Farm Report: 4/16 – Mazzoni Keeps Rolling, Lawley Blast Wins It In 12!

LEHIGH VALLEY 8 – BUFFALO 2

AAA

RHP Jeurys Familia was playing with fire Monday night and his final pitching line was downright diabolical, letting up 6 runs on 6 hits and 6 walks. After four innings pitched, manager Wally Backman had seen enough and promptly exorcised Familia from the mound in favor of right-hander Dylan Owen. The 25 year old reliever quickly allowed two more runs to cross the plate as things completely spiraled out of control against those hot as hell Iron Pigs.

Offensively, the Bisons had a few opportunities to break the game wide open, but mostly they came up woefully short and left an alarming 11 runners on base tonight. Still, there was one bright spot as third baseman Zach Lutz went 3-5 to raise his average to a sizzling .351 on the young season.

Box Score

Herd Rumblings: Bobby Scales continues to impress and has now reached base at least twice in every game he’s started this year. He was on base another three times tonight and now has a jaw-dropping .561 OBP. Bisons pitchers were guilty of issuing ten free passes tonight. Jeurys Famila (6.59 ERA) and Matt Harvey (7.62 ERA) are both off to slow starts to their Triple-A careers. Combined they’ve allowed 55 baserunners in 26.2 innings pitched. Tonight at 6:05, Chris Schwinden (1-1 3.00) will go up against our old friend Pat Misch (1-1 4.50) who was possessed by the Iron Pigs over the winter. Scary stuff, man.

NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 – BINGHAMTON 1

AA

Southpaw Mark Cohoon started and pitched good enough to win, except of course for that wild pitch he uncorked in the third inning allowing the runner from third base to come home with the winning run. And of course that runner may never have been on third base if not for the errant pick-off throw to first base a batter earlier. Yes, it was one of those nights for Cohoon who ended up tossing six innings and allowing two earned runs on seven hits and a pair of walks.

“Resistance is futile.” That’s what the B-Mets must have thought after having baserunners in all nine innings yet only mustering one run against the Fisher Cats last night. But that’s exactly what happens when your offense goes 1-10 with RISP and strands nine runners, five of them on third base.

Center fielder Matt den Decker (.308) and third baseman Oswaldo Navarro (.250) had a pair of hits each with den Dekker scoring the only run of the game for Bingo and picking up his second steal of the season as well. Right fielder Juan Lagares went 0-4 and his batting average (.208) is dangerously close to slipping below the Mendoza Line. As for the rest of the offense? “Nothing to see here, move along”.

Box Score

B-Mets Buzz: Congrats to starter Greg Peavey was named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for the period of April 5th – 15th. Peavey won both his starts during that span, tossing 10.2 scoreless innings. RHP Collin McHugh (1-1 2.31) makes his third start of the season against the Fisher Cats, game time is 6:30 PM.

ST. LUCIE METS 2 – CHARLOTTE 0

High A

Three St. Lucie pitchers combined on a four-hitter last night as the Mets bested the Charlotte Stone Crabs by a score of 2-0. The win gives the first place St. Lucie squad a 3.0 game lead in their division, with an overall record of 9-2.

RHP Cory Mazzoni (2-0) who made his third start of the season for Lucie, pitched 5 innings giving up 3 hits, no runs, one walk, and struck out 4. In doing so he won his second decision of the year and lowered his ERA to 1.13. LHP Hamilton Bennett relieved Mazzoni in the sixth and pitched two hitless, scoreless frames, striking out two. RHP Jeffrey Kaplan came on to hurl the final two innings of the game giving up one hit, striking out two, and earning his 2nd save of the year.

Both runs scored in the top-of-the-5th on a lead-off single to 3B Wilmer Flores, who then stole second. A one-out walk to 1B Richard Lucas, and then a single to RF Rafael Fernandez which drove home Flores with the first run, and set the Mets up with one out, Lucas on third and Fernandez on first. Then catcher Blake Forsythe popped up to shallow right, the right-fielder couldn’t make the catch but alertly threw to second to force Fernandez for the second out of the inning. On the play, Lucas came down the line to score the second run.

Box Score

Lucie Logistics: The first place Mets bring out the brooms and go for the sweep today against the Stone Crabs. Game time is 6:30 pm with RHP Gonzalez Germen (1-0 1.64) making his third start of the season for St. Lucie.

SAVANNAH 6 – ROME 5

Low A

Savannah left-fielder Dustin Lawley led off the top-of-the 12th inning last night with a solo HR to left for his second HR of the year. The blast broke a 5-5 tie, gave the Gnats a 6-5 victory over the Rome Braves, and improved their record to 8-4 on the season. The win also kept them tied for second place, a half-game out of first, in the Southern Division of the South Atlantic League.

Savannah drew first blood in the top-of-the-first when catcher Cam Maron plated 2B T.J. Rivera with an RBI single, and later in the inning a two-out bases loaded walk to CF Travis Taijeron made it 2-0. Rome would come back to tie the score on single runs in the 3rd and 5th.

The Gnats would come swarming back to score single runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings to put them up by a score of 5-2. 1B Brian Harrison broke the tie when he walked with the bases loaded in the 7th. In the 8th, Taijeron hit his 3rd homer of the year, a solo shot to make the score 4-2. Then in the 9th, Harrison walked and with two outs and 3B Aderlin Rodriguez doubled to drive him in, and make the score 5-2 heading into the bottom-of-the 9th.

The Braves stormed back in the 9th scoring 3 runs off of reliever Jared West, to tie the score and move the game into extra innings. After loading the bases on a single and two walks, West gave up a bases-clearing triple to DH Kyle Kubitza to tie the score at 5.

Right-hander Michael Fulmer, last years’ 1st round sandwich pick of the Mets in the 2010 MLB draft, made his second professional start for Savannah. He pitched well, exiting in the fifth inning and taking a no-decision. On the night Fulmer’s line went: 4.1 innings with two runs on 6 hits, no walks and 4 K’s.

He was replaced with one out in the 5th by LHP Carlos Vasquez who pitched 2.2 IP giving up just one walk and one hit, and striking out 5. RHP Estarlin Morel came in to pitch the 8th giving up one hit and striking out 2. That brought on West who gave up the 3 runs in 2 IP of work. LHP T.J. Chism (1-0) pitched the 11th and 12th giving up two hits and striking out two, to earn the win.

Box Score

Gnats Gnotes: Aderlin Rodriguez and Travis Taijeron share the team lead in HR’s with 3 each. T.J. Rivera leads the team in batting with a .419 avg., Taijeron is second, hitting .350. Rodriguez leads the team in RBI’s with 12. Tyler Pill and Alex Panteliodis, who have not been scored upon yet this season, are tied with three other pitchers in the SAL who have a 0.00 ERA. The Gnats continue their three-game set tonite at 7 pm, against Rome with RHP Logan Verrett (0-0 2.70) taking the hill.

Site Note: I’m still looking for one more blogger to join MMO’s Minor League team as we seek to boost our coverage of the Junior Mets. If interested please contact the site at GetMetsmerized@aol.com.