Minor League Recap - 5/5

COMING AND GOINGS

The Yankees finally admitted that Jose Tabata was suspended for 3 games for leaving the ball park without permission as well as other unnamed immature acts. The 19-yr old had been thinking about asking the Yankees for his release before cooler heads prevailed. Oh to be young and dumb.

You may want to find some other plans when the Yankees travel to Detroit next weekend to play the Tigers. Kei Igawa will be getting recalled to make one of the starts.

Several minor leaguers have been impacted by all of the recent comings and going between the Yankees and Scranton.

Matt Carson was promoted from Trenton and immediately made his presence felt with a 4-6 performance. After posting a 0.96 ERA in 9 games at Double-A Trenton, reliever David Robertson has joined the Scranton bullpen.

J.B. Cox recently made the jump from Tampa to Trenton and has thrown 4 scoreless innings in 3 appearances. He's also recorded his first save. Reliever Anthony Claggett, acquired in the Gary Sheffield deal, threw one game for Tampa before being bumped up to Trenton, where he has thrown 1 scoreless inning. Starter Dan McCutchen could be headed to Scranton shortly.

GAME RESULTS

SCRANTON
Scranton swept a 7-inning doubleheader from the Durham Bulls on Friday, 6-1 and 4-3. Steven White pitched 2-hit ball over 6 innings in the opener to earn the win and Chris Stewart drove in a pair of runs. The Yankees took the nightcap in the bottom of the 7th when Bernie Castro squeezed home Justin Christian with the winning run. Scott Patterson picked up the victory.

The Yankees had the lumber going on Saturday as they pasted Durham, 15-8. Christian lead a 20-hit attack with a home run, double, 2 singles, and 6 RBI, and Matt Carson made his Triple-A debut with 4 hits and 4 runs scored. Jeff Marquez got the win despite giving up 6 runs in 5.2 innings.

Scranton completed a 4-game sweep of the Bulls on Sunday as Kei Igawa bested Durham, 9-5. Igawa's line was not great - 7 IP 5 H 4 ER 4 BB 8 K- but Jason Lane hit a grand slam and drove in 5 runs. Cody Ransom added his 5th home run. With 2 hits on Sunday, Eric Duncan has his average up to .282.

The Trenton Thunder got strong pitching as they swept a 3-game series from the Portland Sea Dogs. Phil Coke and Mike Gardner shut the Sea Dogs down on 6 hits in Friday's 1-0 Thunder win. Coke struck out 11 in 7 innings as Jose Tabata's 2nd inning RBI held up.

The Thunder came up with 4 runs in the 7th to overcome a 3-2 deficit on Saturday and went on to a 6-3 win. Colin Curtis smacked a 2-run home run and singled in the game tying run in the game winning rally. Edwar Gonzalez's double plated 2 runs to put the Thunder in front and Tabata finished it off with an RBI single. Jason Jones got the start and allowed 1 unearned run in 6 innings. Anthony Claggett picked up the win with J.B. Cox getting the save.

P.J. Pillitere singled home Ramon Pena in the bottom of the 9th to give the Thunder a 3-2 win on Sunday. Zach Kroenke picked up the win in relieft after starter Chase Wright allowed 2 runs in 6 innings. Chris Malec hit his 2nd home run of the season. Tabata had his 2nd straight 2-hit game to raise his average to .210.

TAMPA
Tampa extended its winning streak to 4 games with a win over Sarasota on Friday and two wins over the weekend over Jupiter. Ryan Pope limited the Sarasota Reds to 4 hits over 7 innings and combined with Wil Arias on an 8-0 shutout. Edwin Nunez lead the offense with 3 hits and 4 RBI.

The Yankees made it back-to-back shutouts on Saturday when Al Aceves limited the Jupiter Hammerheads to 1 hit over 7 innings. Jose Valdez would allow only 1 more hit in his 2 innings of relief. Josue Calzado hit his first home run of the year.

More good pitching for Tampa on Sunday as they took a resounding 9-1 win over the Hammerheads. Seth Fortenberry drove in 3 runs and Nunez lead a 13-hit attack with another 3-hit game. Ivan Nova tossed 6 shutout innings for the win. Jupiter broke up the shutout in the 9th to snap a 34 innings scoreless streak by Tampa pitching.

The Charleston River Dogs were swept by the Augusta Green Jackets, with the finale on Saturday, but bounced back with wins on Saturday and Sunday against the Hickory Crawdads. The Dogs were outscored by Augusta 10-6 as the usually reliable Charleston pitching had a bad night. Brian Baisley provided one of the few bright spots with his first home run of the year.

Baisley did it again on Saturday, homering as the Dogs rolled to a 9-2 win. Justin Snyder and Dave Williams (Rutgers) both hit their 2nd home runs as well to back the pitching of Adam Olbrychowski (7 IP 3 H 2 ER 7 K).

Baisley wasn't done though. On Sunday, he homered for the 3rd straight game as the River Dogs pounded the Crawdads 8-1. Jesus Montero homered and drove in 4 runs to back up Zach McAllister's (4-1, 0.92) 7 shutout innings.

Catcher Brian Baisley was a 24th round pick, from the U. of South Florida, by the Yankees in 2006, and had only 2 home runs in 25 games last year at Charleston.