Bus Leagues Express: September 8

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Zunino’s blasts lead Jackson: For the second straight day, one of Jackson’s top prospects set the tone in a victory over Chattanooga. In game one, it was James Paxton with a great start. In game two yesterday, it was Mike Zunino‘s two homer game in Jackson’s 7-3 win over the Lookouts. The 4th and 6th inning home runs tied the game and gave Jackson the lead they would hold onto for the rest of the game. Both dingers came against Zach Lee who didn’t have his best afternoon. After pitching effectively for most of the second half with Chattanooga, Lee allowed four runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings as Chattanooga fell in a 2-0 series hole and now needs to win three straight to advance to the championship.

Pro baseball returning to Ottawa: After a six year absence, affiliated baseball is expected to return to Canada’s capital city in 2014, but it has not yet been revealed who will be relocating. The Ottawa Lynx were an International League team with various affiliations from 1993 to 2007 when they were sold and relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania to become the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. This time, they’ll be in the Eastern League, but league officials are mum on which team will be moving. Both the city and ownership will need to commit a combined $10 million to improve the ballpark. Ottawa’s team will join Vancouver as the only Canadian minor league teams in the minors.

Matzek pitches Modesto to Bakersfield: For his entire career, teams haven’t known what they’re going to get from Tyler Matzek in each start. Fortunately for the Nuts, they got the sharp version Friday night. Matzek pitched into the 8th inning in Modesto’s 2-0 win over San Jose, striking out five in 7.1 scoreless innings and only allowing five hits and one walk. Over his last four starts in the regular season, it appeared that maybe Matzek had turned a corner; counting those four starts and Friday night’s performance, he had only walked six batters in 28 innings. He’s been hot before, but the Rockies will take any positive sign they can get at this point.

Yelich sparks game one win: After not allowing a run in their two game sweep of Dunedin, Lakeland was shell-shocked Friday night when Jupiter went up 6-0 on them through four innings. In the middle of the Hammerheads rally was Christian Yelich who got the scoring started after leading off the game with a single and eventually coming home on a sac fly by Ryan Fisher. He would score again in the 3rd inning, and he would deal what turned out to be the critical blow in the win one inning later. His two run double cleared the bases and gave Jupiter the 6-0 lead they barely managed to preserve. After starter Zach Neal exited with two runs allowed in seven innings, the Flying Tigers scored three runs in the final two innings against the Jupiter bullpen, but they could never get the tying run home from scoring position.

Robles shuts out Hudson Valley: Brooklyn and Hudson Valley had two of the top pitching staffs in the New York Penn League this year, and it was Brooklyn’s Hansel Robles who turned in the dominant performance of the night. The 22 year old Dominican Mets prospect has been one of the top starters in all of short season ball, and his playoff opening complete game shutout showed just why. He struck out 10 Renegades and rode some early offense to a comfortable game one win. Jesse Hahn had only allowed one run over his last 20 innings to close out the regular season, but the Cyclones got to him early Friday, scoring four off him in just two innings. Hudson Valley’s bullpen threw five scoreless innings in relief of Hahn, but Robles prevented them from ever closing the gap.

Relentless Ogden opens Pioneer League postseason with win: With first rounder Eddie Butler pitching well and David Dahl piling up the hits, Grand Junction looked to have a great opportunity to win the franchise’s first playoff game. Ogden had other ideas, and they took a 4-3 game one win Friday afternoon. Raptors starter Lindsey Caughel went pitch-for-pitch against Butler and actually lasted two more innings. In the 10th inning, the two teams traded a run each, but the Rockies couldn’t match Ogden in the 11th. After stealing second base, Noel Cuevas came around to score on a Paul Hoenecke single, and Alan Garcia held the lead to earn the win. The best-of-three series now shifts to Ogden where the Raptors will need to win one of two games to advance.

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