Triple-A

Lehigh Valley IronPigs (71-59) 9, Syracuse Mets (52-77) 2

Box Score

With just four hits and two walks in this game, the Mets had very few offensive opportunities in Sunday’s game. In fact, they had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position and were hitless in both at-bats. Both of their runs came in the sixth inning on back-to-back homers by Mendick and Palka. Palka has been on fire since his return to the Mets organization earlier last week; he has three home runs and two doubles in just six games.

Jarvis’s struggles since joining the Mets organization at the trade deadline (and really since his promotion to Triple-A in July) continued with another extremely rough start on Sunday. Over his nine Triple-A starts, he has gone more than five innings just once and has given up three or more runs in all but one start. Lavender now has 53 strikeouts in 37 2/3 Triple-A innings.

Double-A

Binghamton Rumble Ponies (67-57) 3, Harrisburg Senators (55-70) 1

Box Score

The Rumble Ponies improved their playoff chances with their victory over the Senators on Sunday evening. With their winning streak extending to seven games and Somerset losing on Sunday, the Rumble Ponies are just one game back in the division race. After a rough start to his Mets career, Acuña has been hitting much better recently; he has multiple hits in eight of his last 14 games. He was the biggest contributor in this game with his two-run single in the third inning.

After Joey Lancellotti‘s solid but abbreviated three-inning start, the Binghamton bullpen combined to toss six scoreless innings. After posting a 30:4 K:BB ratio out of the Brooklyn bullpen, Garcia continued where he left off in his Double-A debut. Ramos has walked almost a batter per inning since joining Binghamton’s bullpen but has given up just three earned runs in 14 innings of work.

Jett Williams, Photos by Matthew Kipp of Brooklyn Cyclones

High-A

Greenville Drive (63-63) 9, Brooklyn Cyclones (62-63) 8 

Box Score

With this loss, the Cyclones find themselves tied for first in their division in the second half standings with one week left to play. This is a dramatic transformation from the first half of the season, which saw the Cyclones finish in last place, and likely has much to do with the additions of Williams and Clifford. Smith and Clifford got the Mets on the board in the fifth inning with two home runs, the latter being a three-run shot and the 23rd of his first full professional season. Williams’ homer in the ninth inning was his sixth since joining the Cyclones a month ago. In 30 games with the Cyclones, he has already matched his home run total from his 79 games with St. Lucie earlier in the season.

There is not much good to say about the Cyclones’ pitching performance on Sunday evening. Garcia was solid for the first three innings but then gave up three runs in the fourth and another run in the fifth. Alfonseca and Reid suffered from some poor defense behind them but gave up twice as many baserunners as innings pitched and could not strike out a single batter.

Single-A

St. Lucie Mets (41-82) 7, Tampa Tarpons (60-64) 4 

Box Score

Despite going just 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position, the Mets still managed to push across seven runs in this game. Five of their runs came on non-hits (two on sacrifice flies and one each on a wild pitch, hit by pitch, and walk). In general, the Tarpons gave the Mets a lot of help, as their pitchers combined to hit six Met batters. Hernandez came just a home run shy of the cycle.

Mercedes had both his longest appearance of the season and his first appearance with no walks on Sunday afternoon. He sat in just the low-90s with his fastball but his breaking balls had spin rates that touched 3000 rpm. Henriquez’s fastball topped out at 95.4 mph and his cutter had a 2995 rpm spin rate.