Amed Rosario (Photo by Jim Mancari)
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – For the Brooklyn Cyclones, the “Curse of SNY” continues.
The Mets Single-A short season squad was televised Thursday night on SNY, and the team dropped an 8-6 contest in 10 innings to the Jamestown Jammers, the short season affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, at MCU Park in Coney Island.
The Cyclones (15-18) are now 2-6 in the past three years when being televised on the Mets’ TV network and have been outscored 50-27 in those games. The loss is also the seventh straight for Brooklyn, which is 4-14 in its last 18 games after getting off to a fast 11-4 start. The losing streak matched the second longest streak in franchise history, and four errors certainly didn’t help with the effort.
“Losing teams will find ways to lose, and unfortunately, we’re in the midst of that right now,” said Cyclones manager Tom Gamboa. “This is a game tonight that we didn’t lose as much as we flat out just gave it away. These guys will learn that no one feels sorry for you in this game. This will keep happening until they make a decision as a unit that enough is enough.”
Other than committing an error, young shortstop Amed Rosario had a good night at the plate, finishing 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI. He’s now hitting .284 on the season, which is almost at the halfway point. Third baseman Jhoan Ureña also drove in two runs on the night.
But the Cyclones’ collective offensive struggles continued in the loss to the Jammers. In what wound up being the Cyclones longest game of the season at 4:03, Brooklyn jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first two innings, and those five runs were more than the team scored in any full game during the six previous contests.
However, Brooklyn only mustered one run over the next eight innings, which allowed Jamestown to claw back for the victory.
Cyclones closer Shane Bay suffered his first loss of the season after surrendering two runs in the top of 10th inning. Right hander Casey Meisner started for Brooklyn and only lasted 2.1 innings, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks.
The team’s strikeout rate has been through the roof through the first 32 games of the summer. In 1,051 official at-bats, Cyclones’ batters have struck out 305 times, which is a 29.1 percent rate. They’ve had 14 games in which they’ve amassed 10 or more strikeouts.
“We’ll just have to regroup again tomorrow,” Gamboa said. “It’s not fun to get beat day after day, especially when we give it away like we did tonight.”
The team should receive an offensive boost when Mets first-round draft pick Michael Conforto makes his professional debut Saturday. Meanwhile, the team will try to snap its losing skid Friday night at home against the Jammers, as lefty Carlos Valdez bids for his third win of the season.
Click here to view the complete box score of this game.
