Game 13: Pulaski Mariners at Bluefield Blue Jays

I'm very sorry about the lack of posts and broadcasts from Kingsport due to lack of internet at Hunter Wright Stadium. We're back to open a six-game homestand tonight at Bowen Field.

Check out the @BluefieldJays Twitter page for mid-game updates

MARINERS (4-8)

1 Brock Hebert SS

2 Martin Peguero 2B

3 Gilmer Lampe 1B

4 Tyler Marlette C

5 Jordy Lara 3B

6 Reginald Lawson RF

7 Jabari Henry CF

8 Dario Pizzano DH

9 Richard Palese LF

RHP Rigoberto Garcia (1-1, 6.30)

BLUE JAYS (5-7)

1 Dwight Smith Jr. CF

2 Christian Lopes2B

3 Jason Leblebijian SS

4 Art Charles 1B

5 Matt Dean 3B

6 Eric Arce LF

7 Jacob AndersonRF

8 Seth Conner C

9 Nico Taylor RF

RHP Kevin Comer (1-1, 2.25) and RHP Tom Robson (0-1, 3.38)

FIRST-PITCH TIME: 6:05 P.M.

BROADCAST INFO: Sorry folks, the three-game set against Pulaski will not be broadcast. Listen live right here for other Blue Jays broadcasts

WEATHER: Forecast calls for 91 at first pitch. Sunny skies right now an hour before game time.

UMPIRES: PLATE Travis Godec FIELD Morgan Day

ABOUT LAST NIGHT...: It was a lengthy, sloppy game that could have been won by either side, but the Kingsport Mets came out on top. Despite making six errors, the Mets beat the Bluefield Blue Jays 13-9 on Saturday at Hunter Wright Stadium to take two out of three in the series. The Baby Birds missed a chance to get to .500 and ended their road trip at 3-3. On another night of triple-digit temperatures, the Mets took advantage of two Dickie Thon throwing errors at short and scored seven runs in the third, sending 12 men to the plate. All runs were charged to Jays starter Deivy Estrada, though none went as earned. But the Jays immediately answered the seven-run frame with three of their own in the top of the fourth to get back in the game. Nico Taylor knocked an RBI double and Dwight Smith Jr. and Christian Lopes followed with run-scoring groundouts to make it 7-5. Kingsport got it all back in the home half of the fourth, scoring three times to increase the lead to 10-5. The teams traded runs through the middle innings with the Mets safely ahead. Dwight Smith Jr. homered for the second consecutive night to bring the Jays within four runs in the ninth. Notable offensive nights for the Jays included Peters scoring three runs and Conner going 3-for-3 with an RBI.

VS. THE MARINERS: The Blue Jays won the 2011 season series against the Mariners 6-3, including wins in the final four head-to-head contests. Pulaski won two of three at home from July 21-23, taking the rubber game on Bryan Brito’s walk-off single in the tenth. From August 12-14, the Jays evened the season set by winning another road series. The final three games were at Bowen Field from August 19-21, with the Jays taking all of them by a combined score of 27-11.

TONIGHT'S STARTING PITCHERS

RHP KEVIN COMER: Baseball America’s 17th-ranked Blue Jays prospect is coming off a dominant outing in Burlington on Tuesday. Kevin allowed only a single in four innings of work as he recorded his first professional victory. The righty set down 12 of the 13 men he faced, including the last seven, four of which via strikeout. He was a supplemental first-round pick (57th overall) in 2011 after Miguel Olivo signed with Seattle. After the Shamong, NJ native pitched his Seneca HS team to the Group 3 state championship, the Blue Jays bought Comer out of his commitment to Vanderbilt with a $1.65 million signing bonus. Baseball America says the right-hander has “a clean arm action and delivery, and he gets good angle to his pitches.” They added that he has a “live fastball that generally sits around (91-93).” He also throws a curve that “some scouts think will be a plus pitch in time.”

RHP TOM ROBSON: A day before his 19th birthday, Canadian righty Tom Robson pitched four shutout innings of three-hit ball in Burlington on Tuesday. All of the three hits were singles and only one of them left the infield. Today against the M’s he’ll piggyback on Comer’s start on Canada Day. The native of Delta, British Columbia was chosen in the fourth round of last year’s draft. In 2011 he was ranked by Baseball America as the 72nd-best high-school prospect during his senior year at Delta Secondary School.

RHP RIGOBERTO GARCIA: Six-foot-five right-hander Rigoberto Garcia starts the series opener for the visiting Mariners. This will be his third Stateside start, but his first outside of Pulaski. He allowed three runs (two earned) in a six-inning victory against Burlington on June 21. He took the loss in his last time out on Tuesday in Johnson City after giving up five runs in four innings. Despite the 6.30 ERA, he does have a strong 12-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio in ten frames.The 18-year-old power arm hails from San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic and signed with Seattle in July 2010. He spent the 2011 season with the DSL Mariners, going 0-5 with a 4.01 ERA in nine starts. Although he held DSL hitters to a .216 batting average, he issued 14 walks in 24.1 innings.




DWIGHT’S RIGHT: Center fielder Dwight Smith Jr. cranked his first professional home run on Friday with his sixth-inning shot to right center off Edioglis Villasmil. The Peachtree City, GA native followed that up with another long ball in the ninth inning of last night’s defeat. He picked up a hit in all six games of the road trip. Rated 16th among all Toronto prospects by Baseball America prior to the season, Smith was a supplemental first-round pick (53rd overall) in the 2011 draft. His father is Dwight Smith Sr., the former major league outfielder who finished second to Jerome Walton in the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year voting and won a championship with the 1995 Atlanta Braves.

WORK OF ART: Art Charles extended his on-base streak to 12 with his first-inning walk on Saturday. The first baseman has now gotten aboard in all 12 Blue Jays games this season, making him the only Appy Leaguer to reach in every game so far in 2012. Art’s on-base streak dating back to last season is up to 20. The day before he began that streak on August 23, 2011, he had just had a 15-gamer snapped, so the Bakersfield native has reached in 35 of his last 36 games.

LEAGUE LEADERBOARD: Charles is leading the Appy League in walks with 13. He ranks fifth in the circuit in both on base percentage (.481) and slugging percentage (.629). Left fielder/designated hitter Eric Arce is tied for third in walks behind Charles with nine. Outfielder Jacob Anderson is tied with Princeton’s D’Andre Toney in the painful hit-by-pitch category. They’ve both been plunked four times.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION: Pulaski just started their fifth season under the Mariners’ umbrella after spending the 2003-06 campaigns as a Blue Jays affiliate. They’ve started the 2012 season by dropping two out of three in each of their first four series. The bright spots on an offense that’s hitting a league-worst .197 are catcher Toby Demello (hitting .353) and DH Dario Pizzano, who is getting on at a .500 clip. Righty Jochi Ogando has a 1.06 ERA in three starts, with only one walk in 17 innings.



Bluefield Blue Jays Game Notes 7-1

Check out the @BluefieldJays Twitter page for mid-game updates