The long ball bug-a-boo, a condition that plagued Darin Gorski during his early years of professional baseball reoccurred at Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium Friday night. Gorski, the ace of the B-Met staff, who surrendered 20 HR’s pitching in Binghamton in 2012, only yielded two in over 90 innings of work last summer. But, New Hampshire batters went yard on Gorski three times Friday as the Fischer Cats bested Binghamton, 6-3, in Double-A, Eastern League play.
It’s habit for the tall B-Met lefthander to get batter’s to hit the ball in the air. Last night eight of Gorski’s 18 outs were recorded on balls hit high in the air. Gorski, with a fastball that rarely touches 90 mph, utilizes pinpoint location and a mix of pitches to confound and perplex batters, making it imperative the tall lefty keep his pitches low in the strike zone. Three Gorski deliveries arrived waist high spoiling an otherwise stellar night of mound work for the Binghamton ace.
It wasn’t until the second batter in the third inning that Gorski threw one time from the stretch. Gorski retired the first five Fischer Cats, two by strikeouts and three on outfield flies. Fischer Cat first baseman Gabe Jacabo lifted a Gorski serve over the left field wall for the first New Hampshire run with two outs in the second.
The B-Met ace allowed a one out single to Jon Jones in the third, but retired the side with three outs recorded in the air. Brad Glenn went deep on Gorski for the Fischer Cats second solo blast with one out in the fourth. Andy Burns followed with a double, but Gorski worked out of the jam without further damage. Second baseman Ryan Schmipf’s lead off homer in the sixth was the last damage inflicted on the B-Met ace.
In total, Gorski worked six innings allowing six hits, striking out six and walking only one. The lefty threw 88 pitches, 63 for strikes at 72 percent. The three gopher balls prevented the Binghamton ace from a stellar outing.
Offensively, the B-Mets had no answer for Fischer Cat starter Aaron Sanchez, a hard throwing right-hander with a fastball that reaches the high 90’s. The biggest threat Binghamton managed against Sanchez came in their first at bat when Kevin Plawecki and Jayce Boyd sandwiched infield singles around a Matt Clark single to left field to load the bases. Dustin Lawley’s foul pop-up to outside the first base foul line ended the threat.
Boyd’s base-on-balls was the only other base runner against Sanchez allowed until Matt Reynolds opened the sixth with a walk. Plawecki followed with a single to right-center setting the table for a potential rally, but an infield popup retired Clark, and the inning ended when Jacabo snared a sizzling Boyd line drive at first and turned it into a double play.
The B-Mets were all over Fischer Cat reliever Will Browning who replaced Sanchez in the seventh. Lawley greeted Browning with a base hit followed by a Cory Vaughn double over the third base bag and into the left field corner. Browning called it a night without retiring a batter when he walked Travis Taijeron to load the bases without recording an out.
The Fischer Cats replaced Browning with Scott Gracey with similar results. Gracey walked Wilfredo Tovar to force home the B-Mets first run. After Kyle Johnson fanned for Binghamton’s first out, Reynolds ripped a shot into right field plating Vaughn, but the ball was hit too hard to allow the tying run to score. Gracey got Plawecki on an infield popup for the second out, when New Hampshire manager Bobby Meacham went with lefty Tony Davis to face the B-Mets lefthanded slugger Clark.
Davis and catcher Jack Murphy got crossed up with their signs. The first Davis pitch, a called strike across the outise corner of the plate, skipped off Murphy’s glove allowing Taijeron to scamper home with the games tying run.
New Hampshire won the game scoring three runs in the eighth. B-Met reliever Jon Velasquez was the victim of a chain of unfortunate events allowing his first runs in five outings to pick up the loss. Andy Fermin opened the frame with a basehit to right field. The number nine hitter, Jon Jones was asked to lay down a bunt. After failing in his first two attempts, Jones hit a soft ground ball that B-Met first baseman Matt Clark couldn’t reach. Wilfredo Tovar fielded the ball and raced to first for a possible unassisted put out. Over the protests of B-Met manager Pedro Lopez, the first base umpire ruled a sliding Jones had touched the base a whisker ahead of Tovar leaving runners on first and second without an out.
Next, Kenny Wilson placed a perfect bunt between home and third. Velasquez chose to make a play for the lead runner at third base, but failed loading the bases without an out. Jon Berti’s sacrifice fly plated the go-ahead run with the trail runners advancing to third and second. Binghamton choose to walk Schmipf intentionally, but Glenn stroked a two run single to right-center field to seal the deal for the Fischer Cats.
*John Bernhardt, MMN’s B-Mets Beat writer, was on-hand at NYSEG Stadium, during Friday nights game action.
