You call that grand? I'll show you grand...
Buffalo 5, Toledo 3
By Joe D.
Matt Harvey started the game and really labored through four innings after which Wally Backman had seen enough and pulled his young righty after 84 pitches. Harvey didn’t allow a run, but simply didn’t have it having allowed four hits and dishing out an alarming five walks. Was it a terrible day? No, not at all, but it was clear he was struggling mentally and physically, so Backman did the right thing and pulled him before things could have gotten worse. He’ll be back to pitch another day.
The big blow in the game offensively for the Herd came thanks to a Matt Tuiasosopo grand slam that broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning. Toledo responded with a couple of runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, but Brad Emaus padded the Herd’s lead with a solo homer in the ninth to make the score 5-2 as they headed into the bottom of the ninth.
Closer Fernando Cabrera allowed a solo homerun, but did manage to record all three outs and pick up his 12th save of the season for Buffalo.
Herd Rumblings: The New York Mets today announced that Ruben Tejada has joined the Buffalo Bisons on an injury rehab assignment. He will be available for tonight’s game against the Mud Hens in Toledo. Bisons pitchers struck out 10 Mud Hens in the game.The Bisons added Manny Acosta to the roster after he cleared waivers to replace Josh Satin who was promoted to the Mets. Fernando Cabrera leads the league in saves with a dirty dozen.
B-Mets 2, Akron Aeros 1 (Suspended)
By Tim Burns
Heavy rains rolled through Binghamton on Sunday afternoon, halting the B-Mets game against the Akron Aeros. The game was suspended in the top of the fourth inning, with the B-Mets leading the Aeros by a score of 2-1.
The two teams will resume the game on Monday morning at NYSEG Stadium as part of a doubleheader. The originally scheduled ‘baseball in education’ day game – a 10:35 start – will follow the completion of Sunday’s suspended game.
In accordance with Rule 4.12(a)(8) of the Major League Rulebook, tomorrow’s regularly scheduled game with be seven innings in length and will be played following the completion of the suspended game.
I’ll have a recap of both games tomorrow so you waon’t miss any of the action.
St. Lucie 5, Tampa 3
By Clayton Collier
Coming off their two division clinching victories yesterday, the St. Lucie Mets continued to steam roll the Florida State league, besting the Tampa Yankees 5-3.
Cory Mazzoni took the hill for the Mets and put together yet another good outing, hurling six frames while surrendering only two runs on a two-run homer off the bat of Neil Medchill in the second. Mazzoni is now 5-0 and has had a quality start in all but two of his outings in 2012.
The Yankee’s Shane Greene had the Mets number as he went four scoreless frames, getting half of the outs via the strikeout. It wasn’t until Tampa’s bullpen came on however, that the tide of the game shifted.
Down 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, St. Lucie’s bats came to life off of relievers Manuel Barreda and Matt Bashore in a big way. Starting off with a walk to Wilmer Flores, Barreda allowed the first four men of the inning to reach base before being pulled for Bashore, who succeeded in making things much worse. After getting Robbie Shields to groundout, Bashore surrendered a base hit to ZeErika McQueen and issued two bases loaded walks to make it a 5-3 ballgame and put the Mets in the driver’s seat for good.
After Mazzoni’s day was done, Church came on and after a scoreless seventh, ran into some trouble come top eight. Neil Medchill singled home JR Murphy who walked earlier in the inning to make it a two-run game. After that Ryan Fraser came in to stop the bleeding. First surrendering a hit to make it 1st and third with one out, Fraser retired the next two batters to end the threat. Fraser also pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to shut the door, clinching a series win against the rival Yankees.
Lucie Logistics: Jason Bay went 2-3 with a walk and an RBI in his second rehab game since his broken rib injury. Wilmer Flores went 1-4 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI. Alonzo Harris took an 0-3 but also had two walks and an RBI as well. The Mets will look to go for a series sweep tomorrow at home against the Tampa Yankees starting at 6:30pm.
Greensboro 8, Savannah 6
By Fonzie13
Sunday afternoon in Savannah, the Greensboro Grasshoppers(MIA)(40-19) outlasted the Sand Gnats (33-23) 8-6 at Historic Grayson Stadium.
Both teams brought their hitting shoes Sunday as the 2 teams combined for 14 runs and 27 hits. Shoddy defense by the Sand Gnats contributed to the damage suffered by Gnats starter Alex (Pants) Panteliodis (3-4 3.50) as the Grasshoppers scored 6 unanswered runs by the 4th inning.
Alex did not have his usual good stuff, lasting only 3 2/3rds giving up 6 runs 3 earned on 8 hits, walking 1 and fanning 2. Alex was touched up for 2 runs in the 2nd and 4 in the 4th, 3 of the 4 were unearned due to the error by SS TJ Rivera his 2nd error of the day.
The Sand Gnats scored their 1st run on a leadoff HR in the 5th by 2B Brandon Brown, his 1st of the season. Greensboro got that run right back in the top of the 6th to get their 6 run cushion back.
The Gnats fought back with 3 rund in the 7th, as TJ Rivera led off the frame reaching on an error by his counterpart a SS Terrence Dayleg, Travis Taijeron followed with a 2 run shot his team leading 11th of the season and Aderlin Rodriguez went back to back with Trav for his 10th of the season and team leading 40th RBI and cut the lead in half.
The Grasshoppers scored a run on 2 doubles in the 8th, to make the score 8-4 which was carried into the 9th. After 2 quick outs in the home half of the 9th Lil A-Rod reached on his 4th hit of the day and Brian Harrison hit a 2 run HR to left that just cleared the wall to cut the lead to 8-6. RF Charley Thurber singled bring the tying run to the plate but the Gnats would fall short when C Alberto Cordero would ground out to thwart the comeback attempt. With the loss the Gnats settled for a 4 game split with the Northern Division leaders.
Gnats Gnotes: The Sand Gnats have monday night off before they head to Asheville to take on the Southern Division leading Tourists for a 3 game set. The Gnats dropped back to 6.5 games in the Southern Division in 3rd place. Aderlin Rodriguez continues to light up Sally league pitching to the tune of 351/419/730 13 hits 2 2B’s 4 HR’s 7 RBI’s over his last 10 games raising his season totals to 264/339/488 13 2B’s 10 HR’s and 40 RBI’s after a horrendous start.
