; ;

MMN Recap: Cortes, Adolph Homer in Brooklyn Loss

By Daniel Muras

August 27, 2018 No comments

Carlos Cortes/Photo by Andy Shupe

Sacramento (52-80) 5, Las Vegas (64-68) 1   Box Score

Kivlehan continued his exceptional month of August in which he owns a .357/.418/.871 slash line. He has been really solid for the 51s since being released by the Reds. Alonso is only batting .189 over his last ten games, but he still has a 1.040 OPS for the month. He’s fallen back into a little bit of a slide but he should be fine. The slap-hitting Guillorme had his six-game hitting streak snapped while he left six men on base.

  • LHP Matt Gage (L, 4-8, 6.79 ERA): 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 6 K
  • RHP Corey Taylor (2-1, 4.84 ERA): 2.0 IP, H, 0 R, BB, 2 K
  • RHP Gerson Bautista (2-1, 5.65 ERA): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
  • RHP Jacob Rhame (1-2, 3.16 ERA): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, K

Gage made his first start for Las Vegas after going 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA in three starts for Binghamton. He had Triple-A experience earlier this year for the River Cats, going 4-7 with a 6.47 ERA in eleven games (ten starts). Facing his former team, that mediocrity continued into his first appearance with Las Vegas, as it took him 98 pitches just to get through four lousy innings. Taylor has a 1.86 ERA in four appearances since being promoted from Binghamton on August 13. Bautista has been struggling lately, but he flashed his potential in a lights-out inning last night, striking out the side on 14 pitches. Rhame’s last five appearances for Las Vegas have been scoreless, dating back to an outing on July 7.

New Hampshire (73-57) 7, Binghamton (61-71) 1  Box Score

Binghamton had little offense on Sunday afternoon as they scored just a single run on six hits. Gimenez returned to the lineup after being removed from Friday’s game early and sitting out Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury. He drove in the Rumble Ponies’ lone run with a groundout in the second inning. After pinch running in the previous game, Cone made his first Double-A start and picked up his first hit.

Gonzalez’s Double-A struggles continued as he gave up six runs over six innings. It appears that his lack of strikeout ability is catching up to Gonzalez and, though eight starts, Gonzalez has given up an astounding 71 hits (47 innings pitched). If one positive can be taken from his brief Double-A career, Gonzalez is still pitching deep into game, having gone at least five innings in each start and six innings in six of his eight starts with Binghamton.

St. Lucie (53-75) 5, Fort Myers (63-67) 1  Box Score

The Mets lineup had a solid afternoon at the plate, recording 10 hits and going 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Nimmo played eight innings in center field and had four plate appearances in his second rehab game with St. Lucie. Vasquez extended his hitting streak to 10 games and is hitting .321/.409/.506 in August, showing that he has adjusted to advanced competition seen in the Florida State League. Tiberi has struggled mightily since his promotion and has recently lost some playing time as David Wright (who had the day off on Sunday) continues his rehab, but hopefully this strong game is a sign of better things to come.

Peterson continued his recent stretch of excellent pitching performances as he allowed just one unearned run over seven innings. Peterson hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last three starts and has a 0.38 ERA with a 22:5 K:BB ratio over his last four starts (24.0 innings pitched). Cobb closed the game out with two scoreless innings. He has a 52:10 K:BB ratio for the season between Columbia and St. Lucie.

Asheville (59-70) 9, Columbia (60-65) 0  Box Score

The Fireflies’ offense was nonexistent in Sunday’s shutout. The lineup had just two hits, none of which were for extra bases, and had only five baserunners for the entirety of the game.

  • RHP Luc Rennie (L, 3-3, 3.83 ERA) 3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, BB, K
  • RHP Trent Johnson (0-0, 5.40 ERA) 2.0 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, K
  • LHP Aaron Ford (2-2, 2.38 ERA) 1.0 IP, 2 H, 3 K

Columbia’s pitching wasn’t any better that their offense in this game. Rennie, who had began his season with Columbia so promisingly (0.65 ERA through first four starts), has struggled quite a bit in August. Rennie has a 7.89 ERA in August, although his K:BB ratio is still solid at 16:3. The lone bright spot for Columbia in the game was Ford’s relief appearance, in which he worked around two hits to struck out the side. Despite dealing with a couple of injuries throughout 2018, Ford has been excellent and has a 1.95 FIP for the year.

Vermont (34-34) 10, Brooklyn (36-31) 9  Box Score

  • Ross Adolph DH: 2-for-5, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, 3 K, SB, .278/.348/.507
  • Carlos Cortes 2B: 2-for-6, 2 R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, .283/.352/.412
  • Brian Sharp 3B: 1-for-3, R, 2B, 3 BB, K, .265/.358/.397

Adolph led off the game with a home run and the Cyclones would add five more runs in the first inning to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Ultimately, however, the offense wasn’t able to keep up with Vermont and went just 3-for-24 with runners in scoring position before losing in the 12th inning.

Vilera wasn’t at his best in Sunday’s game, but his defense certainly didn’t give him any help, as they made four errors while he was pitching. A three-run home run with two outs in the sixth inning ultimately knocked him out of the game. Vilera has a 72:19 K:BB ratio in 68.0 IP this season. Gilliam struck out four of the six batters he faced and now has 28 strikeouts in just 14.2 innings pitched this season.

Burlington (24-41) 9, Kingsport (32-33) 5  Box Score

Despite going just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, the Mets were still able to score five runs on seven hits. Down 9-3 going into the 9th inning, the Mets rallied for two runs with the tying run on deck with just one out, but Beracierta hit into a game-ending double play. Top prospects Jarred Kelenic (last played August 24), Shervyen Newton (last played August 23), and Luis Santana (last played August 20) were all out of the lineup again, but no reason has been given for their absences.

  • RHP Matt Cleveland (L, 1-4, 4.97 ERA) 5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 4 ER, BB, 5 K
  • RHP Allan Winans (0-1, 3.72 ERA) 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K
  • RHP Luis Silva (0-0, 4.82 ERA) 2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 K

Cleveland had a rough outing, giving up four earned runs for the third straight start, although he didn’t get much help from his defense. On the bright side, this was the first time in 10 starts that Cleveland struck out more batters than he walked.

Las Vegas portion of recap done by Mojo Hill.