North Van's McAffer at home in C's Oregon digs
Reliever off to solid start for relocated team
The Vancouver Canadians are on a roll, and for that they can at least partly thank North Vancouver right-hander Will McAffer.
The C's, who are starting this minor league baseball season based out of the Portland suburb of Hillsboro, Ore., due to COVID-19 border restrictions, have won five straight games in high-A West League. McAffer has a pair of saves in that stretch for the Toronto Blue Jays' farm club.
Vancouver (8-4) is sharing facilities for the time being with the Hillsboro Hops (5-7), one of their five rivals in the West League. The C's and Hops open up a six-game set on Tuesday in Hillsboro, with the Hops as the home team.
The West League is playing six-game sets this regular season and using Mondays as a travel day. C's brass remain hopeful that they'll be hosting games at their traditional Nat Bailey Stadium home digs later this summer.
McAffer, a former star with the B.C. Premier League's North Shore Twins and a product of the West Vancouver School District Baseball Academy, threw the final two innings of a 2-0 win over the
Spokane Indians on Wednesday in Hillsboro, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out three.
On Saturday, he took to the hill in the last frame in what became a 4-2 win over Spokane in Hillsboro and didn't allow a hit while walking two and striking out one.
McAffer, 23, came on in the first inning in his first outing of the year on May 7 and was knocked around by the TriCity Dust Devils in 2 1/3 innings to the tune of three earned runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He was charged with the loss in that 10-6 Tri-City triumph in Pasco, Wash.
That leaves McAffer at 0-1 with a 5.06 earned run average in three appearances going into Vancouver's series against Hillsboro.
Manager Donnie Murphy has shared the closing duties so far this season with Vancouver. Three other Vancouver relievers have recorded one save apiece.
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound McAffer was a 25th-round draft pick by the Blue Jays in 2018 out of Tulane University in New Orleans. He pitched that summer for the C's, who were then a short-season, Single-A team or two levels below where they are this season. Minor league baseball revamped its development system this past winter.
McAffer went 7-2 with a 3.60 earned run average in 21 relief appearances with Vancouver three years ago. In 2019, he was promoted to the Single-A Lansing Lugnuts and was 4-3 with a 4.34 earned run average and one save in 31 appearances.
All of minor league baseball was shut down last summer due to COVID-19.
The top Blue Jays' prospect with the C's is right-hander Adam Kloffenstein. He's Toronto's No. 9 prospect according to both mlb.com and Baseball America.
The 20-year-old Kloffenstein, a 2018 third-round draft pick by the Jays out of a Magnolia, Texas high school, leads the West League in earned run average (0.71) and opponents batting average (.136) through his first three starts. He's 1-0, and in 12 2/3 innings he's allowed six hits while walking eight and striking out 12.
The 6-foot-5, 243-pound Kloffenstein is the youngest player on the club.