joey Wiemer got a hold of a fastball from CJ Van Eyk and deposited it over the left field wall for a two-run home run. Van Eyk was on point this game outside of the one pitch to Wiemer. He threw six innings, giving up just the two runs, didn't walk anyone, and struck out four. Sam Gardner came on in relief of Van Eyk and was nearly perfect for two innings, allowing just one walk while striking out two. With the Knights held in check, it was up to the bats to get the lead back for the Bisons. Unlike Thursday's game, hits were scarce to come by, with Buffalo only collecting five of them for the game. In the sixth inning, the Bisons finally got on the scoreboard, thanks to Davis Schneider's solo home run, a 103.9 mph 418-foot blast. Unfortunately for Buffalo, it was all of the scoring they would get in the game, as they lost 2-1 in a pitcher-heavy duel. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 59-74
• Series vs Harrisburg Senators (Washington Senators)

September 10: It was a Thursday to forget for New Hampshire when they faced off against Harrisburg. In the fourth inning, Harrisburg took the lead with an RBI single from Caleb Farmer, aided by an error on Aaron Parker. Later in the inning, Farmer would score when Eli Willits reached on an error from Dub Gleed. In the fifth and sixth innings, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Kevin Pichardo added home runs for Harrisburg, bringing the lead to five. Harrisburg would add three more runs, as New Hampshire had a rough day. The Fisher Cats only managed five hits, zero runs, and had four total errors. New Hampshire lost this one 8-0. 

September 11: The Friday Night game was almost a carbon copy of the Thursday game, except the pitching was the star attraction for New Hampshire in their game against Harrisburg. Nolan Perry was on the mound and had probably his best Double-A start. He went 4 innings, didn't give up a run, only allowed one hit, just walked one batter, and struck out six. Mason Olson and Devereaux Harrison came in behind Perry and matched his success. Olson went three innings of no-run pitching, while giving up just one hit and one walk, and striking out three. Harrison did almost the same as well, allowing just one hit and one walk, with zero runs. He did strike out five. In the tenth inning, Harrisburg scored one in their half of the inning, which set up the Fisher Cats in the bottom of the frame. Carter Cunningham was the first batter of the inning, and he got a hold of a pitch and launched it deep into the night for his tenth home run at Double-A and a walk-off home run. New Hampshire won this one 2-1. 

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 64-66
• Championship Series vs Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants)

September 11: After winning the first two games in Nat Bailey Stadium, the Canadians traveled to PK Park to try to clinch the NWLCS. Landen Maroudis faced off against Hunter Dryden in the starting pitching matchup. Austin Smith once again had a big homer in this series, striking first in the second inning, crushing a homer into right field. Maroudis struggled in his last two starts in the regular season, but pitched a solid game to keep the Canadians close, going 5.2 innings, although he allowed three runs, including two runs in the third inning to allow the Emeralds to take the lead. The Canadians were able to take the lead back in the fourth inning, as Dameury Pena tied it up with an RBI double. With runners on second and third, Jaxson West hit a fly ball to center field to score Pena, but then Maddox Latta gave up the out at third base to end the inning. Maroudis gave up the third run of the night in the fourth inning, tying the game up at three apiece.

The game stayed tied into the seventh inning, and the Canadians were threatening, as West hit a single with one out to put runners on the corners for JoJo Parker, but he grounded out into a double play, which ended the inning. Carson Myers came out for his second inning after finishing the sixth for Maroudis, but things went awry, as he walked the first two batters, then allowed a two-run double to Jhonny Level. Bradley Wilson replaced Myers, but also faced traffic, allowing a walk and a stolen base, which allowed Charlie Muniz to make it a four-run ballgame with a two-RBI single.

Down to their final six outs in the eighth, Austin Smith came up big yet again with his 6th RBI of the series, hitting a single to reduce the lead by one. Gilberto Batista pitched a scoreless inning to keep the lead to three, and the Canadians led off the ninth with a single from Gable Mitchell. The Emeralds lost focus, as Level threw the ball away to allow West to reach. Parker struck out with runners on the corners, but a wild pitch from reliever Liam Simon allowed Mitchell to score and West to move up to second. Ryan Sprock struck out to make it one more out for the Emeralds to take their first win of the series, but Richmond Hill’s very own David Calabrese, who was released by the Angels earlier this season, came up ginormous with a clutch two-run homer to tie the game up in the ninth. Jack Eshleman continued the heroics for the Canadians, as he replaced Batista in the ninth inning and pitched a scoreless inning to send it to extras. The Canadians moved the ghost runner in to score on a fly out and a ground out, but Eshleman gave up the run back as the Emeralds were able to move their ghost runner over to third on a sac bunt, and a soft bunt single allowed that run to score.

The game continued, and Eshleman and Nate Nabholz traded scoreless innings to bring the game to a 12th inning. Ryan Sprock clutched up in the 12th as he hit a single to score Parker as the ghost runner, and Eshleman once again came out in the bottom of the 12th. Despite the Emeralds laying down a good sac bunt again, Eshleman struck out the last two batters, clinching the championship for the Canadians in a dominant second half in a 3-0 sweep for their sixth Northwest League title.

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 62-66

Season Completed

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 38-20

Season Completed

DSL Blue Jays Blue

• Season Record: 20-35

Season Completed

DSL Blue Jays Red

• Season Record: 33-18
• Playoffs: 2-1

Season Completed

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