Buffalo Bisons 1 – Durham Bulls 4

Jack Egbert is finally where he should be in the organization and got the results that are to be expected from him against much more experienced hitters who he cannot fool with his junkerball repertoire. He had a terrible night with his control walking four batters and throwing 56% strikes, making the poor results even more understandable. One of his three runs allowed, however, was an inherited runner that Brian Sweeney allowed to score.

Damn. Why can Nick Evans never hit like this when he gets called up to the majors? He has just been on a ridiculous tear as of late hitting a robust .487/.545/.718 in the last 10 games and accounted for all the offense with a solo home run. This is a Lucas Duda-esque hot streak. If only Evans hit like this during his cup of coffees he would most likely be platooning with Daniel Murphy right now. At 25 is it too early to classify him as a Quadruple-A slugger? Michael Fisher had his hit streak snapped at 16 games. Val Pascucci gets to wear the golden sombrero.

Stars of the Game: 1. Nick Evans (2-for-4, 2B, HR, R, RBI, K) (33pts) 2. Fernando Martinez (1-for-4, 2B, K) (26pts) 3. Jason Botts (1-3, BB, K) (8pts)

Binghamton Mets 7 – Akron Aeros 2

Collin McHugh had a big start to earn his first career Double-A victory. He gave up eight hits in 5.2 innings, but put up eight strikeouts, which allowed him to get out of a huge bases loaded and no outs jam with just one run scoring in the 2nd inning. McHugh has actually been a pleasant surprise this year performing a little better than expected and it is encouraging that his strikeouts have been able to hold up at higher levels. Josh Stinson made his first appearance in Binghamton since early April, following his recent demotion. The only thing is this time he is serving as a reliever and not a starter. I called this one a year ago. Never understood why they moved him into the rotation in the first place as he is much better suited in the pen. He pitched a scoreless inning with a hit, walk, and strikeout.

The offense had a great day and put up seven runs in just six innings thanks to the rain. Jordany Valdespin was moved back up to the top of the order today and had a perfect night going 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored. He stole bases 20 and 21 on the season. Raul Reyes‘s monster month continued today with his 4th home run of the season. Reyes now has three home runs and five doubles in June over 69 at-bats. He had one double and one home run through 121 at-bats in April and May.

Stars of the Game: 1. Jordany Valdespin (2-for-2, 2 R, BB, 2 SB) (39pts) 2. Raul Reyes (1-for-2, HR, R, RBI, BB, CS) (11pts) 3. Allan Dykstra (1-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI) (30pts)

St. Lucie Mets 8 – Jupiter Hammerheads 0

This is back-to-back genius performance from Armando Rodriguez. After striking out 10 men with just one walk in his last start, he came back today to strikeout seven with just two walks. Rodriguez faced just one over the minimum through five innings and did not allow a runner to even reach second base until there were two outs in the 6th inning when a Hammerhead baserunner stole second following a walk. Nothing wrong with this start. Eric Niesen is another prospect who has received a recent demotion and pitched a perfect inning of relief as he tries to work on his command issues.

Cory Vaughn hit just four home runs in Savannah over 245 at-bats, which was a big disappointment following his record tying performance in Brooklyn when he hit 14 home runs in 265 at-bats. After going deep in the SAL All-Star game two nights ago, he followed with a two-run shot in his first at-bat in the FSL in a VERY difficult ballpark to get one out of. He picked up two more hits and an intentional walk to finish the night with a 1.000 AVG, 1.000 OBP, and 2.000 SLG%. I love baseball stats in player’s first games. Cesar Puello picked up two RBIs on sac flies in the 4th adn 8th innings.

Stars of the Game: 1. Cory Vaughn (3pts) 2. Armando Rodriguez (5pts) 3. Wilmer Flores (38pts)

Savannah Sand Gnats – Augusta Green Jackets (PPD)

Gonna have to wait one more day to finally get a Low-A game in.

Brooklyn Cyclones 1 – Hudson Valley Renegades 5

Carlos Vazquez was very good in this outing. I hope to get to see him pitch soon to find out what this kid is made of since the Mets appear pretty high on him and his first two starts have looked pretty solid. Vazquez helped himself out with a pickoff in the 5th inning (his second of the game) to make it two out and no one on and it looking like an easy inning. The Renegades were able to put together two singles, a double, and a walk after this scoring a run. One of those singles was a bunt single to Richard Lucas early in the inning and then Lucas threw away an easy ground out two score two unearned runs. One would have to think better defense from Lucas could have prevented this whole mess.

The offense had an off night. The poor offensive output was led by Danny Muno who failed to get a hit or reach base for the first time in his brief professional career. They didn’t have many opportunities to score and got a runner into scoring pitcher just twice in the game. They were able to bring home one of the batters after Javier Rodriguez doubled and J.B. Brown brought him home to score the only run.

Stars of the Game: 1. Javier Rodriguez (1-for-4, 2B, R, 2 K) (9pts) 2. Carlos Vazquez (4.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, ER, 2 BB, 7 SO) (2pts) 3. J.B. Brown (1-for-4, RBI) (1pt)

Kingsport Mets 1 – Johnson City Cardinals 2

Akeel Morris struggled with his command in his first start of the year, but was otherwise very good. He walked for in 3.2 innings of work, but only allowed one hit and struckout four. He also threw a ridiculous four wild pitches.

The offense put together just four hits. Tillman Pugh had a double for the only extra base hit and Julio Concepcion had the only multi hit game.

Stars of the Game: 1. Camden Maron (7pts) 2. Julio Concepcion (2pts) Tillman Pugh (1pt)

GCL Mets 5 – GCL Marlins 3

Neat little line from the starter Miller Diaz. In his five innings of work he got 11 groundouts opposed to no fly outs.

The Mets scored the two winning runs on a crazy play. I can’t even try to understand how it happened, but it sounded like the pitcher threw a wild pitch on a strikeout to score one run and then the second run came around to score when the catcher threw the ball to first to try and get the batter out, but the first baseman could not catch the ball.

Stars of the Game: 1. Miller Diaz (3pts) 2. Juan Carlos Gamboa (2pts) 3. Eudy Pina (1pt)