Mets Minors Daily: Bingo Wins! Everybody Else Loses

MMO Mets Minors Daily Dream Team

Buffalo Loses As Familia Is Ineffective Again

By Pete Shapiro

Jeurys Familia (5-4, 5.00) was ineffective yet again, giving up five earned runs and not able to get through the third inning as Norfolk defeated Buffalo 5-3 to take the four game series three games to one.

Three Bisons relievers went 5.1 innings of scoreless relief, but the Bisons bats were unable to play catch-up. Zach Britton (2-1, 5.82) got the win for Norfolk with six innings of two-run ball.

Herd Rumblings: The Bisons open a four game wrap-around weekend series against the Durham Bulls (TB) at Durham, starting Friday at 7:00 pm.

Binghamton Grounds Aeros – Pena Homers In First AA At-Bat

By Tim Burns

A revamped lineup helped the Binghamton Mets win their second game in a row, and take the rubber match in Akron by a score of 4-2.

Francisco Pena made an immediate impact at the plate, going 2-for-3 in the game including a solo-homerun over the left field wall in his first AA at bat. Pena also walked and struck out once in the game.

Wilmer Flores, who started at third base for the B-Mets, was 1-for-4 in the game, but his first hit at the AA level proved to be a big one as he scored Eric Campbell from third-base for the B-Mets third tally of the game. That RBI would prove to be the game winner for Binghamton.

Wilfredo Tovar started at shortstop and went 0-for-3 in the game, but did put the ball in play each at bat.

Eric Campbell had a huge game at the plate for Binghamton. Campbell, who was batting cleanup, went 3-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI’s, and two runs scored.

On the mound for Binghamton, Gonzalez Germen earned his fourth win of the season to bring his overall record even at 4-4. Germen worked six innings, allowing two runs (only one of which was earned) on seven hits while striking out six Aeros batters.

Ryan Fraser relieved Germen in the seventh and pitched two scoreless and hitless frames to tally his second hold of the season. Fraser walked one and struck out two on the night.

Robert Carson was called upon in the ninth inning, and returned true to form blanking the Aeros in both the hit and run columns. Carson struck out one Akron hitter and walked one as well enroute to his team leading fifth save of the 2012 season.

B-Mets Buzz: The additions and subtractions from the Binghamton Mets roster were plentiful on Thursday. Players joining the B-Mets included Sean Kazmar from the Buffalo Bisons, and Francisco Pena, Wilmer Flores, and Wilfredo Tovar from St. Lucie. While three of the four additions weren’t a surprise, it was the subtractions from the B-Mets roster that remained a mystery until Thursday. No longer appearing on the B-Mets roster are Kai Gronauer (D.L. with a right calf strain), Joe Bonfe (D.L. with a left ankle sprain), Josh Rodriguez (promoted to Buffalo), Rylan Sandoval (assigned to St. Lucie), and Allan Dykstra (assigned to St. Lucie for rehab). Game one of a wrap-around weekend series begins tonight at Erie, PA against the SeaWolves (DET) at 7:05 pm.

Vaughn Hits Thirteenth – St. Lucie Succumbs

By Nick Campione (@NYMets945)

The Fort Myers Miracle (MIN) went up by a score of 8-3 after three innings and never looked back, drubbing the St. Lucie Mets by a final score of 9-5 on Thursday.

The St Lucie Mets endured a bad night, beginning with Yohan Almonte allowing a five run first inning. The night would be very short for Almonte who allowed six earned runs over 2.1 innings. The barrage continued as two more earned runs were allowed by Kyle Allen over the next 2.2 innings.

The deficit was too much for the Mets even with 1B Allan Dykstra going 3-for-4 and Cory Vaughn with 2-for-5 night, a home run and two RBI. Robbie Shields was the only other hitter with a decent night for the Mets going 2-for-3, with two RBI and a run scored.

The only positive note pitching-wise, was the St Lucie debut of Jeff Walters with a perfect 1-2-3 inning.

Lucie Logistics: St. Lucie added the following players to their roster before the game yesterday: RHP Rafael Montero, RHP Jeffrey Walters, 1B Allan Dykstra, 2B Rylan Sandoval, SS T.J. Rivera, and OF Travis Taijeron. The following players were transferred off of the Lucie roster yesterday: C Francisco Pena (AA), 3B Wilmer Flores (AA), SS Wilfredo Tovar (AA), OF ZeErika McQueen (SAV), LHP Jim Fuller (SAV). Game two of the three-game series against Fort Myers is tonight with right-hander Marty Popham (3-2, 5.31) going against lefty Chase Huchingson (5-4, 2.83) game time is 6:30 pm.

Savannah Rally Comes Up Short In Ninth

By Sean Kenny

A four-run, ninth inning rally came up just a run short as Savannah fell to the Augusta GreenJackets (SF) Thursday night by a score of 9-8 at Historic Grayson Stadium in Savannah.

Logan Verrett started, and was victimized by a litany of errors in his outing today. Verrett fought through five innings giving up four runs (one earned) on six hits, walking one and striking out six. Logan has been great since his return, and the strikeouts are coming in at over one per inning.

Randy Fontanez came out and pitched a decent two innings, allowing one run on three hits, while walking one and striking out none. The GOAT today was Jeremy Gould, newly arrived from Brooklyn, as he only managed 0.1 of an inning, allowing four runs (two earned) on three hits. By the time everything shook out, Jared West came out for 1.2 innings, allowing two hits while striking out two.

Savannah has lived by its ability to have quality pitching, but games like this seem to happen every two weeks when every player struggles defensively. Two errors from Albert Cordero, one from Aderlin Rodriguez and one from Brian Harrison.

Offensively, the Gnats pushed across four runs in the sixth inning, on three RBI doubles by Cam Maron, Aderlin Rodriguez and Charles Thurber and an RBI single by Brian Harrison. The Gnats would strike again for four in the ninth, thanks to RBI singles by Gilbert Gomez and Brandon Brown, and a two RBI single by Aderlin Rodriguez. The offense showed up today, and pushed across big hits in big innings but the pitching couldn’t hold their end of the bargain.

Gnats Notes: Albert Cordero is raising his batting average steadily, now at .184 on the season but has six errors on the year (the two today were throwing). Dustin Lawley went 1-for-5 with a Golden Sombrero (four strikeouts). The promotions signal more playing time for Gilbert Gomez and Yucarybert De La Cruz, who have taken over for Travis Taijeron and T.J. Rivera respectively after their promotions to St. Lucie. Game two of the four-game set with Augusta is slated for a 7:05 pm start on Friday night.

Brooklyn Drops First Game Of Season

By Clayton Collier

Well, it had to happen at some point. Going for the four-game sweep of the rivaled Staten Island Yankees, the Brooklyn Cyclonesgot pummeled by the Yanks, dropping the series finale 8-1.

Hansel Robles got the nod for the ‘Clones and had himself a strong 2012 debut. Robles only allowed one run in the form of a Saxon Butler RBI double with two outs in the top of the third. Other than that, Robles was relatively dominant, ending the night with a final line of five innings pitched, allowing one run on four hits while walking one and punching out seven, taking a tough loss in his first decision of the year.

After Robles day was done however, things got ugly in a hurry. After hurling a scoreless sixth, Richard Ruff set the tone for the seventh by walking the first two batters he faced in the inning before being relieved by Beck Wheeler, who wasn’t much more effective. Allowing five baserunners, two of them for extra-base hits, Wheeler allowed four runs to cross in addition to the two inherited runners from Ruff in while retiring just two batters, one on a sacrifice bunt. David Wynn came in to punch out Claudio Custodio to retire the side, but not before allowing this game to get far out of hand.

The only source of Cyclones run production came in the form of a Phillip Evans solo shot, his first of the year. However it was too little, too late as Brooklyn fell to the Staten Island Yankees for their first loss of the season against three victories.

Brooklyn Brew: Brandon Nimmo went 1-for-4 and a walk in the loss. Kevin Plawecki got his first hit of his pro-ball career, a single. Cole Frenzel continues his hot start going 2-for-4 on the day. Phillip Evans is now batting .385 over his first four games after going 2-for-4 on the night with a solo homer. Eudy Pina went 1-for-3 with a wak, a stolen base and a triple. The Cyclones begin a series at Aberdeen to open up a series against the IronBirds (BAL) starting at 7:05pm. Right-hander Julian Hilario will throw for the Clones while righty Juan Guzman goes for Aberdeen.

Kingsport Swept Out Of Town By Princeton

By Pete Shapiro

Four batters and two hits into the game the Kingsport Mets took the lead 1-0 last night. And that would just about be it for their offense, as they would only score one more time for the rest of the game and would be swept by the Princeton Rays, losing the third and final game of the series by a score of 15-2 on Thursday night.

Six wild pitches were uncorked by Kingsport hurlers in the game, add in three batter’s hit-by-pitches, seven walks, and 12 hits given up, and you can see it was a bad night for K-Mets pitching. Out of the 15 runs they gave up, 13 of them were earned.

Kingsport managed just seven hits on the night, and all four of their pitchers were scored upon in the game with starter Persio Reyes (0-1) absorbing the loss.

Kingsport Knews: CF Eris Peguero continued his hot hitting by going 2-for-4 with a walk, two singles, and a run scored. He is now 6-for-13 on the year and hitting .462. Tonight at 7:00 pm, Kingsport will begin a three-game set against the Greenville Drive (BOS).