The Dunedin Blue Jays lost their second straight game to the Daytona Cubs and were eliminated from the Florida State League playoffs last night. On the other hand, the Vancouver Canadians scraped out a win in their rain-postponed first game of their opening playoff series against the Spokane Indians.
Dunedin Blue Jays 4, Daytona Cubs 9
The D-Jays, the winners of the Florida State League North Division First Half, were one of the most dominant teams in the minor leagues for the first two and a half months of the season but since the promotion of several key players to Double-A and higher, they played to a sub-.500 level over the second half of the season, dropping two straight games to a powerhouse Daytona Cubs club.
The Blue Jays sent two pitchers who were lights out over the course of their regular seasons with Dunedin and both Matt Boyd and Taylor Cole had a taste of Double-A baseball this season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Unfortunately, both struggled mightily when faced with the challenge of the Daytona Cubs in the playoffs, a team that featured hard-hitting prospects Kyle Schwarber and Dan Vogelbach. Cole struggled out of the gate, allowing six runs over only 1 1/3 innings and 19-year-old Miguel Castro allowed two of his own (plus his two inherited runners) to score over 1 2/3 innings. Neither pitcher walked a man and combined to strike out seven batters over three innings. Efrain Nieves and Danny Barnes combined for five scoreless innings before Chad Girodo finally conceded one more in the ninth. The offense had only seven hits but were led by recent call up Mitch Nay who was 2/4 with his first Dunedin home run, driving in three.
Vancouver Canadians 1, Spokane Indians 0
All it took was one run in the game that was finally played a day after being postponed due to rain. Ryan Borucki and Derek Thompson engaged in a pitching duel that saw Borucki come out on top thanks to a couple of well-placed ground balls in the bottom of the seventh inning by the Canadians. Chris Carlson led off the inning with a single to left and advanced on Jonathan Davis‘ ground out. Mike Reeves then hit a ground ball single up the middle to drive Carlson home and that was it for the scoring. The Canadians managed to win despite getting only one fly ball out in the entire game.
Ryan Borucki led the way with his arm, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing only five hits and no walks before Michael Kraft (2/3 IP, 2 BB), and Phil Kish (1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 3 K) came on to close out the win. With the victory, the Canadians are one win away from their fourth consecutive finals appearance.
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