Brett Baty, Photo by Dan Fritz

AAA: Syracuse Mets (39-60) 3, Rochester Red Wings (43-55) 3  Box Score

Sunday’s game was threatened by rain all afternoon. After a delayed start, the game was called following the seventh inning. That call would have resulted in a two-run loss if not for a last-minute two-run home run with two outs by Thompson. In the end, the game ended in a tie, and with the season coming to a close and both teams long out of the playoff race, it won’t be continued at a later date. Guillorme played his third rehab game, receiving four plate appearances and playing all seven innings at shortstop.

Eickhoff got the start on Sunday and was decent through four innings, with a two-run homer in the third being the lone blemish against him. Kilome continues to pitch in relief since returning from injury and has excelled in that role. Since being moved to the bullpen, Kilome has a 2.08 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched.

AA: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (46-53) 8, New Hampshire Fisher Cats (47-50) 4  Box Score

  • Brett Baty LF: 3-for-5, R, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 K, .267/.355/.418
  • Carlos Rincon RF: 1-for-4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, 2 K, .274/.313/.565
  • Luis Carpio SS: 3-for-5, 2 R, RBI, BB, E, .249/.326/.389

The Rumble Ponies’ offense had a big day on Sunday afternoon, led by Baty’s and Carpio’s three-hit games, as well as Rincon’s power. Rincon’s home run was the 21st of the season for him, a number which ties him for ninth among all Double-A hitters and puts him just one behind teammate Mark Vientos (who did not play Sunday). Baty now has a five-game hitting streak and is hitting a solid .294/.384/.435 for the month of August.

De La Cruz has had a tough year, to the point where this was actually only his third-shortest appearance of the season. After 33 pitches and three earned runs, he was pulled from the game and replaced by a fantastic combined effort by the bullpen. Winans and Holderman are both already in their mid-20s, but have looked quite good this season, with the latter returning from major injury and topping out at 99 MPH. Winans does not have that level of pure stuff but has still been dominating hitters all year. He has a 1.72 ERA across two levels and has held batters to a .145/.257/.212 line for the season.

A+: Aberdeen IronBirds (51-49) 5, Brooklyn Cyclones (39-61) 1  Box Score

It was a very poor afternoon for the Cyclones’ offense, as the lineup was held to just four hits. Their lone run came off the bat of Bohanek, whose third-inning home run set a new career high of seven for him. Mauricio had his second straight multi-hit game and seems to be recovering from the slump he was in for much of August, with seven hits in his last 16 at-bats. Palmer has kept up his high walk rate following his promotion to Brooklyn, but he is striking out just over 40% of the time. It is also interesting to note that, after spending the majority of his time in St. Lucie playing the infield, Palmer has almost exclusively played center field with Brooklyn (only two games played in the infield, at third base). Francisco Alvarez did not play in this game.

Brooklyn has not been anywhere near as friendly to Vilera this year as it was in 2018, when he put up a 1.83 ERA. He struggled in this game as well, but perhaps most stunning about his season is how uncharacteristically home run prone he has been. After never giving up more than seven in a season, Vilera has already given up 21, which is tied for the third most in the entire minor leagues. The two pitchers ahead of him have thrown at least 25 more innings than his 76 1/3. Otanez has been incredibly wild while maintaining a quite high strikeout rate: he has a 13.1 K/9 and 10.2 BB/9 on the year.

A: Daytona Tortugas (50-52) 9, St. Lucie Mets (52-47) 6  Box Score

The Mets had 10 hits in this game and were also helped out quite a bit by four Daytona errors, but a 3-for-16 performance with runners in scoring position meant they were unable to fully take advantage of their opportunities to match the Tortugas’ nine runs. Ramirez has looked strong in his debut professional season and has hit .270/.329/.459 during August. Schwartz, along with Kevin Kendall, has put together one of the strongest starts to his professional career among the recent 2021 draft class.

It was a double rehab game for St. Lucie’s pitching staff on Sunday. Reid-Foley made his first appearance since going down with an elbow injury on June 30. He was wild in this appearance, throwing less than half his pitches for strikes (10 out of 22), but it is good to see him on his way back before September starts. Nogosek was a bit more economical with his pitches, only needing eight to get through his outing. Kubichek had his third straight outing of giving up more runs than innings pitched as he struggles to gain his footing after getting promoted from the Florida Complex League to the more advanced competition of Low-A.