The Blue Jays came back against the Yankees to win 4-3 thanks, in part, to home runs by Jose Bautista and Melky Cabrera. Bautista has now homered in five consecutive games and is one game off the Blue Jays’ record, held by Jose Cruz, Jr.
The Syracuse Chiefs squashed the Bisons’ playoff hopes with a 4-3 win on Sunday. Raul Valdes lasted only 3 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk. Daniel Norris went two no-hit innings, walking one and striking out three in what is his final outing of 2014 in the minor leagues. Shi Davidi has written an article saying that Norris is getting a September call up with the Blue Jays. The Bisons had seven hits including two each from Dalton Pompey and Brett Wallace. Each hit a double and drove in a run while Pompey also stole a base.
Ben White‘s second Double-A start wasn’t as good as his first as he went 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits including a home run but he just walked one and struck out seven batters. John Anderson, just activated off the DL pitched a clean inning in relief. All of the batters except for Michael Crouse had a hit with Matt Newman, Andy Burns, Melky Mesa and Derrick Chung hitting doubles. Burns added a walk and a stolen base while Jon Berti stole his 40th of the year, making 2014 the second year in a row that Berti has swiped 40 bags.
Roster Note: The Blue Jays made a trade, acquiring John Mayberry Jr.from the Phillies for current Fisher Cat Gustavo Pierre.
While the Dunedin Blue Jays won their final game before the Florida State League playoffs get under way, Nathan Orf was the story of the game, playing every position on the diamond (including pitcher) and going 0/2 with a walk. That said, Roberto Osuna was strong, striking out three over two scoreless innings and the bullpen got into the action with five pitchers seeing one inning of action and Kramer Champlin allowing two runs (one earned) over two innings, taking over for Osuna. The Blue Jays’ offense exploded for 11 hits including two from Nick Baligod, Marcus Knecht, L.B. Dantzler and Mitch Nay. Dantzler had his third home run of the season and added a double and three RBI while scoring twice. Knecht drove in two with a single and a double.
The exact moment that the Lansing Lugnuts’ playoff hopes were dashed came in the top of the sixth inning when both Joe Munoz and Jamie Westbrook hit two-run home runs off of Chase Wellbrock, increasing the Silver Hawks’ lead to five runs which turned out to be insurmountable for the Lansing side. Despite allowing seven runs to score, starter Jeremy Gabryszwski was only charged with one earned run thanks to three errors on defense. Francisco Gracesqui allowed just one hit and two walks over 1 1/3 innings, striking out three while Wellbrock recovered well to end up pitching four innings. Jason Leblebijian had another multi-hit game, going 2/5 with three runs scored while David Harris was also 2/5. D.J. Davis was 1/4 with a triple and an RBI.
The Vancouver Canadians celebrated yet another playoff appearance thanks to their victory over Spokane. Matthew Smoral allowed two runs, scattering three hits and five walks over his five innings of work but he also struck out five. Andrew Case threw two scoreless for the Canadians and Phil Kish notched his ninth save of the season. Roemon Fields and Alexis Maldonado each had two hits with Fields hitting his fourth triple of the season and drove in a run.