SWB 1, Buffalo 0
By Sean Kenny
The Bisons pitching today was phenomenal, but the bats were stifled by the SWB Yankees staff, and the Bisons took a hard-luck loss to lose the series after their 1-0 defeat
Chris Schwinden was effective, but couldn’t pitch himself deeper into the game due to some poor control, Schwinden went five and two-third innings, giving up one run on four hits while walking three and striking out six. Schwinden threw 59 of 99 pitches for strikes, and the lack of control is what essentially doomed him as he tired in the sixth inning and gave up a solo home run. Since his return to AAA, Schwinden has been nothing but consistent, allowing no more than two earned runs per start since May 7th. However, Schwinden has also not made it into the seventh inning on the season yet.
The bullpen today was good, with Josh Edgin pitching a clean inning while striking out one, Pedro Beato going two-thirds of an inning walking one and striking out one while regaining his command and velocity, and Chuck James pitching a clean two-thirds of an inning. Despite the promotion of Jack Egbert, the Buffalo bullpen seems to have gained a strong arm in Pedro Beato, and once he recovers can prove to be a reliable piece of the bullpen with the mid-90’s velocity and four-pitch mix.
The Bisons out-hit SWB nine to four, but some poor baserunning by Jordany Valdespin, getting caught stealing and picked off once erasing two of the nine baserunners on the day. Otherwise, the bats were quiet today. Fred Lewis doubled, and was erased on a fielders-choice in the sixth
Herd Rumblings: Jordany Valdespin was 2-for-4 with a strikeout, but got himself out on the bases. Understand the logic in manufacturing runs, but getting picked-off by a righty isn’t a great way to keep your team in the game. Mike Fisher went 2-for-3 with a SB and an error at 3B. Fred Lewis was 2-for-4 with two doubles. Pedro Beato made his second rehab appearance for Buffalo and pitched two-thirds of an inning with no hits, a strikeout, and a walk. The Bisons conclude their record-breaking 16-game homestand with a 4-game series against Columbus starting on Monday. Matt Harvey is expected to take the mound, but a recent pitching shake-up may push him to Tuesday instead. Right-hander Chris Young has been transferred to Triple-A Buffalo and is expected to start for the Bisons on May 31 against Columbus in Buffalo.
Binghamton 6, New Hampshire 1
By Joe DeCaro
Finally a win for the Binghamton Mets as Mark Cohoon gave the team a top-notch performance allowing just one run over seven innings to lead the B-Mets to a 6-1 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Cohoon was very effective in limiting the damage to just one run despite allowing seven baserunners, and he earned the win to improve to 3-5 for the season with a 3.52 ERA in a very gutsy performance.
Robert Carson returned from his cup of coffeee with the Mets and delivered two scoreless innings of relief. I still can’t understand why the Mets chose to keep Manny Acosta and send Carson back who now lowered his ERA to 1.62 for the season.
I guess you want to know how the B-Mets scored all their runs huh? Well actually they engineered a couple of three-run innings in the fourth and sixth which was more than enough to secure the victory over New Hampshire.
The B-Mets loaded them up in the fourth inning and scored their first two runs of the game on RBI singles from Travis Ozga and Juan Lagares. Then Reese Havens drove home the third run with a sac fly to center. In the sixth inning they struck again and would add three more runs when Lagares ripped another RBI single, Juan Centeno grounded into a run-scoring double play, and Pedro Zapata reached on single to score the sixth and final run.
B-Mets Buzz: Juan Lagares was the hitting star of the game going 3-for-4 with two ribbies and a run scored in the game. The B-Mets went 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position and in doing so snapped their three-game losing streak. Binghamton really needs to get some production from their middle infielders as 2B Reese Havens (.159) and SS Sean Kazmar (.235) continue to struggle. The Boys from Bingo will finish up their Memorial Day Weekend series against the Fisher Cats this afternoon at 1:05 PM as my man Collin McHugh looks to improve on his 4-3 record and sparkling 2.15 ERA. Please say a prayer for Tim’s dog who may have had a stroke last night and had been with his family 15 years.
St. Lucie 2, Charlotte 1
By Clayton Collier
Continuing the theme of dominance, the red hot St. Lucie Mets completed the sweep of the Stone Crabs, taking the series finale 2-1.
St. Lucie’s Erik Goeddel took the mound for his seventh start of the season and to be a major reason why this team sits at 39-11 right now. Goeddel went five frames allowing just one run on four hits. The lone run surrendered by him came in the form of an RBI groundout by Mikie Mahtook to score Robby Price, putting up the first run of the ballgame. With his continued dominance, Goeddel has lowered his ERA to 1.36 and should he keep this up, Bingo can’t be far away.
The Mets bats went to work in the sixth off of Braulio Lara and Eliazer Suero to take the lead. Lara got the first two outs but walked Francisco Pena before being relieved by Suero, who wasn’t nearly as effective as Lara. Suero proceeded to allow a double to Juan Torres and a single to Joe Bonfe to score two and put St. Lucie on top for good.
Hamilton Bennett and Adam Kolarek hurled two scoreless frames each to seal the Mets 39th win of the season. Kolarek pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with 2 strikeouts and picked up his seventh save on the year.
Lucie Logistics: Both Cory Vaughn and Juan Torres went 1-4 with a double each, Wilmer Flores and Alonzo Harris went 1-4 as well. Joe Bonfe had the game winning hit in the form of a two-run single in the sixth. Hamilton Bennett delivered his third straight shutout frame and he now has a 4.2 inning scoreless streak. The Mets are off tomorrow on Memorial Day, but pick things up again Tuesday in Palm Beach for a three-game set against the Cardinals. Cory Mazzoni is the scheduled starter.
Savannah 5, Augusta 4
By Joe Di’Orio (Fonzie 13)
In a carbon copy of last weekend’s four game set with Augusta, the Savannah Sand Gnats (30-19) earned a split by defeating the Augusta Green Jackets (21-27) in the last two games of the series, this time in a thrilling 9th inning comeback win at beautiful Lake Umstead Field in Augusta, Georgia.
Sunday afternoon’s contest was a see-saw battle that saw four lead changes starting with the Sand Gnats jumping on the board first with two runs in the top of the 1st. A run scoring double by CF Travis Taijeron and a another RBI by Aderlin Rodriguez, who seems to knock in a run every day, this time on a groundout. The Green Jackets answered in their half of the first on an RBI groundout by SS Kelby Tomlinson, plating CF Jesus Galindo who led off with an infield single, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout to the right side before scoring on the groundout.
In the third, LF Elliot Blair laid down a beauty of a bunt that C Alberto Cordero threw away, allowing Blair to take second, After two punchouts by Gnats starter Jacob DeGrom, Augusta’s Ben Thomas worked out a walk before Mark Minicozzi doubled in both Blair and Thomas to give the Green Jackets a 3-2 advantage.
The score remained 3-2 until the top of the seventh when the Gnats tied the game with another RBI single by little A-Rod who singled home recent callup Cole Frenzel who led off the frame with a single.
Augusta took back the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning after Chasen Bradford allowed a run to make the score 4-3. The Green Jackets decided not to bring in their closer S.A.L. saves leader Cody Hall which turned out to be the turning point of the game as the Gnats tagged reliever Paul Davis for two runs to take back the lead for good and win the game.
Gnats Gnotes: Jacob DeGrom was solid going six innings and giving up three runs on four hits, a walk and six punchouts. Chasen Bradford pitched two innings in relief of DeGrom giving up a run on two hits, two walks and a strikeout. T.J. Chism earned his eighth save of the year. After a 3-for-35 cold spell by Travis Taijeron, he went 2-for-5 on Saturday night with a triple, and 3-for-4 on Sunday afternoon – all doubles. The Sand Gnats head to Greenville on Monday with Alex Panteliodis on the mound and looking for his fourth win of the season.
This is gonna be fun...
