Francisco Alvarez, Photo by Richard Nelson

Francisco Álvarez continues to stay hot in Binghamton with his 11th home run of the season. Three Syracuse pitchers nearly throw a perfect game on a busy, seven-game day for Mets minor leaguers.

Game One: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (19-35) 2 vs Syracuse Mets (19-34) 3   BOX SCORE

The first game of the Mets doubleheader against the RailRiders had plenty of drama. In a shortened seven-inning game and down to their last two outs, the Mets would tie the game at two on a Daniel Johnson sacrifice fly. In the ninth inning, Travis Blankenhorn would walk the game off on an RBI single as the Mets won the matinee of their twin bill with the RailRiders, 3-2.

  • LHP Thomas Szapucki: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 SO, 3.90 ERA
  • RHP Yoan López: 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 6.23 ERA
  • RHP R.J. Alvarez: (W,2-3), 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 2.33 ERA

Thomas Szapucki would make his second start for Syracuse since being sent down from New York. While he would limit the RailRiders to just two runs over four innings of work, control problems would plague his outing as he walked five batters while only striking out two.

The bullpen would shutout the Railriders the rest of the way as R. J Alvarez would throw two perfect innings to pick up the win. He was helped in the eighth by a game-saving play by second baseman Cody Bohanek who fielded a ground ball up the middle, stepped on second for the force out, and then threw a bullet to the plate to nail the runner from third trying to score.

Game Two: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (19-36) 0 vs. Syracuse Mets (20-34) 3  BOX SCORE

Runs were at a premium in the Mets second game of their doubleheader with the RailRiders. In fact,, all the runs in the whole game came in just one inning and on one swing. A three-run home run for Daniel Palka in the third inning would be all the Mets needed in sweeping both games from the RailRiders as they would ride Palka’s blast to a tidy 3-0 victory.

Syracuse’s pithing was almost perfect in their seven inning shortened game as three pitchers nearly combined to throw a perfect game. The Mets were four outs away from perfection until Tommy Hunter gave up a double to Estevan Florial. Tim Adleman would get the start for Syracuse in what was easily his best start of the season as he threw four perfect innings along with three strikeouts. Bryce Montes de Oca would lock down the win as he recorded his first Triple-A save in a 3-0 Syracuse win.

Game One: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (24-27) 2 vs. Binghamton Rumble Ponies (19-32) 1 BOX SCORE

  • 3B Brett Baty: 0-for-3, .260/.351/.420
  • C Francisco Álvarez: 1-for-2, R, HR (11), RBI, BB, .277/.347/.531
  • DH Johneshwy Fargas: 1-for-1, 2 BB, 203/.285/.346

Francisco Álvarez keeps on tearing up Double-A pitching. His first inning bomb was his seventh home run in his last eleven games and his team-leading eleventh of the year. Unfortunately for the Rumble Ponies that would be all the offense, they would get as they would go hitless up until seventh. A Johneshwy Fargas single along with a stolen base would put the tying run on second base but the Binghamton rally would fall short as the Rumble Ponies lost the first game of their doubleheader 2-1.

After failing to get out of the third inning in his previous two starts, David Griffin rebounded nicely in this one with a quality start. Griffin threw five innings, allowing four hits and just one run while striking out five, and saw his ERA drop by 1.5 points. Mitch Ragan would be the hard-luck loser in this one as he gave up the deciding run in his one inning of work. Dedniel Núñez continues to stay perfect as he threw a scoreless inning in his Double-A debut this season.

Game Two: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (24-28) 1 vs. Binghamton Rumble Ponies (20-32) 4 BOX SCORE

  • 3B Brett Baty: 2-for-3, R, HR (4), 2 RBI, .260/.351/.420
  • SS Ronny Mauricio: 1-for-1, RBI, BB, .253/.284/.474
  • DH Carlos Cortes: 1-for-3, RBI, .182/.249/.266

The Rumble Ponies would split their doubleheader with the Fisher Cats in a 4-1 victory. Brett Baty would hit his first home run in nearly a month, his fourth of the season. He also collected two RBIs as he picked up the slack in the lineup with Álvarez getting the nightcap off. Ronny Mauricio would also gather an RBI along with a hit and a walk.

  • RHP Jose Butto: (W, 3-4) 5 IP, 4 H, R, ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 3.64 ERA
  • LHP Andrew Mitchell: (SV, 2) 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO, 0.00 ERA

Coming off an 11 strikeout performance in his previous start, Jose Butto didn’t have his strikeout pitch working as well in this game as he managed to punch out three through five innings. He’ll certainly be satisfied with his overall start tonight though as Butto went five innings and gave up only one run to win his second start in a row. Andrew Mitchell would come in for the two inning save as he allowed no runs and snuffed out any hopes of a Fisher Cats rally as he’d wrap up the Rumble Ponies 4-1 win.

Game One: Aberdeen IronBirds (35-16) 1 vs. Brooklyn Cyclones (22-28) 0  BOX SCORE

The Cyclones and their offensive struggles would continue in this one. Brooklyn managed to scratch out just three hits as they came out on the wrong side of a 1-0 pitchers duel. A bright spot at the plate for the Cyclones this season has been Brandon McIlwain who now has his average around the .300 mark and delivered one of the Cyclones three hits in their first game of a doubleheader with Aberdeen.

  • RHP Carson Seymour: (L, 0-3), 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, 3.21 ERA
  • RHP Sammy Tavarez: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 1.15 ERA

Since joining Brooklyn after his promotion from St. Lucie, Carson Seymour has made three starts. He hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in each of those starts. Despite this impressive feat, Seymour after this game now has an 0-3 record with the Cyclones as the Brooklyn bats seem to go silent every time he pitches. On a more positive note for Seymour, this was perhaps his best start with Brooklyn. In five innings Seymour allowed only one run and struck out seven. Sammy Tavarez would come in and pitch the next two innings allowing no runs and striking out two and lowered his season ERA to a dominant 1.15.

Game Two: Brooklyn Cyclones (22-29) 1 vs. Aberdeen IronBirds (36-16) 4   BOX SCORE

The Cyclones were the road team in game two of their doubleheader, despite the game being played in Brooklyn, in this makeup game that was originally scheduled to be in Aberdeen. Brooklyn’s troubles at the plate would still be a factor in the nightcap as they managed to only push home only one run in this game, their only run in both games as Aberdeen made themselves at home at Maimonides Park with a 4-1 victory.  Fernando Villalobos made his Cyclones debut tonight and collected his first Cyclone hit too, going 1-for-3.

  • RHP Daison Acosta: (L, 0-6) 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 9.23 ERA
  • RHP Justin Courtney: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 5.21 ERA

Starter Daison Acosta wouldn’t make it past the fourth inning and Aberdeen tagged him for seven hits for four runs in what would be Acosta’s sixth loss on the season. Justin Courtney would turn in a perfect relief outing coming in from the bullpen along with two strikeouts as he rebounded nicely after giving up three runs in his last relief appearance a week ago.

St. Lucie Mets (35-17) 4 vs. Jupiter Hammerheads (27-24) 5, F/10  BOX SCORE

Carlos Dominguez continues to tear the cover off the ball in St. Lucie as he ripped his organizational leading 12th home run of the season in this game. Stanley Consuegra would also play long ball, hitting his fourth home run of the season. 19-year-old Junior Tilien has been surging in ,June. With three hits including a double and an RBI in this game, Tilien is now hitting .571 in four games so far this month. It all wouldn’t be enough though to stop the Mets from dropping a 5-4 10 inning heartbreaker in Jupiter.

  • RHP Dominic Hamel: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 4.71 ERA
  • RHP Joshua Cornielly: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 4.58 ERA
  • RHP Dylan Hall: 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1.89 ERA
  • RHP Nate Jones: (L, 1-1) 0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 4.35 ERA

The trend of rough road starts for Dominic Hamel continued in this game as Jupiter peppered Hamel for five hits and four earned runs in four innings of work. Hamel now has an ERA on the road of 6.86. Compare that to his home ERA of 2.57 and it has truly been a Jekyll & Hyde season for Hamel. The bullpen would allow the St. Lucie offense to eventually come back and tie the game up at four as Joshua Cornielly and Dylan Hall combined to throw five shutout innings in relief. Nate Jones though would uncork a wild pitch in the 10th as Jupiter would walk off to a 5-4 win over the Mets.