Fisher Cats' Mineo rips four hits, plates five
Alberto Mineo entered Wednesday's game on a six-game hitting streak, but even he couldn't have envisioned what he would do to extend that run to seven games.The 24-year-old Blue Jays catching prospect went 4-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs in Double A New Hampshire's 9-3 win over Reading
The 24-year-old Blue Jays catching prospect went 4-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs in Double A New Hampshire's 9-3 win over Reading at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. He finished a triple shy of the cycle and set a new career high with eight total bases in the monster performance.
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"I was just trying to keep calm, see the ball and get a good pitch to hit in all of my at-bats," Mineo said.
The Italy native opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning after running the count to 3-1 with nobody on base against Fightin Phils left-hander
"I was just looking for a fastball and trying to lay off anything else," Mineo said. "Look for a fastball up and try to hit it as hard as I could."
With the game tied 1-1 in the fourth, Mineo stepped to the plate with
A triple shy of the cycle, Mineo -- who entered the content with nine triples in eight Minor League seasons -- attacked the first pitch he saw in the seventh from southpaw reliever
"They started throwing more breaking balls, so I was trying to lay off those, get a good pitch and elevate a higher pitch and get the job done," Mineo said.
The left-handed-hitting catcher has actually been more effective against left-handed pitching over the past two seasons. He hit .351/.432/.377 against southpaws in 2017 compared to his .257/.358/.353 batting line against right-handers for Class A South Bend before posting a .382/.405/.618 line against left-handers in 37 plate appearances last season at Class A Advanced Dunedin, in comparison to his .276/.372/.362 line against righties.
"With lefties, I'm always trying not to fly open and stay through the middle and let the pitch get deep," Mineo said.
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Mineo's four hits and five RBIs matched his previous career highs; he had two prior four-hit games -- one in each of the past two seasons -- and a five-RBI performance on April 9, 2017, for South Bend against West Michigan.
While the 5-foot-10, 170-pound backstop was the offensive star for New Hampshire on Wednesday, right-hander
Murphy (2-4) allowed one run on three hits and one walk and struck out a career-high 10 batters, continuing the momentum he built during his last start on May 9, when he held Portland to one hit over seven scoreless innings.
"He's a great pitcher; he's got a power fastball and two other power pitches, a curveball and changeup, and he had all of them today," Mineo said. "We had a good plan coming into the game; we know the other team so we were able to plan before the game. Patrick was just executing all the pitches today."
Sixth-ranked Blue Jays prospect
Falter allowed five runs on eight hits and struck out five over 5 1/3 innings.
Chris Tripodi is a producer for MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @christripodi.