Bronx Cheers: Amaury Sanit didn’t even get an out as he took the loss in the bottom of the tenth. Juan Miranda and Brandon Laird, two of Scranton’s biggest players this year, both went 0-4.
Curtain Calls: Justin Christian was the only Yankee player to pick up more than one hit. He went 2-4 with a homer, a run scored and two RBIs. He did also have an error that lead to a run. Relief pitchers Zack Segovia and Eric Wordekemper both did a good job of keeping Scranton in it, each pitching two innings of one hit, scoreless baseball.
Columbus leads series 1-0.
Trenton Thunder (AA)
The Thunder and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats kicked off an exciting series in New Jersey Wednesday night. While there is lots of talk about Andy Pettitte’s rehab start in Trenton on Thursday, it was Dellin Betances who took the mound for the Thunder on Wednesday. The Thunder faced the Eastern League Pitcher of the Year, Kyle Drabek. Betances got into a few jams, but was able to hold off New Hampshire. Drabek had beaten Trenton four times this season, and despite putting together another strong outing, he fell short. In the bottom of the fourth, Drabek issued a walk to Austin Krum who moved to second on a ground out before stealing third. A single by Dan Brewer sent Krum home and the Thunder had the first run of the game.
In the bottom of the seventh, Rene Rivera connected with a 3-2 pitch off New Hampshire reliever, Trystan Magnuson, parking it over the wall for a 2-0 Trenton lead. Trenton used five relievers to hold off the Fisher Cats, giving the ball to closer Ryan Pope for the top of the ninth. A single by Adam Loewen gave New Hampshire some hope. Pope struck out the next batter, but gave up another single to Ricardo Nanita. Darin Mastroianni lined the ball to third, but Justin Snyder caught it and got Loewen for the game ending double play, sealing Trenton’s 2-0 victory and a 1-0 lead in the Eastern League playoffs.
Bronx Cheers: Trenton got lucky, because at any point a couple sloppy defensive plays could have been enough to let New Hampshire take over. Betances pitched a great 5.1 innings, but he also committed two errors. Luis Nunez also had an error and Austin Romine had a passed ball.
Curtain Calls: Dan Brewer and Rene Rivera gave Trenton just enough offense to win the game. Betances only gave up two hits in his 5.1 innings of work. He walked one and struck out eight. Meanwhile, Wilkins Arias, Josh Schmidt, J.B. Cox, Pat Venditte and Ryan Pope combined to finish the game and keep New Hampshire scoreless, giving up just four hits total and walking just one hitter.
Other Notes: J.B. Cox has been suspended after his frustration at being pulled out of the game saw him spike the ball on the mound and apparently get into it with manager Tony Franklin in the dugout. Not smart on Cox’s part.
Trenton leads series 1-0.
Tampa Yankees (High-A)
The Florida State League defending champions were already on their way to defending their title this week. In a short series against the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Yankees took a two game sweep to earn a spot in the FSL finals. Tampa had shut out Dunedin 3-0 in the first game, and put together an offensive show to finish the job Wednesday night. Dunedin never had a chance, as Tampa scored once in the first inning and used a four-run fourth to break away. Despite two lengthy rain delays, the game finished and Tampa took a 7-0 victory, collecting sixteen hits in the process. Tampa will now wait for the winner of Bradenton v. Charlotte to see who they will play in the finals. If Tampa wins they will be the first repeat champions in the FSl since Lakeland won in 1976-1977.
Bronx Cheers: As far as I can see, there is nothing to complain about in this game. The Yankees dominated.
Curtain Calls: While everyone on offense collected at least one hit, Bradley Suttle and Jose Gil put on a clinic. Suttle went 3-5 with three doubles and two RBIs. Gil went 3-4 with a run scored and two RBIs. In fact, the Yankees scored all seven runs without the help of a single homerun.
Tampa wins series 2-0.
Pitching in both Tampa games and also the Trenton game, starting and bullpen, was phenomenal. Tampa absolutely dominated Dunedin.
Montero out with an “infection” – not good; sounds like the Yankees indeed knew what they were doing when they tried to flog him.
Luck to him; he’ll be lucky to end up with two legs that match – bone infections aren’t trivial.
I couldn’t help but think about how miserable a game it must have been for Dunedin. First they were getting their butts kicked on both sides of the field and then they had to sit through a couple rain delays in the process. Definitely a nice win by Tampa.
Montero is officially done for the season. It sounds like he had minor surgery on his ankle for an infection. Hopefully it’ll be no problem when he shows up for spring training next year. I don’t think the Yankees were planning on calling him up this September anyway.
It is good to see the Evil Empire is Evil in the Minors also!