Mets Farm Report: Pascucci Busts Out With 5 RBI, Flores Homers, Frenzel and Maron Are Red Hot

Buffalo 9, Louisville 4

By Sean Kenny

Garrett Olson had a quality outing today, and the Bisons bats would strike again in their 9-4 win against the Louisville Bats.

LHP Garrett Olson may have not been unstoppable today, but he pitched a quality outing going six and one-third innings allowing three runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out five. Olson just had a rough go of it in the third inning, but buckled down for another three and one third innings to keep the Bisons in the game and allow his offense to keep them in the game. Pedro Beato came out and pitched an inning and two-thirds, allowing one unearned run on one hit while walking two and striking out one. Beato has been the strongest arm out of the Bisons pen, and the next sign of faltering in the Mets pen may see Beato getting the call. Josh Edgin came out for the ninth, allowing one hit and striking out the side.

The Bisons offense scored at least one run from the second to the sixth innings. Val Pascucci had a huge day, going 3 for 3 with five RBI and a walk. Four Bisons would wind up with two hits or more (Valdespin, Lewis, Pascucci, Satin). Rob Johnson hit a solo home run, and Matt Den Dekker continued his ability to create contact while at the same time striking out roughly once every five at-bats. The Bisons did play a bit of sloppy defense, with Josh Rodriguez and Jordanny Valdespin having an error each on the day.

Herd Rumblings: Josh Satin has a seven game hit streak, and has two or more hits in his last six games. Pedro Beato has only given up three earned runs in 20 innings for Buffalo, with control being his biggest concern as evidenced by his 2:1 K/BB ratio. Josh Edgin is on a streak of five scoreless outings spanning four and one-third innings in which he has struck out eight and walked three while allowing two hits. Tomorrows series finale will see the Bisons send RHP Colin McHugh (0-2, 8.10) against the Bats and RHP Sean Gallagher (6-4, 5.11). Game time is 7:05 PM

Player Of The Game: Valentino Pascucci had a ridiculous day today, reaching base in every plate appearance and being the catalyst for the Bisons on offense.

Bowie 7, Binghamton 3

By Joe D.

The Binghamton Mets fell behind early against the Bowie Baysox and were never able to recover in their 7-3 loss on Wednesday night at NYSEG Stadium.

Germen Gonzalez started for the B-Mets and quickly got into trouble by surrendering three first inning runs on a leadoff single followed by an RBI double and a two-run homer by Manny Machado to put the Baysox up 3-0. Bowie plated another run off Germen in the fifth on a sac fly. That would be all for Germen wjo allowed four runs on six hits while striking out three. The loss ended Germen’s three-game winning streak and left him with a 4.06 ERA for the season.

Jeff Stevens took over in the sixth inning and gave his team a chance to come back by pitching two perfect innings with two strikeouts. Nice job there by Stevens who has been very effective out of the pen and boasts a 2.45 ERA. Bowie then proceeded to rough up Erik Turgeon who allowed three more runs to score and put the game out of reach. Turgeon is getting creamed this season and his 7.97 ERA is the worst in the league among qualifiers.

Offensively, the B-Mets got three hits from Juan Lagares who has been heating up of late. Wilmer Flores played second base and hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, his first as a B-Met.

B-Mets Buzz: Binghamton Mets Manager Pedro Lopez was ejected by home plate umpire Luke Hamilton in the 7th for arguing a call too passionately. 🙂 In addition to allowing eight baserunners and three runs in two innings, Turgeon also had a wild pitch and a throwing error on a pickoff throw to first base. Juan Lagares has a .381 OBP in his last ten games with eight runs scored. Here comes Reese Havens! The second baseman got another hit Wednesday night and is batting .343 with a 1.032 OPS in his last ten games. Rumors of his demise were very premature. Binghamton surrendered a dozen hits in their fourth straight loss at home. The B-Mets (36-40) continue their series against the Baysox Thursday night at 6:35 PM. LHP Darin Gorski gets the nod for Binghamton against RHP Bobby Bundy.

Daytona 12, St. Lucie 1

The Cubs pounded out 17 hits and pulled away with a six-run fifth as Daytona defeated the St. Lucie Mets 12-1 on Wednesday at Digital Domain Park.

Blake Forsythe went 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the eighth inning to account for the lone run. Rylan Sandoval went 2-for-5 and scored on Forsythe’s hit.

Yohan Almonte allowed a season-high 11 runs and 12 hits in five innings with one walk and one strikeout. Matt Szczur hit a grand slam off Almonte in the fifth to give the Cubs an 11-0 lead. Taylor Whitenton pitched two innings and gave up one run and four hits and recorded one strikeout. Adam Kolarek tossed a pair of scoreless innings and gave up one hit and struck out one.

Lucie Logistics: St. Lucie had their chances, but were only able to score one run despite 12 baserunners in the game. They stranded eleven batters and were 1-for-10 with RISP. The Mets will open a three-game road series against the Jupiter Hammerheads on Thursday. Chase Huchingson is the scheduled starter for the Mets.

Charleston 8, Savannah 5

By Joe D.

Red-hot catcher catcher Cam Maron’s first-inning homer put Savannah on top to start the game and Aderlin Rodriguez’s three-run shot in the sixth gave the Gnats a comfortable 5-2 lead. But starter Logan Verrett fell victim to some poor play in the field and left the game in the seventh with the score knotted at 5-5.

Reliever Randy Fontanez allowed Charleston to blow the game wide open with three more unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth which sealed the victory for the RiverDogs.

It was a sloppy game for the Gnats who committed three errors in the game that all proved costly. Aderlin Rodriguez, Dustin Lawley and Ismael Tijerina were the culprits.

Verret’s final pitching line was 6.2 innings pitched with just three hits allowed, but one of them was a home run. He walked two and struck out seven.

Gnats Gnotes: Cam Maron continues to hit and has been a permanent fixture as the No. 3 batter in the lineup since he was moved up from the bottom of the order over a week ago. Only three of the five runs Logan Verrett allowed were earned and his 2.70 ERA is a good indication of how solid he has been this season. Jacob DeGrom takes his 3-1 record and 2.70 ERA to the hill as Savannah wraps up their series with Charleston tonight at 7:05 PM.

Brooklyn 4, Hudson Valley 1

By Clayton Collier

In a battle for first place Brooklyn Cyclones bested the now second place Hudson Valley Renegades behind some excellent pitching by a final score of 4-1.

Hansel Robles got the start for Brooklyn coming off a tough loss in which he allowed just one run over five innings, he made sure he’d get the win today. Robles scattered four hits over 5 2/3 shut out frames, while walking nobody and punching out four. After getting himself into a 3rd and 2nd jam, he was pulled in the sixth in favor of David Wynn who then retired the side to end the threat, securing Robles first win of the season.

The only run surrendered by Cyclones pitching came in the eighth when Winn came on for his third inning of relief and loaded the bases up before putting Thomas Coyle on to walk in a run and make it a 4-1 ballgame before Ernesto Yanez came on and retired the side.

The lineup had a shakeup today as Brandon Nimmo was dropped to eighth in the lineup and Stefan Sabol and Cole Frenzel moved up to fourth and fifth in the order respectively. This shift paid dividens as they scored early and often off of the Renegades pitching. An RBI groundout in the second, a Dimas Ponce RBI single and a forceout scored two in the third and a Eudy Pina RBI knock in thr fourth tacked Brooklyn up to a four-run lead off of starter Sean Bierman, who took the loss.

Tyler Vanderheiden came on for the ninth and hurled a scoreless frame to pick his third save and place the Brooklyn Cyclones back in sole possesion of first place.

Brooklyn Brew: With his win today, Robles has now lowered his ERA to 0.84 on the year. The drop in the batting order didn’t help Brandon Nimmo much as he went 0-for-3 on the night with a walk and two strikeouts. Cole Frenzel stayed hot with another 2-for-3 performance to boost his average to .414 on the year. Eudy Pina and Dimas Ponce both had two-hit games and Pena now leads the team in RBIs with 11. Phillip Evans, Stefn Sabol and Juan Carlos Gamboa all had knocks in the win as well. The Cyclones open up a series with the Aberdeen Ironbirds at MCU Park starting at 7pm.

Danville 8, Kingsport 1

By Pete Shapiro

The Danville Braves took advantage of some really awful pitching by the Kingsport Mets and swept them away defeating them for the third night in a row on Wednesday by a final score of 8-1. Five wild pitches, a balk, two errors, eight walks, and a hit batter all in the same game does not bode too well for an evening of enjoyable baseball. Couple that with an offense that put up one run on five hits including one double, for the game, and it makes you want to gag just a little bit.

K-Met right-hander Persio Reyes (0-2, 11.42) started and was mercifully pulled after 4.2 innings after he had given up single earned runs in the second, third, and fourth innings. Not yet finished, he went out with a flourish in this Ollie Perez-esque performance, giving up two more earned runs in the fifth. When he left the game the score was 5-1 Danville, but things would soon get worse. Reliever Martires Arias, the enormous 6’7″ righty from the Dominican Republic, came in and pitched very well, first getting out of the fifth inning without any further damage, and pitching a perfect sixth as well.

But then right-hander Luis Rengel was summoned from the pen to pitch the seventh and the weirdest inning of the night occurred when he gave up an earned run on no hits, no sacrifices, and no advancements on ground balls or fly-outs. With one out in the inning, Rengel hit Casey Kalenkosky with a pitch, and then wild-pitched him to second. After a ground-out in which the runner was forced to remain at second, a walk to Edison Sanchez on another wild-pitch, moved Kalenkosky to third with Sanchez now on first. With Trenton Moses batting yet another wild-pitch, Rengel’s third of the inning, allowed Kalenkosky to come into score making it 6-1. He then walked Moses, but no more runs would score in the inning.

Left-hander Zach Dotson came into pitch the eighth inning and for the second time this year he was simply dreadful. It makes me wonder if he isn’t hurt the way he is throwing the ball. Last night he only lasted a-third of an inning. The good news is he didn’t give up any hits. That’s because you’d have to be swinging a ten-foot pole in a submarine to be able to even reach any of his offerings. He walked three, threw a wild-pitch, had an error made behind him, and gave up two runs, one earned, making it 8-1. Right-hander Andres E. Perez had to come into the game to get the final two outs.

The hitting “star” of the game for Kingsport was, guess who? That’s right Eris Peguero. And no his name is not Eric. He went 3-for-4 with a double, and Kingsport’s only RBI of the game when he doubled home second-baseman Yeixon Ruiz who had singled in the top of the third. That was it for the K-Mets offense who only got two more singles from Peguero, and one from catcher Alex Machillanada, the rest of the game.

Right-hander Rafael Briceno (1-0, 6.35) got the win for Danville going six innings and allowing just the one run on three hits, with nine strikeouts. Three different Braves hitters had two RBI apiece in the game.

Kingsport Knews: It’s no wonder the Kingsport Mets are 1-8 to start the year with the worst record in the Appalachian League. Not only is their pitching staff ranked last or second to last in the league in every significant category, but the K-Mets lead the league in errors with 21 in just nine games. They also lead in wild-pitches by a wide margin (pardon the pun). Seventeen wild-pitches thrown in 67.0 total innings this year. South-paw Zach Dotson has pitched in two games for a total of two-thirds of an inning. He has given up three earned runs. on a hit and five walks with three wild-pitches and a hit batter. His ERA so far stands at 40.50. Outfielder Eris Peguero continues to show why he is simply too far advanced as a hitter to be playing in this league, and he really would benefit from more of a challenge. His 3-for-4 night last night raised his slash-line to .444/.447/.472 in 36 AB’s. That’s good enough to rank him ninth in the league in OBP, third in the league in batting average, and tied for first in hits with 16. Second-baseman Branden Kaupe is second in the league in OBP with a .542, and fourth in walks with eight. The K-Mets now take on the Bluefield Blue Jays at home for three games starting Thursday night. Right-hander John Gant makes his second start for Kingsport, game time is 7:00 pm.