Jays run away from Threshers, 8-2
With all the talk surrounding the debut of Hechavarria for Dunedin (19-15) on Friday night, it ended up being one swing off the bat of Edwin Encarnacion that was the talk of the night at Dunedin Stadium.
Encarnacion smashed a solo home run in the sixth inning off Jon Velasquez that tied the game at 2-2. It was hit over 400 feet to dead center field and gave the Blue Jays a lift going into the late innings of the game.
This gave way to Dunedin dominating the seventh and eighth innings, with the Blue Jays taking the lead in the seventh on a Welinton Ramirez RBI double, plating Al Quintana and making it 3-2. Quintana had reached on a single and went to third on a fielding error by Clearwater (23-11) center fielder Anthony Gose, who allowed Quintana's hit to move right by him and go all the way to the wall.
With both starting pitchers not in on the final decision, it came down to a battle of the bullpens, and it turned out that the two man show for Dunedin of Ross Buckwalter and Boomer Potts (3-0) was better than Jon Velasquez (0-2) and Korey Noles.
Buckwalter had not pitched in over a year after going down to a shoulder injury last year and pitched well in his one inning of work, striking out two in the sixth. He struck out Brian Gump to start the seventh, but Gump reached on a wild pitch for the third strike. Buckwalter then hit Troy Hanzawa to make things interesting.
This brought out Potts, who has been sensational out of the bullpen for Dunedin. Gose came to the plate trying to sacrifice, but he popped out to Quintana for the first out. He then struck out Korby Mintken and Tim Kennelley to retire the side and send down Clearwater's final threat of the night.
In the eighth, all hell broke lose for the Threshers and Noles. The lefty walked Encarnacion and gave up a single to Brian Van Kirk, pushing Encarnacion to second. Sean Shoffit sacrificed the runners over and set the stage for Mike McDade, who promptly grounded out to shortstop for the second out.
Kevin Ahrens then hit a soft line towards third base that would have ended the inning, but it landed before Cody Overbeck could field it, plating Encarnacion and leaving the inning open for more punishment after Overbeck's error.
Al Quintana singled to center, making it 5-2 after Van Kirk scored. Ramirez followed with a shot to deep right that went off the fence, allowing Dunedin's right fielder to head to third and plate two more runs, making it a 7-2 ball game and Dunedin's victory all but a moot point.
A grounder by Tyler Pastornicky was then misplayed by Keone Da Renne at shortstop, allowing Ramirez to score and make it 8-2. This gave Hechavarria another shot at getting his first professional hit, and he did just that, beating out an infield single to the first base side of the pitcher's mound. He ended up 1-for-5 in the game.
Hechavarria then finished the game off in style, turning an unassisted double play for the game's final two outs and making his pro debut a solid offering with flashes of brilliance. His defense was indeed outstanding, making tough plays look routine and making the routine plays look more fluid than normal.
Encarnacion's game showed that he indeed had the power coming off his shoulder injury, and that considering Toronto's current home run production, he'd fit right in with their offensive firepower upon his return to the Major Leagues.
The win was Dunedin's fourth overall and only their second win against the Threshers this year. They are now four games back of Clearwater with a chance to gain ever more ground on Saturday.
They will play a doubleheader against Clearwater at Bright House Field, finishing up a suspended game from April 25 before playing their normally scheduled game afterwards.
The Blue Jays will start game one with Kenny Rodriguez and game two with Henderson Alvarez.
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Notes: Amongst the multitude of roster moves made before the game, Rodriguez was brought down from the New Hampshire roster to rejoin the Blue Jays. He, like Hechavarria, is a Cuban defector and has been close with Hechavarria since his arrival with the Blue Jays organization...With the activation of John Tolisano from the 7-Day DL on Tuesday, Dunedin placed Justin McClanahan on the 7-Day DL. Also going on the DL was Ryan Page, who will have his next start skipped when Jesse Litsch throws his second rehab start on Sunday...Tyler Pastornicky played second base tonight and will split time with Raul Barron at the keystone with Hechavarria at shortstop. The logjam of new infielders leaves a lot of normal Dunedin starters on the bench for the time being, including Barron, Tolisano and Kevin Ahrens, who was the DH tonight.