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Darin Gorski Painted a Masterpiece at NYSEG Park Last Night

By John Bernhardt

August 31, 2013 No comments

darin gorski 2Masterful.

That’s the only way to describe another Darin Gorski pitching gem at NYSEG Stadium last night. Last week’s Eastern League Player of the Week dazzled, staying ahead of hitters and once again causing batter after batter to pop the ball into the air, as he threw seven scoreless innings, one batter above the minimum, and picked up his sixth win of the year. Gorski’s string of scoreless innings lowered his ERA to a sterling 1.83 in Binghamton’s 3-0 win over New Hampshire.

Location, location, location could have been his refrain, as he continually pounded the strike zone and hit his spots. The tall left-hander didn’t allow a single base-on-balls, fanned five, and surrendered only two hits, one that was erased on a 6-4-3 double play.

As is his habit, Gorski continually enticed Fisher Cat batters to pop the ball in the air. He forced15 of the 21 outs to come via pop-ups, fly balls, or strike outs. Only three New Hampshire batters hit the ball on the ground during the game, a broken bat soft tap to first base, a weak 4-3 putout and the 6-4-3 double play.

Gorski set the tone in the early innings going 0-2 in the count to the first five batters he faced. The B-Met lefty threw first pitch strikes to 15 of the 22 batters he faced and was ahead in the count after 3 pitches in 15 of 20 at bats. He threw 68% of his 88 pitches for strikes, with only 10 of his 88 pitches coming from the stretch. Gorski got some flashy leather work from right-fielder Travis Taijeron in the visitor’s fourth to preserve his shutout. New Hampshire third baseman Andy Burns led off with a flare single over second baseman Danny Muno’s head into right field. That brought former Met power hitter Adam Loewen to the plate. Loewen blasted a 2-1 fastball into the gap in right-center with Taijeron on the run.

The B-Met right fielder had a “Ron Swoboda Moment” launching his body into the air parallel to the ground and snaring the Loewen bomb in mid air with his backhand. It was one of the more outstanding B-Met defensive plays of the season.

Fisher Cat shortstop Kevin Nolan followed with ground ball to short with Tovar, Muno and Lucas ‘turning two.’ The double play started a streak of 12 consecutive outs for Gorski to close his night’s work.

New Hampshire starter Deck McGuire matched Gorski frame-for-frame for most of his outing. McGuire no-hit Binghamton through five innings and allowed the first of three B-Met runs in the sixth without yielding a hit. Here’s how it went down. Joe Bonfe opened the inning with a ground ball to third but Burn’s throw to first pulled Kevin Ahrens off the bag for an infield error. Alonzo Harris worked a base-on-balls and Daniel Muno laid a slick sacrifice bunt down the third base line to advance both runners.

McGuire worked carefully to Josh Rodriquez, throwing his first three pitches for balls. Fisher Cat skipper, Gary Allenson, sent in the order to intentionally walk the B-Met third baseman on the next pitch. But, McGuire’s intentional ball sailed past his catcher with Bonfe racing home for Binghamton’s first score.

Taijeron ripped a shot down the left-field line into the corner scoring Harris and Rodriquez. The Mets three sixth inning runs were the only scores in the game.

Wifredo Tovar’s single to left in the seventh was the B-Mets only other hit in the contest. Frank Francisco pitched a scoreless eighth to earn a hold. The former Met closer threw a fastball between 90 and 93 mph and mixed in some low 80’s breaking stuff. Francisco got Ryan Schimpf to fly out to center-field to open the inning. Jonathan Jones grounded a single up the middle but was erased on Binghamton’s second 6-4-3 twin killing of the night.

Jeff Walters shut the door, earning his 38th save in the ninth. That ties him with Justin Eramus, who pitches in the Frontier Independent League for the most saves in 2013 in any professional baseball minor league.

A large and noisy crowd of over 5,000 people welcomed the Eastern League’s Eastern Division winners back to Binghamton for the final series of the regular season.