Mets Farm Report: June 20th, 2011

Buffalo Bisons 1 – Durham Bulls 2

A good pitchers duel down in Durham. All of the runs in the game came on just two swings of the bat.

Dylan Owen got another start and pitched very well. He cruised through the first two innings, but it was a double and then two-run home run from Desmond Jennings (Does someone wanna tell me why he isn’t in the majors yet? Sam Fuld, really?). Owen was very sharp after that and came back the next inning to strikeout the side. One of of the better all-around starts from Owen over the last year. This is now two solid bounce back performances from Dale Thayer after struggling immediately following his promotion.

Buffalo is quickly making its shift from the Lucas Duda show to the Zach Lutz show. He now has hits in eight of the 10 games upon his return and reached safely in all, but one game. Lutz accounted for ll the offense with his solo shot in the 6th inning. Michael Fisher chipped in his steady one hit a game.

Stars of the Game: 1. Zach Lutz (2-for-4, HR, R, RBI) (24pts) 2. Dylan Owen (L, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 HR) (6pts) 3. Nick Evans (2-for-4, SO) (26pts)

St. Lucie Mets 3 – Charlotte Stone Crabs 2

Congratulations to the St. Lucie Mets on winning the first half championship and following the Savannah Sand Gnats, who won theirs last week.

This is why Matt Harvey was held back in St. Lucie and he didn’t disappoint in the biggest start of his young career. It wasn’t one of the strikeout dominating performances he has had, but he was able to pitch into the 7th inning and was really only accountable for one run. The Stone Crabs were no match for him early on and he gave up just two hits through the first five innings. It was in the 6th inning, when with to outs the Stone Crabs strung together a double and single to draw the game within one. Harvey got to face just one batter who he walked in the 7th and was taken out for Josh Edgin with three lefties coming up to the plate. Edgin got the first out, but then Jefry Marte misplayed a bunt that turned into a single and Robbie Shields muffed a potential double play ball that wound up resulting in no outs and left the bases loaded with one outs. A sac fly tied the game up, but that was all Edgin would allow. Edgin, Nick Carr, and Jeff Kaplan held down the fort in extra innings to give the offense a chance.

Even though Marte’s poor defensive effort set up one of the Stone Crab’s runs, he was also the reason for the first run with a two-out single to drive in Matt Den Dekker in the 1st inning. In the 5th inning Cesar Puello tried to go first to third on a Shields single, but the throw just beat him. In a heads up play Shields took second base on the throw, which proved to be key because he was able to score on a Francisco Pena single. Puello made up for the base running mistake with the late inning heroics. With two outs and a man on first Puello hit a walk off double for the title.

Stars of the Game: 1. Cesar Puello (3-for-5, 2B, RBI, K) (24pts) 2. Jefry Marte (3-for-5) (30pts) 3. Matt Harvey (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, ER, 2 BB, 4 K) (22pts)

Brooklyn Cyclones 5 – Aberdeen IronBirds 4

Chris Hilliard showed everyone on SNY why he has been able to dominant the New York-Penn League. He has great command and pitchability of his mid to high 80′s fastball that touches 90 mph and a great change up. He probably should at least be in Savannah at this point, but there just isn’t really much room for him anywhere else in the system right now. After Hilliard held the IronBirds scoreless the bullpen nearly blew a four run lead. Orlando Tovar just looked terrible and like a non-prospect and Bobby Ojeda did a great job breaking down the mechanical flaws in Jeremy Gould‘s mechanics. Hopefully Frank Viola sees the same things and can work on fixing him because there is some potential there.

Danny Muno continues to do what he does best. It is clear there are no astonishing tools there, but he has such a good feel for the game. He showed a less than spectacular arm, but is still able to make the plays at short. He doesn’t have blazing speed, but was able to hustle into a triple. He also puts together smart at-bats. The winning run came in on a flyball “single” off the bat of Richard Lucas that barely went 40 ft., but the IronBirds’s first baseman lost the ball and had no idea where it was, allowing Muno scored on the ball.

Stars of the Game: 1. Danny Muno (1-for-3, 3B, 2 R, BB, K) (10pts) 2. Chris Hilliard (W, 5 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 SO, 9:2 GO/AO) (2pts) 3. Javier Rodriguez (1-for-3, RBI, BB, K) (4pts)