MMO Farm Report: Cohoon and DeGrom Hurl Gems, Lawley On Fire, Vaughn Steals Two Bags

Louisville 4, Buffalo 1

By Sean Kenny

Chris Schwinden had an abbreviated outing, but Dylan Owen gave up three runs in the seventh and the Bisons lost the series opening game against the Louisville Bats

Chris Schwinden had a short outing today, going four and two-thirds innings allowing one run on six hits while walking no batters and striking out five. Schwinden only threw 72 pitches, so I don’t know if the issue has been stretching Chris out again, or if he just wasn’t feeling it today. Jenrry Mejia came out in relief and had another solid outing, going one and one-third innings, giving up one hit and throwing a wild pitch. Dylan Owen took the horns today, allowing three runs on two hits, walking two and striking out one in his inning of work.However, Adam Loewen did commit an error that allowed two runs to score. Jeff Stevens came out and pitched a clean frame across the board.

On the run-scoring side of the field, the Bisons struggled to get runners in scoring position, with the sole RBI coming on a Mike Baxter RBI single. Baxter, Loewen and May had multi-hit games for the Bisons, while Lutz and Den Dekker had rough days, striking out twice each. The Bisons big problem is their offense moves as Valentino Pascucci moves. He is the power threat, and may have the best plate discipline of any Bisons player.

Herd Rumblings: Jenrry Mejia had his third straight scoreless outing, spanning 6.1 innings. What that means in Mets language is if he makes it to 10+ scoreless, he will be in Flushing. Matt Den Dekker is hitting .211, and the primary goal for the rest of this season should be to cut down on strikeouts and pitch identification. Mike Baxter went 2 for 3 with an RBI, and looks primed to make a return to the big club, possibly displacing Kirk Nieuwenhuis. The Bisons will send RHP Colin McHugh (1-3, 4.54) to the mound. Game time is 7:10 P.M.

Binghamton 4, New Britain 3

By Tim Burns

Behind their starting pitcher flirting with a no-hitter, the Binghamton Mets took game two of their series in New Britain by defeating the Rock Cats by a 4-3 score on Tuesday night.

Mark Cohoon took the hill for the B-Mets and through six and two thirds innings no hit the Rock Cats. New Britain’s first hit of the game came in the bottom of the seventh inning, a double by Deibinson Romero. Romero would prove to be the Rock Cats first run of the game when he scored on the next play, a single by Nathan Hanson.

Cohoon pitched into the eighth inning for the B-Mets, relieved by Brad Holt in that frame. His final line on the night read seven and a third innings pitched, three runs on four hits, two strikeouts and two walks. For his effort, Cohoon earned his fifth win of the season and his record now stands at 5-and-7.

Brad Holt finished out the eighth inning in relief of Cohoon. In two thirds of an inning Holt tallied his fourth hold of the season. He allowed two hits and struck out one while surrendering no runs.

Robert Carson was called upon to finish out the game for Binghamton, throwing a clean sheet in the bottom of the ninth enroute to his ninth save of the season. Carson struck out one while putting up doughnuts in the run and hit columns.

At the plate, the B-Mets biggest inning in the game came in the top of the fifth when Wilfredo Tovar’s sixth double of the season with the bases loaded cleared them all and gave the B-Mets the three to nothing lead. Binghamton would add a run in the top of the eighth which would prove to be the game winner on an Eric Campbell solo home run.

Campbell went 2-for-3 in the game, with two runs scored. Pedro Zapata was 1-for-4 and Wilfredo Tovar was 1-for-3 on the night, each with a double to their credit. Juan Centeno extended his hitting streak to five games going 1-for-4 and proving to be the only other B-Mets batter with a hit in the game.

B-Mets Buzz: Multiple news reports have New York Mets closer Frank Francisco starting his rehab with the Binghamton Mets in New Britain on Wednesday. The rubber match, which is slated to start at 12:05, will pit B-Mets ace Zack Wheeler (9-5, 2.99) against the Rock Cats B.J. Hermsen (6-5, 3.44). Wilfredo Tovar’s three RBI’s in the game were two shy of the teams season high. That benchmark was set by Josh Rodriguez when he racked up five RBI’s in a game on June 9th against the Trenton Thunder. 

St. Lucie 7, Bradenton 5

By Joe D.

St. Lucie got great performances from starter Rafael Montero and DH T.J. Rivera as the Mets pounded out 11 hits to beat the Bradenton Marauders 7-5 on Tuesday night at Digital Domain Park.

Montero started the game and delivered the goods for the Mets, tossing 5.2 innings and allowing just two earned runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. Montero earned earned the victory to improve to 3-2 for the season. Hamilton Bennett allowed an unearned run in 1.1 innings and struck out three, while closer Adam Kolarek picked up his 15th save of the season despite allowing one run in his two innings of work.

Offensively, Rivera led the attack with a 3-for-4 effort that included a double, a run scored and two key RBIs. Cory Vaughn continues his hot streak and went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, two stolen bases, and an RBI. Alonzo Harris was on base three times, scored two runs and stole his 25th base of the season which leads the team by a wide margin. Aderlin Rodriguez went 1-for-4 and drove in a run.

Lucie Logistics: The finale of the three-game set with the Marauders begins tonight at 6:30 PM with right-hander Kyle Allen making the start for the Mets. This will be Allen’s second start of the season as he’s worked mostly in relief. He pitched 4.1 scoreless innings, walked none and struck out three in that one.

Savannah 8, Kannapolis 1

By Nick Campione

Multi-hit games from Dustin Lawley, Gilbert Gomez, and Albert Cordero and a great pitching effort by Jacob De Grom led the Sand Gnats Tuesday night to a 8-1 victory over Kannapolis in Savannah. Dustin Lawley had his second consecutive multiple hit game, and his 4th in his last five games going 2-for-4 with two runs scored, two home runs, and four RBI and Gilbert Gomez has second consecutive multi-hit game, and 3rd of the last four, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Cordero added in the only other two hit game going 2-for-3 with a run scored raising his average to .192. Cam Maron added offense as well, hitting his fourth home run of the season and raised his average to .291.

The Gnats had great pitching to go along with the hitting performances as Jacob DeGrom and Carlos Vazquez combined to allow seven hits and one run. DeGrom continued his great season for Savannah throwing six innings, allowing six hits, one earned run, one walk and nine strikeouts. Vazquez relieved him and finished the game throwing three innings of one-hit ball, allowing two walks, no runs, while striking out three.

Gnats Gnotes: With the promotion of Aderlin Rodriguez to St Lucie, Dustin Lawley has picked up the offense for the Gnats. Over the last ten games, Lawley is hitting .350, four home runs, 13 RBI, with only five strikeouts over 40 at-bats. On the season, Lawley is hitting .277 with 13 home runs and 52 RBI and has shown glimpses of promise all season while playing mostly LF and filling in at 3B as well. During his professional career, Lawley has hit .279 with 23 home runs and 96 RBI over 155 games. The Gnats continue their series on Wednesday night against Kannapolis at 7:05pm with Michael Fulmer taking the mound.

Aberdeen 6, Brooklyn 3

By Clayton Collier

After being shut out Monday, the Cyclones Looked to wrap up this two game set with a victory against the last place IronBirds. That however was not the case as the Cyclones pitching failed them late and the offense could not recover as they fell to Aberdeen by a final score of 6-3.

Rainy Lara took the mound for his sixth start of the season, hoping to continue the solid season he is off to. Lara allowed just two baserunners over the first five innings but began to lose it in the sixth. After allowing a solo shot to Lucas Herbst, the 21-year old righty gave up a two out, RBI double to tie up the ballgame at two a piece. Lara ended his night with a final line of six innings pitched, allowing two runs on five hits while walking one and punching out six, taking a no decision in the loss.

Once Lara’s day was done, the wheels really came flying off. Timothy Peterson came on to pitch the seventh and promptly served up a two-run shot to Sam Kimmel to hand the IronBirds the lead for good. If that wasn’t enough, Aberdeen continued to blast Peterson with another two hits to make it a three run seventh for the IronBirds and hand them a 5-2 lead. Ernesto Yanez relieved Peterson to retire the side but ran into his own issues in the eighth as he quickly allowed a leadoff homer to Cameron Edman to make it 6-3 Birds.

The offense, like last night, left much to be desired. Outside of a Brandon Nimmo bases loaded walk, a Stefan Sabol double and Dimas Ponce RBI groundout, the lineup was completely overmatched, collecting only five hits and three runs on the evening. That coupled with a poor bullpen performance and another great pitching effort went to waste for the Brooklyn Cyclones as the fell 6-3.

Brooklyn Brew: Brandon Nimmo went 1-for-4 on the evening with an RBI double, now batting .228 on the year while collecting his teaming-leading 20th RBI of the season. Striking out six in his start today, Rainy Lara now has struck out 44 on the year compared to five walks in just 32 2/3 innings! A call up has got to be in his future soon enough. In addition to Nimmo, Kevin Plawecki, Phillip Evans, Eudy Pina and Stefan Sabol also had hits on the day. The Cyclones will hope for better results this time around as they open up a three game series with the Batavia Muckdogs away starting Wednesday at 7:05pm.

Elizabethton 12, Kingsport 5

By Nick Campione

Akeel Morris continued his poor season for Kingsport with another bad start that put the Mets down 10 runs in the first three innings, which was too much for the Mets as they lost 12-5 in Kingsport Tuesday night. Morris endured his worst start of the season and possibly his career throwing two innings, allowing five hits, 10 earned runs, five walks, and only three strikeouts. The big hits were two three-run homers off Morris in consecutive innings, but the Mets allowed Morris to begin the 3rd where he pitched to three batters allowing a single and two walks and was removed from the game for Martires Arias who allowed all three of Morris’ base runners to score. The only good pitching lines in the game was by Miller Diaz who entered in the 4th, pitching four innings, two hits, one earned run, and six strike outs and Andres Perez one innings, no runs, one walk and three strikeouts.

Although Kingsport’s pitching allowed 12 runs, the Mets did score five runs with their best inning in the bottom of the 9th as they scored three runs. Tomas Nido continued his hot hitting with another two hit game going 2-for-4 with a RBI, with Jon Leroux, Branden Kaupe, and Joe Tuschak adding hits in the Mets’ effort. The big hit in the game was from Anthony Chavez, who was filling in for Gavin Cecchini who got hurt while stealing in the 4th. Chavez chipped in with a two-run single in the 9th to go along with Yeixon Ruiz RBI groundout in the prior at-bat.

Kingsport Knews: Following good 2010 and 2011 seasons, Miller Diaz was expected by many to have a shot to earn a spot in Savannah’s rotation to begin 2012. In 2010, Diaz was 4-4 with 2.05 ERA for DSL Mets and in 2011 was 1-1 4.32 ERA between GCL Mets and Kingsport, however Diaz has struggled out of the gate in 2012 while moving to the bullpen. In five appearances prior to tonight’s outing, Diaz has thrown 11 innings, allowing 13 hits, nine earned runs, and allowed hitters to hit almost .300 against him (.289 on the season). Mets fans can only hope a performance like tonight from Diaz can help him turn back on the path to success ending the 2012 season. The Kingsport Mets continue their season after an off-day Wednesday on Thursday with a double header against Bristol beginning at 6:00pm in Kingsport. The starters have not been announced yet but Steve Matz and Persio Reyes are the expected starters for the double header.