Cohoon Effective, But B-Mets Struggle Offensively In 3-1 Loss

Harrisburg 3, Binghamton 1

Mark Cohoon didn’t have his best stuff yet turned in a gritty performance which was good enough to win, but good fortune simply didn’t come his way. Cohoon is a thinking pitcher who maximizes his stuff to out smart opposing hitters. Pitch location is a huge part of the winning Cohoon pitching formula, but the B-Met lefty had difficulty spotting his pitches early in the contest. Even so, Cohoon carried a shutout into the Harrisburg fifth.

Senator shortstop Ricky Hague led off the fifth working a 7-pitch at bat lining the final pitch, a 2-2 off speed delivery, just inside the right field foul line into the corner for a triple. Jerad Head pinch hit and lofted a lazy fly to B-Met rightfielder Cesar Puello, which was not deep enough to plate Hogue. The Senators took a 1-0 lead when Brian Goodman grounded a single just past the B-Met infield. In what turned out to be a critical defensive lapse, Cohoon had Goodman picked off, but the B-Mets allowed him to escape a rundown and reach second base. Unnerved, Cohoon caught Sean Nicol looking on a 73 mph curve for the second out.

Lopez used a double switch, lifting Cohoon, who had thrown 92 pitches, in favor of reliever John Church. Anthony Rendon, the Senator’s second baseman, took Church’s third pitch out of the park for a two run dinger that would prove to be the game winner.

Binghamton scored their only run of the game when Richard Lucas, who had entered the game in the double switch, led off the fifth with a double. He later scored on Danny Muno’s infield ground out, the RBI a team leading 19^th for the B-Met second baseman. The B-Mets slammed four doubles in the contest with Josh Rodriguez getting two and Francisco Pena and Lucas one apiece.

Check out Cohoon’s pitching stats: 4.2 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K

Batters Faced: 20
First Pitch Strikes: 14 of 20 – 70%
Ahead After Three Pitches: 12 of 19 63%
Total Pitches: 92 Strikes: 57 – 62% Balls: 35 – 38%
Strike Breakdown: Called: 24 – 42% Fouled: 14 – 25% Missed: 7 – 12% In Play: 12 – 21%
Full Windup: Total Pitches: 55 Strikes: 35 – 64% Balls: 20 – 36%
Stretch: Total Pitches: 37 Strikes: 22 – 57% Balls: 15 – 43%

Cohoon is more difficult to chart. His fastball range was 86-90 mph, but he only touched 90 on one pitch. Cohoon’s curve ball bites in the low 70’s. He delivers another off-speed pitch the registers in the low 80’s either a change-up or perhaps a slider. With a small differential between this pitch and his fastball, sometimes it makes me think Mark is simply varying the speed of his fastball. The pitch appears to tail at times, but I’m not exactly sure what it is.

I love watching Cohoon pitch. When he’s locked in he delivers pitches with a surgeon’s precision moving knee high pitches along the corners on both sides of the plate.