Calvin Ziegler, Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

Calvin Ziegler had arguably the best start of his young career on Thursday afternoon as the St. Lucie Mets grabbed yet another victory. He went a career-high 5 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts.

AAA: Syracuse Mets 4 (12-20) vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 0 (11-21) Box Score

The Syracuse Mets have taken two games in a row against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to leapfrog them and move out of the basement of the International League East. Mark Vientos is finally demonstrating the power that has helped him rise so quickly through the Mets’ minors system, as he blasted his third homer in his past two games and his fourth in his past four games. No Mets player recorded more than one hit, but they made those hits count, most notably an RBI double from Nick Plummer in the sixth inning and a run-scoring single from Quinn Brodey in the seventh.

  • RHP Adonis Medina: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 2.00 ERA
  • RHP Connor Grey: (W, 2-1), 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 5.88 ERA
  • RHP Yoan López: (S, 1), 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 5.40 ERA

Adonis Medina started a game for just the second time this season and rewarded that decision with three solid innings, allowing just two batters to reach base. Connor Grey followed that up with an even more impressive outing, throwing 5 2/3 innings for the victory and his first scoreless outing of the season. Grey did load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Yoan López came into the game and got former Met Jose Peraza to pop out to second base to secure the Mets victory and the save, his first of the year.

AA: Binghamton Rumble Ponies 2 (10-19) vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats 7 (13-16) Box Score

It was another poor offensive showing for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, who have been by just about every metric one of the worst teams at the Double-A level this season. Luke Ritter hit his fifth home run of the season, but it came in the ninth inning with the game having already been decided well before that. Every single batter in the Rumble Ponies lineup struck out at least once.

Brett Baty was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on the night and Ronny Mauricio went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Four of the six hits that Alec Kisena gave up were home runs, including two off the bat of former Mets farmhand Sebastian Espino. Kisena was one of the lone bright spots for the Rumble Ponies’ starting rotation through the early part of the season, but he has now given up nine runs in 10 1/3 innings pitched in May with just three strikeouts. The bullpen did a fantastic job in mop-up duty, as Andrew Edwards and Willy Taveras combined for 3 2/3 innings of one-run ball, but the damage was already done.

A+: Thursday’s scheduled game between the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Wilmington Blue Rocks was postponed due to fog. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday, May 14.

A: Lakeland Flying Tigers 2 (13-16) vs. St. Lucie Mets 3 (20-10) Box Score

The St. Lucie Mets came out on top in a tight affair against the Lakeland Flying Tigers, getting clutch hits from two players that have been delivering in those spots all season. Alex Ramirez made his debut in the Fangraphs Top 100 this week at #75, and he celebrated by driving in the game’s first run with a single in the fifth inning. The Flying Tigers took the lead in the top of the sixth, but William Lugo gave the Mets the lead right back with a two-run bomb in the sixth inning, the only insurance they would need.

Calvin Ziegler proved once again why he is one of the most exciting young arms in the Mets system, as the 2021 second-round pick struck out nine batters across 5 2/3 innings of work. He ran into a bit of trouble in the sixth inning, allowing a run to score and seeing a second run cross the plate on an error after being replaced by Joshua Cornielly. However, the combination of Cornielly and Grant Hartwig kept the Flying Tigers out of the hit column over the last three innings, helping the Mets to their 20th victory of the season, the first team in the Florida State League to reach that mark.

Ziegler had a big-time 45% whiff rate over the entire outing and he held the Lakeland hitters to a 77.7 mph average exit velocity. He didn’t give up a single hard hit ball (95+ mph). His fastball was up to 96 mph, he got 5 whiffs on 6 swings against his split-change, and he didn’t give up a ball in play on the 13 curves he threw.