You can’t blame the other seven players on the diamond for the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Low-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, if they were slightly bored during Saturday night’s 1-0 win over the Tampa Tarpons, an affiliate of the New York Yankees. After all, it was the team’s pitcher and catcher who did the vast majority of the work as three Dunedin pitchers combined to strike out 24 Tampa batters.
Toronto Blue Jays pitching prospects Nick Frasso, Dahian Santos, and Braden Scott combined to strike out 24 batters in a 1-0 win over the Tampa Tarpons.
Outside of the 24 strikeouts, Tampa drew two hits and five walks, but a solo home run from Dunedin’s Cameron Eden would provide the only run for either team and the winning margin for the Blue Jays.
Making his first start of the season, Frasso struck out eight batters in three innings of work, allowing a flyout to center in the second inning as his only non-strikeout out. He would also top 100 mph on three pitches while hitting 99.9 and 99.7 on two other pitches.
Santos came on in relief of Frasso and struck out 10 in his four innings on the mound. The 19-year-old right-hander has now struck out 41 in 20.0 innings this season spread over six games (including one start). Santos, who is listed by MLB.com as the 28th-best prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, has allowed one earned run over his last 15.0 innings and surrendered just one hit on Saturday.
Santos recorded a flyout in the fourth and a groundout in the seventh as his only non-strikeout outs of the evening.
Scott closed out the game with two innings, striking out every batter he faced. It was his first appearance since being sent down from Double-A New Hampshire after posting a 3.75 ERA in 12.0 innings.
While the combined outing was impressive, it still fell short of the 27-strikeout no-hitter thrown by Ron Necciai on May 13, 1952, when he was in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system. Additionally, Clarence “Hooks” Iott struck out 30 batters on July 15, 1941, as part of what would end up a 1-1 tie after 16 innings.