Press Release:
ERIE, PA – Levi Michael, Peter Alonso and Kevin Taylor all drove in runs in Binghamton’s five-run eleventh inning to send the Rumble Ponies to a 7-3 victory over the Erie SeaWolves on Wednesday night at UPMC Park. Thrust into duty on short notice, Mickey Jannis tossed seven strong innings while three Ponies relievers combined for four innings of near-spotless relief to seal Binghamton’s sixth win in seven tries.
With the game knotted at two in the final inning, Binghamton filled the bases against Trent Szkutnik. Michael floated an RBI single into shallow right. His third hit of the night gave Binghamton their first lead. Alonso scorched a two-run single into left to cap his own three-hit game. Taylor salted the game away by poking a two-run single up the middle.
Binghamton’s eruption in the eleventh washed away a ten-inning stretch of offensive frustration. Prior to Michael’s hit, the Rumble Ponies were 2-for-18 with runners in scoring positon, including a stretch of nine hitless at-bats to start the game. The Ponies’ lone timely hit before extras came from Patrick Mazeika who delivered a two-run double to tie the game in the seventh.
Binghamton starter Jannis was tapped to take the mound a day earlier than expected after scheduled starter Scott Copeland was summoned to the New York Mets. On short notice, the knuckleball kept the SeaWolves in check over seven strong innings. He cruised through four scoreless frames before allowing single tallies in the fifth and sixth. The righty capped his day by striking out three of the final six SeaWolves he faced. Jannis finished with eight strikeouts.
David Roseboom entered in the eighth and stranded two before handing off to Joshua Torres for the final out of the ninth. Erie pushed the potential winning run to third with one out in the tenth, but Torres notched the final two outs to send the game deeper into extras. Following Binghamton’s five-run frame, Ryder Ryan fanned three in the bottom of the inning, his Double-A debut.
Torres (4-0) scooped up the win with 1-1/3 innings of spotless relief. Szkutnik (0-1) took the loss.
The Rumble Ponies (28-23) conclude their series in Erie with a morning tilt at 11:05 AM on Thursday. RHP Joseph Shaw takes the mound against RHP Kyle Funkhouser.
POSTGAME NOTES: Binghamton is a season-best five games over .500…Binghamton improved to 3-1 in games decided in extra innings…the Rumble Ponies have won eight straight games at UPMC Park, dating back to last season
3 comments:
I'll never understand why anyone would actually want to trade Jacob deGrom. I don't care what youthful MLB untested kids we could get back for deGrom, because it would still be a crapshoot return for a given top five MLB starter that Jacob is. Just extend his current contract out, will ya' please already. He and his agent are up with that already I have read online recently. Re-sign Noah too same way maybe?
The Mets could easily afford this by building a more youthful starting field lineup, as they are right now with Nimmo, Conforto, Rosario, and soon too Alonso and McNeil. Five. Then instead of acquiring four outside veteran players to fill the field positions, they would only need a total of three at most. Monies saved for Jake and Noah extensions. Team gets their two stud starters and five younger player nucleus. The world is then right.
Samething with the rest of the pitching staff. Soon we might be seeing pitchers like Eric Hanhold, Dave Roseboom, and Drew Smith in the Mets bullpen and then Nabil Crismatt starting as well. That's four kid pitchers right there. If Marcus Molina can keep improving as he has been, that would make five. Not bad.
The other starters here are not in the above two starters (Jake and Noah's) league. Maybe one day, but not right now although there has been really decent strides being made. By trading Noah and Jake the NY Mets would be taking a huge step backwards. A loss perhaps never even repairable. Noah and Jake are the best two starters this team has had here since Dwight Gooden left town. How many seasons was that in between? Can you see my point.
Observations:
MLB should absolutely insist the networks do away with the outline boxes on television games framing the strikezone. Each network has a different sized box and a different high to low/right to left box outline for the batters. Some start at the batters ankles and end at the batter's waste line. Others have a much higher box outline a couple of inches below the letters on their uniforms.
Just do away with it.
Can't we just go back to umpires making their own strikezones and mistakes and then leave it at that? (This comment was so Andy Rooney-ish, wasn't it? LOL)
What's up with the new bat manufacturers bats always shattering a few inches above the batters hands? Someone is going to get killed with bat shrapnel in the stands or at least lasting splinters. Might make some sense to go to aluminum now. Homeruns would at least go up in number making things more fun for the fans. Could replace the superball centered hardball now with what it used to be, to offset the aluminum bats being more powerful. Won't need PED's.
Throws to home plate from the outfield.
I used to play right field and I would always aim left of home plate by about four feet to offset the "natural curve" over a long distance of throwing really hard with my right hand. My point is this one, take a big bucket of balls out to the outfield positions that you play and test your arm to see where your throws are going most of the time. Are they straight on line, or do yours' curve too?
I used to turn my back with the ball in my glove to home plate. Then a buddy would blow a whistle from home plate and I would turn and hurry my throws in towards home plate. Why such absurdity with my back turned? (Got me) No, actually it was to replicate the split second time an outfielder has after following the ball into the glove off the bat, then locate home plate quickly and throw it with all the player's might to home. It is all spontaneous in other words this way.
I am beginning to really enjoy watching the outfield tandem of Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo. They are exciting players just getting their white nickers dirty. What they are right now is not at all what they will end up being. Their limit is the sky.
Why I like what I am seeing from Binghamton's second baseman McNeil is the fact that this season he is batting for not only average but homeruns as well. A second baseman who can do this (same as Asdrubal Cabrera) is a rarity and such a big bonus to any team they are on.
Jason Vargas should maybe try only pitching every other start with the Mets, so that he can match up his best winning outings here and then pitch the in between games (that he loses) somewhere else. He must be a Gemini.
I wanted Jose Bautista here five years ago, but am darn glad he is here now! Unbelievable player. He is either all good genetics or learned somewhere that the human body does not age as quickly if you keep steadily working out and taking a powerful antioxidant everyday. The man is 29 years old genetically. Hang onto this guy Sandy!
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