Syracuse Mets - Brooklyn Cyclones one year ago today.

Two Met minor league teams both won on Labor Day (9/2/2019) in win or go home games and now live to play another day. 

While Brooklyn has fought for the division lead all season long, Syracuse was as many as 10 games out after the International League All-Star game.  However, as the pitching for the Major League Mets stabilized after the All-Star break, so did Syracuse’s as they rode the best second half pitching to the best second half record. 

In yesterday’s 8-4 win over Rochester (box), Harol Gonzalez improved to 6-0 giving up just one run on a home run, 4 hits, no walks over 5 innings.  Harol lowered his ERA to 2.68 and continued to show he could handle AAA after his promotion from AA. 

I was thinking that Harol could go longer but apparently the original plan was to have Harol pitch 4 innings and then have Chris Mazza for 4.  Mazza came in the sixth and pitched two scoreless innings.  Adonis Uceta and Tim Peterson closed the game out. 

Syracuse scored single runs in the first, second, fifth, and sixth, before breaking out with 4 runs in the seventh.  Aaron Altherr led the attack with a 3 for 4 day and 4 RBIs.  Arismenday Alcantara added a home run and Jason Krizan had two doubles.  Jed Lowrie played 5 innings at second base and is expected to stay with the team through the playoffs.

Since Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lost to Buffalo, 5-3, Syracuse now plays the tie braking game at 1 today at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with Ervin Santana scheduled to start. 

According to Lindsey Kramer on Syracuse.com, the winner of that game travels to wildcard winner Durham for games one and two of the best-of-5 series Wednesday and Thursday.  If Syracuse qualifies for that series, it will host game three on Friday and four and five, if necessary, on Saturday and Sunday.

Pitching and timely hitting helps Brooklyn to a 4-1 win (box).

24-year-old West Islip, NY native, Frank Valentino, picked the right time to have one of his best games of the year. Frank pitched 5.1 innings giving up just one hit, two walks, and one run, with 9 strikeouts.  The Cyclones bullpen, Nick MacDonald, Hunter Parsons, and Reyson Santos, then added 3.2 innings of shutout baseball with 7 strikeouts of their own. 

With the game scoreless in the third, Brooklyn rallied.  Jake Ortega and Antoine Duplantis singled.  Wilmer Reyes (2 for 3 with a walk on the day) then doubled in Ortega and Jake Ritter then doubled in Duplantis and Reyes.  Brooklyn added a run in the fourth when Robinson Cano’s hard grounder to first with the bases loaded scored Brett Baty. 

While Brooklyn won, Aberdeen beat Hudson Valley beat 1-0.  This gave Brooklyn a first-place tie with the Rays’ Hudson Valley Renegades.  Since, the Cyclones won the season series against them, Brooklyn is the division winner and the first seed in the New York Penn league playoffs.  They will play Wednesday at Hudson Valley, Thursday in Brooklyn, and Friday in Brooklyn if necessary.