MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire Fisher Cats right-hander Cam Reimers has twice proven that he can baffle Double-A hitters.

 

Two years ago, when the Fisher Cats were the New Haven Ravens, Reimers was a participant in the Eastern League All-Star Game played at New Britain Stadium. He enjoyed success last year in New Hampshire’s inaugural season, but his promotion to Triple-A Syracuse didn’t go so well.
 
Much to the chagrin of the New Britain Rock Cats, he’s back.

 

Reimers spun a five-hit shutout over eight innings Sunday as the Fisher Cats earned a split of the season-opening series with a 4-2 win over New Britain before 4,757 sun-kissed spectators at Fisher Cats Ballpark.

 

Reimers (1-0) was 10-5 with a 3.08 ERA for New Haven in 2003. He was 7-4 with a 2.78 in New Hampshire last year, but fell off to 2-7 with a 5.05 when he was promoted. The parent Toronto Blue Jays have placed him in a position where he’ll have to do it in Double-A again.

 

"I’m not going to be one of those guys that’s going to take that disappointment, become bitter and let that affect my performance down here," said Reimers, a 6-foot-5 native of Missoula, Montana. "Either way, I still have to perform whether I’m in Triple-A or Double-A. I took it as this is where I’m supposed to be right now."

 

Rock Cats manager Stan Cliburn has seen plenty of the big right-hander over the last three years.

 

"He’s always dominated us," he said. "He just goes after guys, keeps the ball down, gets his groundballs and works quick. He does all the things we stress with our pitching staff. He doesn’t walk many hitters. He puts the ball in play and let’s the guys make the plays for him. That’s how you win games."

 

Reimers, 26, allowed nothing but singles. Two of them came in the fourth inning off the bats of Matt Scanlon and Doug Deeds (2-for-4) but they were separated by a Danny Matienzo double-play ball.

 

Matienzo (2-for-4) led off the seventh with a hit but was caught stealing on a botched hit-and-run play. Gabby Torres drew a walk to start the eighth but Jake Mauer rolled into a twin-killing.

 

"(Catcher Erik) Kratz and I were really mixing it up - sinker, slider, changeup - we just kept them guessing," Reimers said. "They’re a good hitting club and they’ll make adjustments real quick. That’s one thing we talked about before the game, individually about each hitter. I couldn’t go out there and start everybody off with a fastball or a slider."

 

The Rock Cats (2-2) averted the shutout with two outs in the ninth against reliever Ryan Houston when Matienzo hit his first Double-A homer with James Tomlin (walk) aboard. Lee Gronkiewicz, who earned the win in relief Saturday, came on to notch his first save.

 

Rock Cats right-hander Levale Speigner (0-1), making just his second start in 67 professional outings, had some difficulty with the gopher ball in the first two innings. With two out in the first, former major-leaguer Kevin Barker slammed a solo homer well over the short porch in right field.

 

"Barker hadn’t swung the bat yet and he throws him a changeup," Cliburn said. "What are you changing up off of? He hadn’t swung the bat all day. He didn’t even take batting practice."

 

Ron Davenport started the New Hampshire second with a double to the wall in center. He trotted home on a long homer to left off the bat of catcher Kratz, to give Reimers a 3-0 lead.

 

"Kratz hit a fastball that was down and in," Cliburn said. "He turned the wind around. You’ve got to tip your hat to a guy like that."

 

Speigner settled down nicely to make it through five innings without exceeding the 80-pitch limit the Twins organization recommends for a pitcher’s first start. After the Kratz homer, he faced the minimum over 4 1/3 innings.

 

"He didn’t pitch bad," Cliburn said. "The last two games we lost in this series were just bad pitch selections by the pitchers throwing the wrong pitch and the catchers calling it. We’ll iron that out. They have to remember that early in the year you’ve got to establish your fastball."

 

Southpaw Jeff Randazzo came on with two out and the bases empty in the sixth but yielded a run. Barker (2-for-4, 2 runs) singled, Ron Acuna walked and Davenport (2-for-3) singled solidly up the middle.

 

Left-hander John Thomas pitched a one-two-three eighth for the Rock Cats.

 

Cliburn accepts the four-game split as a decent start to the season.

 

"We were a little flat after a tough loss (Saturday) but you come into a new ballpark with a lot of electricity on their part and you’ve got to feel good about a split," he said.

 

CATS TALES: Barker, 29, has played 85 games in the bigs, 78 with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1999 and 2000. He also played seven games with San Diego in 2002. ..Former Red Sox catcher Bob Montgomery was on hand for the game. Montgomery will provide color commentary on Eastern League games slated to be telecast by Comcast Cable channel CN8. ..The Rock Cats start Matt Yeatman in tonight’s scheduled opener in Portland. The Sea Dogs counter with knuckleballer Charlie Zink. Gametime on WDRC-AM 1360 is 6 p.m.