The Threshers’ offense exploded Wednesday night.  They collected 15 hits, of which 6 were XBH including a triple and 3 home runs.  They scored in each of the first 4 innings as the ran out to a 10-1 lead.  They maintained their advantage to win 11-5 against the Dunedin Blue Jays.

The Threshers scored 3 runs in the first when J.P. Crawford lifted a one-out fly ball to left field.  Dwight Smith, Jr. lost the ball in the sun and Crawford raced to third on the 3-base error.  Everett Williams, Brandon Short, and Brian Pointer each had RBI base hits in the inning.

Roman Quinn, batting left-handed, added a run in the second with a solo home run to right field.  There was a slight breeze from varying directions.  At this stage of the game,  the flags in right center were hanging limply.

A lead off triple by Williams led to the first of 2 runs in the third.  He scored on a single by Short who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.  Later in the inning, Pointer hit a home run to right.

After the Jays posted a run in the bottom of the third, the Threshers responded with 4 in the fourth.  Corey Bass doubled and Angelo Mora singled to open the inning and chase the Jays starter from the game.  Quinn followed with a sac fly. Crawford singled and Williams walked to load the bases. Short drove in 2 runs with a single.  Art Charles plated another with a sac fly.

The Jays reliever struck out 5 in a row over the next 2 innings.  However, Charles opened the seventh with a deep home run to right center field to close out the scoring for the Threshers.

The Jays brought out a side-arming left-hander to strike out Quinn and Crawford in the eighth, the second strike out for each of them.  The Jays struck out 11 and walked only one in the game.

Meanwhile, Colin Kleven scattered 10 hits over his 5 innings of work.  He walked 2 and struck out three.  I had him at 84 pitches and 58 strikes.  He pitched efficiently through the first 4 innings, but struggled through a 31-pitch fifth inning when he gave up 3 runs.  Kleven’s fastball was at 91-93 mph.  Cody Forsythe followed with 2 perfect innngs and 2 strike outs.  Ethan Stewart finished the game in his first relief appearance of the season.  He came out firing at 95 and hit 96 once.  He struck out the side in a 2-4-6 eighth inning that included 2 walks and a single.  After a visit from pitching coach Bob Milacki, Stewart struck out the 6th batter with 93 mph fast balls.  Stewart allowed a run in the ninth on 2 more walks and a single but was still pumping at 93.

I had Crawford with 8 assists and 1 error.  He played a great game defensively.  He dove to stop one ground ball from going through and saved a run.  The ball was about 10 feet on the right field side of second base.  His error came on a ball that he dove to grab to his right.  His throw was low and probably ill-advised.    All in all, he looked good tonight.

Quinn had a couple of put outs.  One was a routine fly ball looking into the same sun that was giving the Jays problems.  The other was a ball over his head to dead center that he raced under to catch on the warning track.

Corey Bass picked a runner off third base.

The starting pitchers announced thru Saturday are Jeb Stefan, Jordan Guth, and Mark Leiter.  Cliff Lee is rumored to be making a rehab start Sunday in Brevard County, which would push Aaron Nola back to Monday.