MANCHESTER -- The pop fly went up and out and found a hole between the Richmond left fielder, shortstop and third baseman and Gabe Jacobo, a few hours into his debut with the Fisher Cats on Thursday night, had his first hit.

It was no liner to the gap, no shot up the middle.

No problem.

“You definitely take all the hits you can get,” Jacobo said the next night. “As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as a cheap hit. A lot of people say there are cheap hits, but hitting is hard enough. I'll take any of them I can get.”

The Fisher Cats hope he get a bunch of them, of any type.

“He's got power,” said manager Sal Fasano. “He's a good hitter. Hopefully he can add a little bit of punch to our lineup. We can use it.”

Jacobo, 25, saved the impressive shots for the next night when he showed off that power and added a little punch in his follow-up Fisher Cat game on Friday night, a rain-delayed 9-5 loss to the Bowie Baysox.

He pulled a ball deep and long down the left field line that went just foul his first time up and then reached on an error when the third baseman threw away his hard-hit grounder from well behind the bag.

He ripped a double down the third base line in the fourth inning and added a single in the fifth and in the end had two of his team's seven hits.

Jacobo's journey took a bit of a twist over the winter to get him to Manchester.

He finished up last season with Arkansas, the Double-A Texas League team of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, then drove to LA for surgery to repair a micro fracture of his right knee.

“It was major surgery, but I didn't really know that until afterwards,” Jacobo said. “It's wear and tear and it's ended a lot of guys careers and I hear you're lucky to come back from it. I feel fortunate to be where I'm at right now.”

He was on crutches for a couple of months and by the time spring training came around he was in the Blue Jays organization. The team picked him up as a minor league Rule 5 selection on Dec. 14 when the Angels didn't put him on their Triple-A roster.

Jacobo, 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, rehabbed through the winter and into spring camp and was unable to play in any spring games.

He got going with Dunedin and played in 31 games and hit .338 with six home runs and 27 runs batted in. In 2010, he hit 22 homers with 107 RBI and batted .296 in Single-A. Last year, slowed by back issues early and the knee late, he played in 86 games and hit .270 with 10 homers and 49 RBI.

Now, he and his knee are ready to go again.

“I've just got to keep strengthening it,” he said. “I had a pretty complicated surgery. The doctor said, 'You're going to have your aches and pains sometimes.' It's nothing I can't work through. It will be good.”

He may be, too.

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ON THE FARM I: Conway's Jeff Locke was back in New England and pitched Friday night in Pawtucket in a game that caught a little more attention than an everyday Triple-A encounter.

Locke started for the Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh Pirates) and squared off against Daniel Bard, down from the Red Sox and making his first appearance with the PawSox in a couple of years.

Bard was scheduled to pitch only an inning to had an eventful one. He hit two of the first three batters he faced, gave up two hits, struck out two and allowed three earned runs.

Locke went five innings and gave up three runs, all crossing the plate on a home run by Mauro Gomez in the third.

The lefty allowed four hits, struck out seven and walked three.

He was not involved in the decision and his record stay at 4-3. His earned run average moved up a bit from 3.10 to 3.27. Indianapolis won the game, 8-6, in 13 innings.

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ON THE FARM II: Terry Doyle is on a, well, tear.

Doyle, 26 and a Salem High School and Boston College grad, flirted with a no-hitter for the second time in less than two weeks for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights (White Sox) on Thursday.

He did not allow a hit through seven innings on Memorial Day (May 28) and took things a step further on Thursday.

The righty sailed into the ninth against the Toledo Mud Hens before giving up a leadoff double.

Doyle got the next batter, Austin Jackson who was down from the Detroit Tigers on rehab, on a grounder. At that point, he was at 115 pitches and his night was done.

The Knights closed out the 6-1 win and Doyle improved to 6-3 with his fifth straight triumph. He has a 2.83 earned run average.

Allen Lessels is pinch-hitting for Kevin Gray, who covers pro baseball for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, this weekend. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.