First baseman Spencer Horwitz and his Fisher Cats teammates get back to action Friday night when the Portland Sea Dogs visit Delta Dental Stadium for the start of a three-game series. Horwitz is hitting .297 wtih 10 home runs, 19 doubles and 39 RBIs in 70 games.
First baseman Spencer Horwitz and his Fisher Cats teammates get back to action Friday night when the Portland Sea Dogs visit Delta Dental Stadium for the start of a three-game series. Horwitz is hitting .297 wtih 10 home runs, 19 doubles and 39 RBIs in 70 games.
Thomas Roy/Union Leader
New Hampshire Fisher Cats' Phil Clarke connects with a pitch during Tuesday's game against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in Manchester.
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats have had games with shutdown pitching performances and others in which they lit up the scoreboard. The Toronto Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate just has not strung many of those kinds of games together, Fisher Cats pitching coach Jim Czajkowski said.
New Hampshire (38-49) entered the MLB All-Star break fifth in the six-team Eastern League Northeast Division and went 7-11 in its past three series. Over that stretch, the Fisher Cats scored at least five runs in eight games — including a season-high 16 in a shutout win over the Portland Sea Dogs — were shut out three times and allowed at least five runs in nine games.
“I don’t know if we have a real strength just because we’re inconsistent with what we do,” Czajkowski said. “On a given night, we can absolutely crush and mash. On a given night, we have really good pitching. We just don’t put everything together for a long enough stretch to have a good run.”
Coming off the five-day break after going 2-4 in their series at Reading, the Fisher Cats will try to build that consistency during their three-game homestand this weekend.
New Hampshire will host Portland, the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:05 and Sunday at 1:35 p.m. at Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.
The Fisher Cats have gone 8-7 against Portland (43-44) this season.
New Hampshire has not won more than three consecutive games since its season-high five-game winning streak was snapped in a 2-0 loss to the Sea Dogs on June 4.
Over the first half of the season, Czajkowski said New Hampshire jumped its starters around and had to build up other starters, which put a strain on its relief staff to fill a lot of innings. The Fisher Cats have also had some of their best relievers called up to Triple-A, he said.
Czajkowski said New Hampshire will likely adopt Triple-A Buffalo’s pitching routine of having three starters and then using only the bullpen for a couple games within the next few weeks.
“I think we’ve got three starters and we’re making adjustments to some of our other guys who were starters — maybe transition to the bullpen so we’ll see how that works,” Czajkowski said.
Right-hander Paxton Schultz (6-4, 4.48 ERA), who is projected to start Friday against Portland, has been pitching well lately, Czajkowski said. The pitching coach also said righty Luis Quinones (1-2, 3.51 ERA, one save) has shown improvement in his last few outings and righty Adam Kloffenstein (0-6, 5.12 ERA), Toronto’s No. 11 prospect, according to MLB.com, has been a workhorse.
New Hampshire also has newcomer Yosver Zulueta, who pitched in the MLB Futures Game last Saturday. The righty, who was called up to the Fisher Cats from High-A Vancouver on June 30, allowed one earned run on two hits, two walks and a hit batter alongside eight strikeouts over four innings in the Fisher Cats’ 3-1 loss to Hartford on July 7. Zulueta is Toronto’s No. 19 prospect, according to MLB.com.
The Fisher Cats’ staff is tied with Bowie and Reading for second in the 12-team Eastern League in shutouts (seven) and ranks 11th in ERA (4.93).
“When guys can execute their pitches, it’s been good,” Czajkowski said.
At the plate, New Hampshire ranks sixth in the Eastern League in OPS (.729) and home runs (94), fifth in runs (390), third in strikeouts (844) and ninth in stolen bases (55).
Orelvis Martinez, Toronto’s No. 2 prospect, according to MLB.com, is fourth in the league in home runs (19). Spencer Horwitz, Toronto’s No. 30 prospect, according to MLB.com, owns the third-best average among the league’s qualified players (.297).
Czajkowski said the Sea Dogs’ roster looks pretty much the same from the past three series New Hampshire had against them.
Portland, which is third in the division, has six of Boston’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB.com, in right-hander Bryan Mata (No. 7), third baseman Alex Binelas (No. 21), infielder Stephen Scott (No. 24), shortstop Christian Koss (No. 25), and infielders Ceddanne Rafaela (No. 26) and David Hamilton (No. 30).
“They have some exciting players,” Czajkowski said of the Sea Dogs. “They will steal on us when they get on base. …The rest of the guys, they look like big, trying-to-hit-a-home-run kind of guys and that’s great if you’re hitting them but, in my past and talking to the pitchers, the guys who swing hard, they have some big holes. We have to execute those spots.”
Czajkowski said he hopes New Hampshire puts it together during this second half but he and his fellow coaches’ top focus is on developing their players.
“As long as we’re sending guys to Triple-A, that’s what our job is is to get them to the next level and hopefully to the big leagues, whenever it comes,” he said.
