Fisher Cats end May with a strong home stand

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400 Miles to Toronto: New Hampsire Fisher Cats ColumnThe New Hampshire Fisher Cats have been better on the road this season, but this latest homestand shows that they are more than capable of pulling out wins at home as well.

It’s June 1, here’s the state of things on the path 400 miles to Toronto and beyond.

Quick Recap

Hartford

May 25 – New Hampshire 10, Hartford 3

May 26 (Game 1) – New Hampshire 4, Hartford 1

May 26 (Game 2) – Hartford 5, New Hampshire 3

May 27 – New Hampshire 3, Hartford 2

May 28 – New Hampshire 5, Hartford 2

Portland

May 29 – New Hampshire 11, Portland 2

May 30 – New Hampshire 5, Portland 3

May 31 – Portland 12, New Hampshire 9

 

If a few things went differently here and there, the Fisher Cats could have finished May with a perfect homestand. They seemed on track for a sweep of Portland until Danny Young and Nick Hartman let the Sea Dogs’ struggling bats back into the contest on May 31.

They would have had a sweep of Hartford as well if not for the first poor outing for reliever Kirby Snead since his promotion from Single-A Advanced Dunedin earlier in May.

In the other six games of the homestand though, the bullpen allowed just two runs in 17 innings of work.

That fact, and what appears to be a slowly stabilizing starting rotation joining New Hampshire’s already potent offense gives Fisher Cats manager John Schneider confidence.

“I the rotation is in a good spot, I’ve always liked the bullpen, they’re doing good right now,” said Schneider during the Portland series. “Add that to what the offensive guys are doing and I think it’s a good recipe.”

The other big (and recurring) topic on everyone’s minds is the ever-impending promotion of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

As of June 1, he’s leading the Eastern League in batting average (.414), slugging percentage (.691), OPS (1.155), total bases (132), RBI (53), hits (79) and is tied for the league lead in doubles (18).

Is he ready for the Majors? Most pundits believe he is, but with the Blue Jays 13.5 games out of first in the AL East, there doesn’t seem to be any hurry. Add that to the fact that Manchester has provided a positive environment to work on some of his rough edges, such as baserunning and defense.

“There are always things for every player, Vlady included, to work on,” said Schneider. “With him it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. It’s out of our hands, out of my hands, and whenever the time is right, I think he’ll make a pretty big impact on the big club.”

Fisher Cats of the Week

 

Batting – Bo Bichette: Regular readers of this column are aware that Guerrero probably could be chosen in this category every week without much consternation, but Bichette narrowly edged him out during this homestand.

Bichette appeared in all eight games during the homestand and had hits in seven of them, collecting multiple hits in four.

Bo also added two dingers and eight RBI over that stretch.

An honorable mention goes to Juan Kelly, who had three home runs during the Harford series, but cooled down once Portland came to town.

Starting Pitching – Jon Harris: The hot starts for Sean Reid-Foley and Jordan Romano earned them tickets to the International League this week. Jordan’s back for now, but if he can keep his early hot start going, a return to Triple-A seems likely. That leaves veteran Jon Harris as the Fisher Cats default ace and this week he seemed ready for that role.

The first few weeks of 2018 weren’t fantastic for Harris, but he showed significant improvement over an atrocious 2017 campaign, eating up innings and keeping the club in the thick of things until the offense inevitably put up a big inning.

This week though, he did much more than tread water.  The Missouri State graduate pitched 13 innings in two appearances during the homestand, giving up just two earned runs in the process.

Relief Pitching – Andrew Case: The 2017 Fisher Cats didn’t have a dedicated closer, but Case probably came closest to fitting that role and he’s becoming one of New Hampshire’s best bullpen options again this season.

After a rough first few weeks, Case allowed just three hits in three appearances over the homestand and has not allowed any runs over his past five appearances.

Around the Horn

In addition to Reid-Foley and Romano, the Fisher Cats also briefly bid farewell to Dusty Isaacs, who returned on May 27.

The Fisher Cats also hosted rehabbing big leaguers Randal Grichuk and Aledmys Diaz and brought Patrick Murphy up from Dunedin, Jordan Barrett up from Rookie League Bluefield. Luis Santos and Justin Dillon also came on board, coming down from Buffalo.

In the place of the injured Francisco Rios, Drew Muren came off the disabled list on May 27.

On Deck

The Fisher Cats now head to Binghamton for a three-game series before returning to Manchester on Tuesday to host the Akron RubberDucks for the first and only time this year.

 

 

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.