Games 46 & 47: Burlington Royals at Bluefield Blue Jays

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JUST THINK OF IT AS A REALLY LONG RAIN DELAY: The July 9 contest between the Jays and Royals resumes in a different city after a 31-day, 22-hour and 44-minute rain delay. In the meantime, Bluefield went 13-12 and Burlington surged to the top of the East Division with a 17-8 run. Christian Lopes doubled home Chris Peters in the top of the first against Patrick Conroy for a 1-0 Jays lead. Daniel Norris allowed singles to Terrance Gore and Humberto Arteaga to open the bottom of the first and will face Bubba Starling with men at the corners and no outs. Incidentally, Norris will pick up where he left off as today is his turn in the rotation. Three Baby Jays in the lineup have been promoted. Dwight Smith Jr. led off in center field and was just sent up to Vancouver. Art Charles walked and is also with the Canadians. Peters is now with the low-A Lansing Lugnuts.

ROYALS (30-15)

1 Terrance Gore LF

2 Humberto Arteaga SS

3 Bubba Starling CF

4 Patrick Leonard 3B

5 Kenny Diekroeger 2B

6 Fred Ford RF

7 Beau Maggi C

8 Mark Threlkeld 1B  in for Henry Moreno

9 Adrian Morales DH

RHP Freddy Rodriguez (1-1, 4.87) replaces Patrick Conroy

BLUE JAYS (20-25)

1 D.J. Jones CF   in for Dwight Smith Jr.

2 Jacob Anderson RF   in for Chris Peters

3 Santiago Nessy C

4 Jorge Vega-Rosado DH   in for Art Charles

5 Christian Lopes 2B

6 Seth Conner 1B

7 Dickie Joe Thon SS

8 Matt Dean 3B

9 Nico Taylor LF   moves from RF to LF

LHP Daniel Norris (2-1, 4.18) Resuming his own suspended game

FIRST-PITCH TIME: 5:00 P.M.

BROADCAST INFO: Listen live right here for Blue Jays pregame at 4:50. Tonight's game will also be on local radio on 1440 AM WHIS

WEATHER: 81 in Bluefield...but some rain is in the forecast

UMPIRES: PLATE Chase Eade  FIELD Travis Godec

ABOUT LAST NIGHT...: Tucker Jensen took a no-hitter into the sixth and posted six scoreless frames against the Rays for the second time this season in Bluefield’s 3-0 win at Hunnicutt Field on Thursday. Jensen allowed only an infield single in six innings of shutout ball in a win over the Rays in Bluefield on July 21, and he was outstanding again in this start. He hit a batter and saw two errors made behind him, but he still had the no-no with one out in the sixth when Brandon Martin laced a clean single to center field. Jensen became the first Blue Jay to pitch into the seventh, but he was removed after giving up singles to the first two hitters. Colby Broussard came on in relief and retired the side 1-2-3. He loaded the bases in the eighth on two soft singles and a hit batsman, but he escaped trouble with a flyout off of the bat of Daniel Duran. Brandon Dorsett worked a scoreless ninth to complete the six-hit shutout, the fourth whitewashing of the season by the Bluefield staff, the third against the Rays. Bluefield only needed one big inning to grab the victory. Right-hander Alex Keudell matched Jensen in his start, as the game carried into the sixth at 0-0. That’s when the Jays rallied to go ahead against Keudell. Jorge Vega-Rosado led off with a walk, Dickie Joe Thon bunted him over and Christian Lopes knocked him home with a double. Seth Conner, in his first game since getting hit in the head by a pitch against Bristol on Monday, belted a two-run homer to give the Jays a 3-0 advantage. Bluefield scored three runs in each of the three games in Princeton this week, with all tallies in each contest coming in a single inning. The win gives Bluefield manager Dennis Holmberg his 1,299th career victory and he’ll have two chances to reach 1,300 on Friday.

VS. THE ROYALS: Bluefield won the first two head-to-head games in Burlington this season, but the Royals have won the last three games, all in the last at bat. On July 7 and 8, Burlington won back-to-back games in which the Jays were one strike away from the win. The Royals struggled last year to a 24-44 finish in 2011 and the Jays feasted on Burlington throughout that summer, going 7-2 in the season series.

- TONIGHT’S PITCHING PROBABLES -
NORRIS: One of the most highly-touted prospects in the Toronto farm system, lefty Daniel Norris has struggled lately. In his last outing on Saturday against Bristol, he allowed team season-highs of hits (nine) and earned runs (seven) in a no decision. The 2011 second-round pick was rated by Baseball America as the fourth-best prospect in the Jays’ entire organization; but over his last three starts he’s put up a 10.22 ERA. In 2011 BA ranked him second among high-school prospects and 91st overall. The former Clemson signee struck out 123 batters in 68 innings as a senior at Science Hill HS in his native Johnson City, TN.

RODRIGUEZ: Dominican righty Freddy Rodriguez will pitch the top of the second in resuming the suspended game. He worked a season-high three innings against the Jays on June 25, allowing one run on four hits. The 21-year-old spent the last four years in the Dominican Summer League, putting up a 2.83 ERA in 47 games.

JAMES: Righty reliever Justin James draws the spot start for the seven-inning finale. He pitched well in a twinbill nightcap on Monday against Bristol, taking a loss despite holding the White Sox to one run on four hits in four innings. He was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Ave Maria University in Florida, where he was a Second Team All-Sun Conference selection as a senior after striking out 86 in 90.1 innings. James has registered the win in his last two outings, most recently on Tuesday against Greeneville. Kevin Comer was great for four and two-thirds innings before allowing three straight hits and sending the tying run to the plate. James was summoned from the bullpen and got out of the jam on one pitch before working a 1-2-3 sixth inning.

RODGERS: 18-year-old lefty Colin Rodgers opposes James at the conclusion of the suspended game and he’s had a great season for the B-Royals. The southpaw is five outs short of the innings qualifier, but he would rank second in ERA (1.83), opponent batting average (.178) and hits per nine innings (5.5). On Sunday against Pulaski, he allowed three runs, two earned, in a four and two-thirds inning no decision. Rodgers made his second pro appearance against the Blue Jays in Burlington on June 26, tossing three shutout innings of two-hit ball. He was taken by Kansas City in the third round of June’s draft out of Parkview Baptist High School in Baton Rouge, LA. Prior to the draft, Baseball America ranked him 207th on their top 500 list. He signed for $700,000 (476,500 over the suggested signing bonus). Armed with a low-90s fastball and plus-curveball, he had signed to play college ball with the Auburn Tigers before joining the Royals. In his pro debut on Wednesday, Colin worked around two walks and a single to post two scoreless innings in a start at Pulaski.

1,299 DOWN, ONE TO GO: Blue Jays manager Dennis Holmberg can record his 1,300th career victory tonight. Over 25 seasons as a minor league skipper, he has a career record of 1,299-1,207 (.518). He managed his 2,500th professional game on Thursday. After eight seasons as a 3B/OF in the Milwaukee system he began his managerial career at age 25 in 1977 with the Newark Co-Pilots, the Brewers’ farm team in the New York-Penn League. He joined the Blue Jays in 1978 as a minor league instructor and has been with the organization ever since. He has spent 24 seasons as a manager and eight as a coach in the Toronto system. He also spent the 1994 and 1995 seasons as the bullpen coach for the big league club. Holmberg has piloted ten playoff teams, including last year’s Appy League runner-up in Bluefield. It was Bluefield’s first postseason trip since 2002. From 2002-07 his Auburn Doubledays made six straight postseasons, including a New York-Penn League championship run in ‘07.

Bluefield Blue Jays Game Notes 8-10

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