Mets Minors Daily: Harvey Dominates, Cyclones Beat Yanks Again, Kingsport Loses Season Opener

Harvey Dominates As Bisons Stop Skid

By Andrew O’Brien

Matt Harvey, the ace of the Buffalo Bisons pitching staff, did exactly what he’s supposed to do Tuesday evening: play the role of a stopper. Harvey tossed six dominant innings and the bullpen held on as the Bisons defeated Norfolk, 6-1, to stop a five-game losing streak.

Scoring began in the third inning when the Bisons were down 1-0. Rob Johnson led the inning off with a double and Michael Fischer followed up with a single. Then Corey Wimberly walked to load the bases with nobody out.

Ronny Cedeno then cleared the bases with a soft liner to center field. But Tides center fielder Nate McLouth airmailed the throw to the infield and the bases were cleared. The Herd went up 3-1. Val Pascucci plated Cedeno with an RBI groundout.

The Herd tacked on a couple more runs to solidify a comfortable into the later innings. In the sixth, Wimberly hit a sacrifice fly to the outfield to drive in Johnson for a 5-1 lead. In the seventh, Matt den Dekker scored on a force out to give the Bisons the 6-1 final score.

Harvey (6-3) finished the game tossing six strong innings, allowing six hits and one earned run while striking out seven and walking two. In relief of Harvey, the Bisons bullpen threw three innings, allowing no runs and one hit, striking out three.

Den Dekker went 1-for-4 with a triple .

Herd Rumblings: The Bisons are 3-3 against the Tides this season. Their record at Harbor Park is now 38-20 overall. Val Pascucci was issued two walks to increase his team lead to 49 and second in the IL. Bisons pitchers struck out a total of 10 Tides Tuesday night. Buffalo (38-34) continues its four-game series against Norfolk at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Binghamton Swept In Twin-Killing 

By Tim Burns

The Binghamton Mets began their nine game road trip on a sour note Tuesday night in Akron, Ohio against the hometown Aeros, losing both games of the doubleheader by scores of 6-4 and 4-2.

Game one of the night was a continuation of the game that was suspended on June 3rd at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton. Heavy rains caused the game to be suspended in the top of the fourth inning with Akron in the lead by a score of 2-1. At the time, Akron left fielder Nick Weglarz was at the plate with a 1 and 2 count. The Aeros first baseman Adam Abraham was the lone base runner at the time, standing on first. With no more trips to Binghamton scheduled for Akron in 2012, the teams had to finish the game on Tuesday night in Akron with the B-Mets as the ‘home’ team.

To resume the game, Armando Rodriguez relieved starter Greg Peavey. Rodriguez threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits – two of which were Aeros home runs – while striking out eight along the way. Rodriguez threw a total of 89 pitches on the night, 67 of which were for strikes.

After the B-Mets tied the score in the bottom of the ninth, Brad Holt was brought in at the top of the tenth. Before Holt recorded his first out of the inning he issued three walks, gave up a single, and threw a wild pitch. Two of the three walks he gave up were with the bases loaded and accounted for the two runs surrendered by Holt in the tenth. Holt’s line on the night read four walks, one hit, two earned runs, and one strikeout, as well as being issued the loss. He threw a total of 31 pitches in his 1/3 of an inning, only eleven of them for strikes.

Ryan Fraser replaced Holt on the mound, inheriting the bases loaded, and promptly struck out both batters he faced to end the inning.

In the batters box for the B-Mets, Josh Rodriguez was 1/3 in the game, with a double and subsequent run scored in the bottom of the ninth. Rodriguez’s run was what tied the game and sent it into extra innings. Eric Campbell saw his current team leading hitting streak come to an end at five games as he went 0/2 with two walks in the game.

The Binghamton Mets didn’t fare any better in the nightcap, dropping the second game by a score of 4-2 in seven innings.

Mark Cohoon was on the bump for Pedro Lopez’s B-Mets, and he went the distance. The Aeros tagged him for three runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Cohoon allowed two singles, a double, and a home run in that frame. All told, he gave up four earned runs on seven hits, striking out five and issuing no walks to Akron batters.

Josh Rodriguez continued right where he left off in game two. Rodriguez went 2/3 including a solo home run in the third which brought the B-Mets to within one run of the Aeros.

Juan Lagares scored the other B-Mets run in the game during a wild top half of the second. Lagares, who was the leadoff batter in the inning, reached on a fielding error by the Aeros second baseman Matt Lawson. Lagares then stole second, and advanced to third on a failed pick off attempt by Aeros pitcher Paolo Espino. Lagares scored the B-Mets first run of the game when Juan Centeno tripled to center field.

B-Mets Buzz: It’s two more for the B-Mets on Wednesday night in Akron. In game one of the doubleheader Binghamton will actually be the ‘home’ team as it is a makeup game from one that was cancelled on June 4th. The only definite pitcher as of press time was Zack Wheeler (6-2, 1.92) throwing for the B-Mets in game one. In a roster move on Monday, Jeff Stevens was assigned to the Binghamton Mets from the Buffalo Bisons. In 22 games with the Bisons this season, Stevens was 0-1 with a 4.33 ERA.

St. Lucie Mets Looted In 7-0 Shutout

By Satish Ram

Jameson Taillon is a name that might be familiar to some of you all – he was a name to watch from the 2010 draft as he went #2 to the Pirates. He showcased his talent tonight against St.Lucie as he blanked them over 7 innings, allowing a mere four base runners – one hit and three walks. K. Kasparak and Z. Foster combined to finish the shutout against us, in which we had more chances than the scoreboard would have shown.

The Mets drew six walks but failed to capitalize, scrounging a mere two hits (Alonzo Harris and Blake Forsythe) against the Marauders’ pitching.

Although our staff walked eight for the game, it was not all bad, as starter Eric Goeddel struck out 7 over 5 and a third, allowing 3 R (2 ER) on four hits and three walks. Jack Leathersich and John Church rounded out the final 2.2 IP, allowing 4 ER on 4 H and 5 BB. Goeddel falls to 2-2 but still rocks a 2.33 E.R.A. for the season.

Lucie Logistics: Went 0-4 tonight for St. Lucie (A) of the Florida State League vs. Bradenton…He played all nine innings at shortstop…Tejada is 1-9 the last two nights in rehabilitation games…He has been on the 15-Day Disabled List since May 7 with a right quad strain.

Undefeated Cyclones Take Another From The Yankees

By Clayton Collier

Hitting the ground running, the Brooklyn Cyclones are now 2-0 on the year, besting the crosstown rival Staten Island Yankees by a score of 4-1.

Luis Mateo took the hill his first outing of the 2012 season and had the Yankees completely off balance over the course of the ballgame. Mateo went 5 2/3 frames allowing just one run on two hits while walking one and punching out a staggering nine batters, picking up the win. The lone run came on a Saxon Butler solo homer, his first of the year, but that did not take away from this absolute gem of an outing by Luis Mateo.

First round supplemental pick Kevin Plawecki, started at catcher and got his pro baseball career started by getting plunked by the Yankees’ Gabriel Encinas, opening up a big inning for the ‘Clones. Scoring two runs in the second, Brooklyn beat up on Encinas who would leave the game with an injury after 1 2/3 frames.

It only got worse for Staten Island then as the Cyclones would tack on another run in the fourth on a Eudy Pina groundout and again in the seventh in the form of a Cole Frenzel, scoring 2011 first round pick Brandon Nimmo to make it a 4-1 game.

The hometown kid Jon Mincone came on for Brooklyn and had himself a fine outing, delivering 2 1/3 hitless frames in his debut with the franchise he used to root for as a kid. Jeremy Gould then came on to close out the ninth and struck out the side to pick up his first save of the year and keep the Cyclone undefeated at 2-0.

Brooklyn Brew: Brandon Nimmo has only gotten one hit so far in his first two games of the year, but now boasts three walks and two runs on the season. Phillip Evans went 1-4 with a walk in the win and now is batting .429 over the first two games. Kevin Plawecki took an 0-fer in his professional baseball debut but scored a run in the second after being hit by a pitch. Alexander Sanchez had himself a 2-hit game out of the cleanup spot, and finally last, but certainly not least was Cole Frenzel, who had a three hit ballgame driving in a run while scoring two himself. The ‘Clones look to clinch a series win against the Yankees at Staten Island tonight at 7pm.

Kingsport Comes Up Short In Season Debut

By Pete Shapiro

The Kingsport Mets came up empty in their Appalachian League season opener last night in Princeton, West Virginia, losing to the Rays by a final score of 8-4. Right-hander Akeel Morris (0-1) started for the K-Mets and was roughed up a bit in 3.0 innings of work, giving up six hits, six runs, four earned, with one walk and two strikeouts. Princeton lefty Blake Snell (1-0) got the win, going five innings and giving up no runs, on one hit, three walks, and seven strikeouts. Left-hander Shane Bay and right-hander Matt Budgell combined to throw 5 innings of relief for the K-Mets, with Bay giving up two runs, one earned, in his 3.2 innings of work, and Budgell allowing nothing across on just a walk in 1.1 innings.

The big blow in the game came on a grand-slam home run off Morris in the bottom of the fourth by Princeton CF James Harris, which made the score 6-0 at the time. The first Kingsport hit of the season didn’t come until there were two outs in the seventh inning. That’s when LF Joe Tuschak connected for a home run to right field making it 6-1. The final three Kingsport runs of the night would score with two outs in the eighth, and Princeton on top by a score of 8-1. K-Mets DH Jeff Diehl, batting with the bases loaded, drove in three with a bases-clearing double to center field which capped the scoring.

Kingsport Knews: The K-Mets only tallied six total hits in the game. Eris Peguero, a speedy lefty-hitting center fielder from the Dominican Republic, went 2-for-4 with two singles, while 2012 4th-round pick 2B Branden Kaupe, had a Silver Sombrero with three strikeouts in his pro debut. Tonight the K-Mets take on Princeton in game two of this season opening three-game set, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm.