Allentown, PA – The Lehigh Valley IronPigs eeked out another close game against the Syracuse Mets on Saturday night, edging the road team by a 7-4 final on a muggy Saturday night in Allentown. The IronPigs have now won four of the first five games in the six-game series. 10 of the 17 games the two teams have played against one another so far this season have been decided by three runs or less. Syracuse has won five of those ten games.
After a sleepy start to the ballgame with three straight scoreless innings, both teams woke up in the middle innings. Lehigh Valley (58-46) got on the board first in the bottom of the fourth. Johan Camargo walked with one out, bringing Donny Sands to the plate. He launched a high drive off the top of the 14-foot wall in right-center field, a double that allowed Camargo to score all the way from first to give the IronPigs a 1-0 lead. However, Sands was thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple, making it two outs and nobody on base in the inning. The IronPigs just restarted their rally from there, as Josh Ockimey walked, Dalton Guthrie singled and Justin Williams walked to load the bases with two outs. Chris Sharpe then walked to the plate looking to do damage, but Tim Adleman fanned him on a 2-2 fastball to evacuate the inning without further damage. Adleman, the Mets starter on Saturday night, went four innings of one-run ball, allowing just three hits while striking out two batters and walking three.
In the top of the fifth, Syracuse (46-58) finally got to Lehigh Valley’s starter, Kent Emmanuel, after he mowed the Mets down in the first four innings. JT Riddle doubled leading off the inning, and after a Michael Perez strikeout, Riddle raced home on an RBI single from Tzu-Wei Lin to tie the game, 1-1. The inning wouldn’t end there as Lin advanced to third on a Dominic Smith lineout to right field and then came home when Emmanuel simply dropped the ball while he was in the stretch position on the mound. The balk allowed Lin to walk home and hand the Mets a 2-1 lead.
That lead wouldn’t last, as the IronPigs tied it right back up with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Will Toffey singled leading off the inning, and after a Scott Kingery strikeout, he advanced all the way to third on a Yairo Munoz one-out single. A curious circumstance then handed Lehigh Valley a tie game at two. With runners on first and third with one out, Michael Perez tried a back-pick throw to first base after a pitch to try and pick off the baserunner Munoz. His throw was poor, skittering away from the first baseman Smith and allowing Toffey to sprint home and tie the game, 2-2.
It remained a 2-2 game until the top of the seventh when Syracuse struck twice to take another lead, this time at 4-2. Lin walked leading off the inning and then stole his way to second with nobody out. Smith struck out, but Nick Plummer singled to move Lin to third with one out. Then, a wild pitch skittered all the way to the backstop, scored Lin and handed Syracuse a 3-2 lead. The Mets wouldn’t settle there, as a Nick Dini single later in the inning plated Plummer and made it a 4-2 lead for the road team, their largest of the game.
The lead was once again short-lived as Syracuse allowed one run in the bottom of the seventh and four fateful runs in the bottom of the eighth to cinch a Lehigh Valley comeback win. In the bottom of the seventh, the IronPigs got a run back when Yairo Munoz had a one-out single and scored on a two-out, RBI double from Donny Sands, trimming the Syracuse lead to one, 4-3. The two-bagger was the second different RBI double of the game for Sands.
In the eighth, the IronPigs completed their comeback with a four-run knockout punch. It all started when the first two batters, Dalton Guthrie and Justin Williams, reached via a hit by pitch and a single respectively. After a Chris Sharpe popout, Rafael Marchan was hit by a pitch to load up the bases with one out. Scott Kingery then drew a bases-loaded walk to knot up the game up, 4-4, which proceeded the game’s big, final blow. Yairo Munoz pounded a three-run double to center field that cleared the bases, made it 7-4, and effectively ended the game.
The Mets went down 1-2-3 at the plate in the top of the ninth to seal their Saturday night fate. Lehigh Valley has scored 15 combined runs between the seventh through tenth innings in the first five games of the series.
BRIDGEWATER, NJ – The Binghamton Rumble Ponies fell to the Somerset Patriots 4-2 on Saturday night at TD Bank Ballpark, snapping their four-game winning streak.
Somerset (17-14, 61-39) scored two in the bottom of the seventh, with Max Burt’s go-ahead RBI single making the difference. Rodolfo Duran and Chad Bell each singled off Jose Chacin (0-8) to begin the frame before Burt’s single to center drove home Duran. The next batter Anthony Volpe added a sacrifice fly to left that drove home Bell to give the Patriots a two-run lead.
Down 1-0 in the fourth, the Rumble Ponies got on the board on a two out RBI Double from Brandon McIlwain that drove home Ronny Mauricio to tie the game at 1. Somerset would respond with an RBI double from Blake Perkins in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
Still down one in the seventh, Luke Ritter belted a homer over the left field wall to tie the game at two. The two-out hit by Ritter extended his hitting streak to five and he also has an RBI in all five games of this series.
Jordan Yamamoto made the start for Binghamton (11-20, 39-61) and allowed two runs and four hits over five innings with one walk and six strikeouts in the no decision.
Somerset starter Sean Boyle (8-4), just named MiLB Pitcher of the Month for July in the Eastern League, allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits over seven innings with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Postgame Notes: Wyatt Young extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single to left in the eighth…Ritter’s home run was his 10th of the season…McIlwain finished 2-4 with an RBI.
Brooklyn, NY (August 6, 2022) – On a night where the Cyclones celebrate a show about nothing, it was the Cyclones hurlers who took that to heart and held the Winston-Salem Dash to virtually nothing in a 3-1 Brooklyn win. RHP Junior Santos tied his career-high with 7.0 innings on the mound, allowing just one run on six hits. Offensively, it was Gregory Guerrero - who went 2-for-2, including a two-run home run - who provided the spark.
After getting shut out on Friday night, the Dash got things started early this evening. Colson Montgomery had a one-out triple to start the threat and came home when Bryan Ramos had a bloop single into right field to give Winston-Salem a 1-0 edge in the first inning.
Brooklyn battled back in the bottom of the frame. Rowdey Jordan singled to start the bottom of the first and moved up to second on an errant pick throw. Moments later a wild pitch allowed Jordan to scamper to third and Nic Gaddis completed his trip around the bases with an RBI single that knotted the score at 1-1.
In the bottom of the second, Brooklyn grabbed the lead and never looked back. Shervyen Newton singled to get things started and Gregory Guerrero followed with a two-run blast off the left-field scoreboard to give the ‘Clones a 3-1 edge.
That would be all the offense Brooklyn would need, as Santos turned the ball over to Daison Acosta who added 2.0 shutout frames to close out the win and collect his fifth save of the season.
With the win, the Cyclones improved to 51-50 on the season, getting back over .500 for the first time since May 1st when they were 11-10. Brooklyn is now 21-14 in the second half good for first place in the South Atlantic League North.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (August 6, 2022) – The St. Lucie Mets won another tight game over the Daytona Tortugas, 2-1, on Saturday at Clover Park.
The Mets broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the seventh inning when Omar De Los Santos rolled ground ball up the middle to beat the drawn-in Daytona defense for a RBI single that scored Brady Smith from third base for a 2-1 lead.
Smith started the rally with a one-out double. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch by Brett Lockwood.
Fernando Villalobos added an insurance run with a RBI ground out that scored Justin Guerrera in the eighth inning. Guerrera had started the inning with a single.
Reyson Santos struck out two batters in the ninth to close out the game for his first save of the season.
Kyle Wilson, on MiLB rehab assignment, started the game. He pitched two perfect innings and struck out five of the six batters he faced.
Jeffrey Colon pitched the next five innings to get the win. He allowed just one run on a sac fly. He scattered three singles, walked two and struck out four.
Benito Garcia pitched a perfect eighth inning to get a hold.
Raul Beracierta broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run off Daytona starter Jose Franco in the sixth inning. It was the second straight game for Beracierta with a home run and his 11th long ball of the season.
De Los Santos, Guerrera and Junior Tilien had two hits apiece.
No comments:
Post a Comment