Col. Springs 8, Las Vegas (29-19) 3
The 51’s offense outside of Alex Castellanos who had half the teams hits and either knocked in or score each of the three Las Vegas runs. Castellanos who was playing CF for the 3rd time in 4 games was 2-4 with his 10th HR, 14th double, scored twice, and knocked in two runs giving him 33 RBI’s on the year. His homeruns are good for 4th in the PCL, doubles put him in 5th, the RBI’s 6th, and his .642 SLG is 2nd in the league. Travis Taijeron was the only other Las Vegas position player to get a hit driving in Castellanos with his 7th inning double (4th) giving him 21 RBI’s for the year. Johnny Monell walked and scored on Castellanos 2-run blast while Wilfredo Tovar was 0-2 walking once then stealing his 12th bag of the year. Pitcher Matthew Bowman was 1-2 with a single while Wally Backman used a pitcher as a pinch hitter for the 2nd straight night. Matt Reynolds was 0-4 with 3 strikeouts seeing his average drop to its lowest point since it was .250 on April 17th.
Bowman has struggled severely against left handed hitters this year as they are hitting .390 against him with 9 homeruns in just 21.1 innings. The Sky Sox knew this bolstering their lineup with 6 left handers and it worked as they had 6 of the 7 hits including two HR’s and two doubles. As the plus side Bowman held righties to a 1-8 night, settling down to retire 10 of the last 11 hitters he faced other than a solo HR by former Met farmhand Matt Clark. Scott Rice came in to pitch the 7th almost starting a brawl after bouncing a pitch near Scooter Gennett‘s feet then sailing the next pitch behind him. The Sky Sox bench and manager were upset that no warning was given prompting them to start coming on the field, which led to some of the 51’s players coming onto the field. Other than Sky Sox manager who proceeded to argue until he was tossed, cooler heads prevailed and nothing came of the incident physically. Rice ended up pitching a scoreless inning while striking out one. John Church had a rough 8th inning giving up three runs including giving up the 2nd HR of the night to Shane Peterson (hit 1st off Bowman in 1st). Jon Velasquez pitched a scoreless uneventful 9th inning in his 6th appearance since being promoted to AAA. Box Score. Here is video of the Castellanos HR.
Binghamton (25-22) 2, Portland 0
The B’Mets snapped their 4-game losing streak thanks to a combined shutout from Luis Cessa, Chase Huchingson, and Paul Sewald. Cessa threw 6 scoreless innings allowing just three hits and walking none while striking out five picking up his 4th win of the year. Cessa retired 13 out of the last 14 hitters he faced after needing 49 pitches to get through the first two innings. Cessa was effectively using all three of his pitches, even getting a strikeout on his seldomly used curveball. Huchingson had two much needed scoreless innings with three strikeouts to bridge the gap to shutdown closer Sewald. Sewald let Portland get the tying runs on base with two outs via singles before getting Aneury Tavarez to pop out to Josh Rodriguez in foul territory to end the game and pick up his 8th save.
The B’Mets went just 2-10 with runners in scoring position on the day but needed only Aderlin Rodriguez‘s two-run double in the 6th to come out with the victory. Rodriguez has four hits and five RBI’s over his last 3 games since he found out he was back to playing everyday with David Cooper retiring. Gavin Cecchini was 3-4 on the day with his 10th double of the season, his slash line is now .298/.355/.468. He is thriving leading off in the first inning going 8-17 with only one strikeout in that situation. Jayce Boyd was 1-4 with his league leading 16th double which could be his last in AA as he was promoted to Las Vegas after the game. The B’Mets are now down two position players with glaring wholes in left field and second base. Box Score.
The B’Mets start a series in Altoona tonight at 6:00 ET with Michael Fulmer (1-0, 2.95) making the start.
Lakeland 4, St. Lucie (22-25) 3
Dominic Smith had a great at bat with nobody on with two outs in the 9th down two runs working himself out of a 0-2 whole to double down the left field line and keep the Mets alive. Amed Rosario followed with a RBI single. moving to 2nd on a wild pitch giving Yeixon Ruiz a chance to tie the game with a single. Ruiz made solid contact on a liner to center field but it hung up too long with the center fielder securing the catch to end the game. Smith’s double was his 12th of the season and his 9th in the last 12 games. Smith also singled in the 5th inning that extended his hitting streak to 10 games the longest in the Mets minors right now. Smith was hitting .143/.194/.159 on May 7th and has raised that to .250/.298/.341 in the last three weeks. Travis d’Arnaud was the DH for 7 innings going 0-3 on the night with a walk and a RBI groundout but has yet to hit the ball out of the infield in two games. Rosario was 2-4 with a walk, his 8th RBI raising his slash line to .277/.323/.373 on the year. Rosario has hit .309/.368/.433 in May with 8 walks, not bad for 19-year old who skipped Low-A. Jeff McNeil had his 20th multi-hit game of the season going 2-3 with two walks, 6th double, and scored a run, improving his league leading average to .352. Michael Conforto was 0-5 on the night but hit three long fly ball outs including a 400 foot one in his 2nd at bat.
Robert Whalen had a 2-0 lead heading into the 5th before he gave up a three-run HR to Raph Rhymes giving the Flying Tigers the lead for good. Three batters later Whalen gave up a single after a two-strike pitch he thought should have been a strike. Whalen then walked off the field and straight into the clubhouse without either the announcer or official scorer knowing what happened until an inning later when they got word he had been ejected by the homeplate ump. Whalen went 4.2 innings giving up the three runs on six hits, three walks, while striking out four and taking his 3rd loss of the year. Box Score
Kevin McGowan (3-3, 5.11) gets the start for the Mets tonight at 6:30 as they host Lakeland at Tradition Field.
Savannah (22-25) 2, Charleston 1 WALKOFF
The Sand Gnats won a walk-off solo homerun by Jon Leroux in the bottom of the 9th for just his 2nd HR off the year. The other big story of the night was the affiliated ball debut of right hander Casey Delgado who threw 4 scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win. Delgado allowed just one hit, three walks, and struck out seven in his Sand Gnats debut. Delgado had been pitching in the Frontier League for the Traverse City Beach Bums where he started two games this year going 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA. This was the 24-year olds 3rd year straight year pitching for the Bums starting in 34 of his 36 appearances going 10-13 with a 3.24 ERA and a 1.245 WHIP. In just his 2nd start of the season Ricky Knapp went 5 innings giving up just one run on four hits and a walk while striking out seven.
Leroux was 0-3 on the night before his big hit and is currently hitting just .198 on the year. The Sand Gnats won despite not having a hit with runners in scoring position going 0-6 leaving 7 runners on. Jean Rodriguez played SS with Luis Guillorme getting the night off collecting two hits including his 4th triple of the year and stealing his 6th base. He is now hitting .290/.324/.401 thanks to his current hot streak that has seen him hit .353 over his last 10 games. Wuilmer Becerra was 0-4 with two lineouts while Eudor Garcia went 0-4 with two strikeouts. Box Score
The Sand Gnats play tonight at 7:05 against Charleston with Martires Arias (2-3, 3.51) on the mound.
News and Notes
Robert Gsellman will make his AA debut for Binghamton on Saturday against Altoona at 6:00 ET. Vic Black and Bobby Parnell traveled with the B’Mets after the game to Altoona so it looks like their rehab assignments will continue. Boyd will meet the 51’s in Nashville today after his promotion following yesterday’s day game. The B’Mets manager Pedro Lopez said he is expecting two position players to be added to the roster soon. The B’Mets offense needs a boost after losing Nimmo and Boyd with Conforto & McNeil making the most sense given the needs in LF and 2B.
