Binghamton 5, New Britain 3
The Binghamton Mets lashed out a season-high seven doubles in a 5-3 victory over the New Britain Rock Cats on Sunday night at New Britain Stadium. The B-Mets secured their 18th series win of the season and stretched their lead in the Eastern Division to 11.0 games with the triumph.
Binghamton started the double barrage in the first inning against Rock Cats starter Pat Dean. Allan Dykstra hammered a pay-off pitch with two outs into the left-field corner, plating Josh Rodriguez from first base. Dykstra’s team-leading 22nd two-bagger of the season gave the B-Mets an early 1-0 lead.
The Rock Cats used a pair of homers to grab the lead against B-Mets starter Erik Goeddel. Nate Hanson tied the game with a wall-scraping solo shot to left in the first and Miguel Sano put New Britain up by one with a lead-off blast to the left in the second.
Trailing 2-1, Binghamton kicked the double attack into a higher gear in the third. Alonzo Harris started the frame by sending one to the right-field alley and Josh Rodriguez tied the game with a double down the third-base line. Cesar Puello replaced Rodriguez at second and gave the B-Mets a 3-2 lead by launching his 20th double of the season off the center-fielder wall. Travis Taijeron capped the three-run inning with an RBI two-bagger into the left-field corner.
Dean was pulled after three and replaced by Daniel Turpen. The right-hander posted three shutout innings, keeping the Rock Cats within two while allowing just one hit.
Goeddel bounced back after Sano’s homer with three scoreless innings. The California native worked around a single and a walk in the third, side-stepped two singles in the fourth and posted a zero after hitting a batter in the fifth.
His cruise came to a halt in the sixth. Sano ripped a single past Tovar at short to start the inning and Daniel Ortiz worked out a walk after eight pitches. Dan Rohlfing‘s innocent fly out to right proved to be costly for Binghamton. As Sano moved to third, Tovar received Puello’s return throw and fired to first in attempt to nab Ortiz. The shortstop’s toss skipped into the seats and allowed Sano to score, trimming Binghamton’s lead to one.
With the tying run on third, Goeddel struck out Jordan Parraz before handing the reins to Adam Kolarek. The B-Mets reliever struck out Angel Morales looking to end the threat. The southpaw returned for the seventh and worked around a lead-off double by Danny Santana in a scoreless frame.
The B-Mets added a much-needed insurance run against Ryan O’Rourke in the seventh. With the bases loaded after an intentional walk to Cesar Puello, Dykstra lifted a sac fly to left field, stretching the visitor’s advantage to two.
Binghamton continued their strong bullpen effort into the final innings. Pedro Feliciano struck out two in a perfect eighth before handing off to Jeff Walters in the ninth. The B-Mets closer made things tense by surrendering a pair of two-out singles, but induced Hanson to bounce into a fielder’s choice to secure his league-leading 26th save of the season.
Goeddel (9-3) allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and matched a season-high with eight strikeouts over 5-2/3 innings. He matches Logan Verrett and Akron’s Matt Packer for the league lead in victories. Dean (5-10) surrendered four runs on five hits in three innings in the loss.
The B-Mets (62-37) begin a three-game series against the Reading Fightin Phils at home on Monday night at 6:35 PM. RHP Logan Verrett takes the hill against RHP Seth Rosin.
Key Stats
Cesar Puello: 1-for-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB
Allan Dykstra: 1-for-2, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 RBI
Josh Rodriguez: 2-for-3, 2 2B, 2 BB, 1 RBI, 2 R
Erik Goeddel: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 HR, 2 BB, 3 R, 2 ER, 8 K
Adam Kolarek: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
Pedro Feliciano: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K
Jeff Walters: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
(Team Report)