Binghamton Mets Game Notes 204

Binghamton Mets (61-42) at

Trenton Thunder (49-56)

(Double-A Affiliate of the New York Yankees)

RHP Tyler Pill (6-5. 4.04) vs. RHP Luis Severino (1-0, 1.80)

Thursday, July 24, 2014 • Game #104 • Road Game #51 • Arm & Hammer Park • Trenton, NJ • 7:05 PM

LAST GAME: The Binghamton Mets got a strong start from Steven Matz to avoid the sweep against the Portland Sea Dogs in a 4-2 win on Wednesday at Hadlock Field. Matz went seven innings and gave up two runs while striking out four to pick up his fourth win. Brian Burgamywent 4-for-5 with two doubles. Rylan Sandoval smacked his first home run of the season. Dilson Herrera put up a 2-for-5 performance to extend his hitting streak to eleven games. It was the final meeting of the season between the top two team in the Eastern Division. Binghamton is 4.5 games back entering Thursday.

BINGHAMTON STARTER: RHP Tyler Pill makes 17^th appearance of the season and his 16^th start. The Covina, California native is making his second straight start against Trenton. He went six innings and allowed two runs, but didn’t factor into the decision in a 6-4 Binghamton loss on Friday, July 18. The B-Mets had won Pill’s previous 11 outings. The start last Friday was the righty’s first in over two weeks for Binghamton after he made an appearance with Las Vegas (AAA). He gave up four runs in 4.2 innings in a game the 51’s won 9-4 on July 10. Pill was taken the fourth round of the 2011 draft out of Cal State-Fullerton.

TRENTON STARTER: RHP Luis Severino takes the hill for the second time with Trenton and his second straight against the B-Mets. The righty made his Double-A debut against Binghamton and tossed five innings of two hit ball, giving up one run on Saturday, July 19. Trenton won the game 6-1. Severino split his time between Charleston (Low-A) and Tampa (High-A) this season. He went 3-2 with 2.79 ERA in 14 starts with the RiverDogs and 1-1 with 1.31 ERA in four starts with the Yankees. The 20-year-old was singed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on July 20, 2012.

YOU SAY GOOD-BYE, I SAY HELLO: Binghamton and Trenton play their only two series against each other in the span of ten days. The teams split a four game set in the Southern Tier last weekend. The B-Mets held the slim scoring advantage at 19-18. Binghamton was held to just eight combined hits in the losses, but put up a total of  17 base knocks in the wins.

HOLY HERRERA!: Binghamton INF Dilson Herrera went 2-for-5 on Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. This comes on the heels of another 11-game stretch earlier this month. He has a hit in 22 of the last 23 contests. The 20-year-old has tallied at least one hit in all but four of his outings since joining Binghamton on June 19 and has gone hitless just once in the month of July. He’s hitting .364 since the first of the month with seven doubles, two triples and three home runs.

HAS THAT ALWAYS BEE N THERE? This is Binghamton’s first and only trip to Arm & Hammer Park this season. It’s one of four venues the B-Mets have not played in this season. The team heads to Reading, Harrisburg and Richmond in August. They are 26-24 on the road this season.

HE GONE!: Binghamton and Trenton are each near the top of the league in strikeouts by pitchers this season. The B-Mets rank first in the category with 806, while the Thunder are third at 792. The pitching staffs combined for 64 K’s in the series last weekend.

CONTROLING THE LEADERBOARD: The B-Mets dominates the offensive numbers on the team leaderboard. The team leads the league in home runs (99) and slugging percentage (.426). They are second in runs with 535 and walks with 355. Binghamton is also third in average with a .273 mark on the year.