Last night on the farm both Buffalo and Binghamton won close games, St. Lucie and Savannah were blown out, and the Cyclones kept rolling. Let’s check out the deets:
Buffalo 5, Durham 4
The Bisons trailed by a run heading to the 9th but ended up winning in walk-off style when Jordany Valdespin singled home Raul Reyes. Valdespin hit a solo homer earlier in the game. Jenrry Mejia ended up getting the win after another relief outing that didn’t go well. Mejia pitched 2 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits with a strikeout and no walks. Mejia followed Collin McHugh, who finally had a nice start for the Bisons, going 6.1 innings and giving up just 1 run on 4 hits with 2 walks and 10 strikeouts. In his first 20 innings in AAA, McHugh has 25 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.15, so you can ignore the ERA that’s above 5, that’ll come down if he keeps pitching the way he has the last couple times out.
Binghamton 3, Altoona 2
The B-Mets won a pitchers duel thanks in part to a solid start from Darin Gorski, who went 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 6. Brad Holt, Adrian Rosario, and Robert Carson all pitched a scoreless inning in relief. Dustin Martin and Wilfredo Tovar both had 2 hits, a double, and an RBI. Wilmer Flores was 0 for 3 with a walk, while playing second base.
Fort Myeres 11, St. Lucie 2
The Florida State League looks like the end of the line for Yohan Almonte, who had another rough outing giving up 8 runs on 8 hits through 4 innings. Kyle Allen didn’t help giving up 3 more, but Taylor Whitenton pitched 2 scoreless innings. In his first year working out of the bullpen Whitenton is rocking a 2.45 ERA. Adam Loewen was 2 for 4 and played first base in another rehab outing, although he did leave early. T.J. Rivera was 2 for 4. Rivera along with Richard Lucas and Rylan Sandoval all doubled. Travis Taijeron hit a solo homer, his 3rd since his promotion and 15th total for the year.
Augusta 10, Savannah 1
Logan Verrett got roughed up a little bit, giving up 5 runs on 9 hits through 5 innings of work, although he did strike out 4 and walked none. Jared West gave up 4 more runs on 2 hits and 4 walks. Aderlin Rodriguez and Matt Reynolds had 2 hits each. The still 20-year old Rodriguez is hitting .271/.332/.476, a significant improvement on last year. Thus far he has 13 homers, after hitting 17 last year.
Brooklyn 7, Hudson Valley 5
The Cyclones won another one; once again Brooklyn has a really good team. Hansel Robles was solid, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits through 5 innings. Matt Bowman got the win, giving up a run in 2 innings of work and Paul Sewald got the save with 2 scoreless frames. Stefan Sabol was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles. Phillip Evans and Jayce Boyd also had doubles. Brandon Nimmo, who moved back to the 2-spot in the lineup, was 0 for 3, but he walked and had 2 RBI’s. He’s hitting just .173 so far, but for a 19-year old he has a great approach; the next step for Nimmo is learning when to be aggressive and attack balls that he can drive.
The K-Mets got rained out on the last day of their home stand. They now take their 4-10 record on the road with them.
6 comments
srt
7/4/2012-9:03am at 9:03 am (UTC -4)
Mejia in the BP so far seems to be a failed experiment. Have to wonder how much of that is mental. Still think they should have kept him as a starter until it was 100% evident he couldn’t make it as one.
NJstuckinTX
7/4/2012-9:37am at 9:37 am (UTC -4)
Agreed.
Hazmet
7/4/2012-10:39am at 10:39 am (UTC -4)
Since entering pro ball in 2007 Mejia’s highest innings pitched total has been 94 innings in one season back in 2009. Next highest total was 82 innings pitched in 2010 before his injury. He may never get to the number of innings pitched required in MILB to build up the type arm strength to be a SP. In a franchise with Harvey, Wheeler, Familia, Gorski and whoever else in the minors coming in addition Niese and Gee as young arms in the bigs where’s the room for Mejia anyway in a rotation in Queens. It doesn’t exist. Unless you want to package him in a trade his best value in the organization is in the pen based on his inability to get his IP’s up to be a starter and that his bread and butter when working is a really good swing and miss pitch. Mejia has been in AAA for all of 30 days after his injury. I would say it’s way too early to bail on him building up arm strength after an injury. If this was spring training we’d probably be saying he’s entering his dead arm period. I also haven’t checked, but I’m off to check if he gave up his runs in his first inning of work or second. Hopefully his second as a reliever he’d only be coming in for one inning of work anyway and can air it out. I preach patience for the still young Mejia. If he’s going to be in Queens it’s going to be in the pen if not then he’s trade bait and I just assume keep his arm and see if it can work in the pen.
Bryan
7/4/2012-6:04pm at 6:04 pm (UTC -4)
I don’t think they’ve given up on him as a starter completely, but out of the bullpen is the best way for him to contribute in the majors this year. Also, it’s a short season for him coming off the injury so it’d be easier to lump him in with the starters if he was pitching with everyone at the beginning of spring training, and like Hazmet said he does not have a lot of innings built up from previous seasons to handle the workload of a start the rest of the season. If they still think he can be a starter, they’ll put him there next spring.
NJstuckinTX
7/4/2012-9:37am at 9:37 am (UTC -4)
Valdy’s trade value is high… Just sayin’.
Stick
7/4/2012-10:17am at 10:17 am (UTC -4)
word.