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MMN Recap: Mark Vientos, Shervyen Newton Homer For Columbia

By Daniel Muras

July 15, 2019 No comments

Photo by Ed Delany, MMN

Syracuse (45-48) 5, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (53-40) 3  Box Score

A four run eighth inning rally propelled the Mets to victory over the Railriders. Tejada would drive in the first two runs of the inning and tie the game with a single; Rivera immediately followed with a two run home run to break the tie. Tejada is hitting .400/.478/.600 in July and shows no signs of slowing down from his hot start to the season.

Santana had his best Triple-A start of the season, only needing 89 pitches to make it through a season-high seven innings. Overall, Santana has struggled since joining the Mets organization, but still provides decent starting pitching depth for a team that lacks in that area. Nogosek has gone 18.1 innings without giving up an earned run at Triple-A.

Binghamton (47-43) 3, Portland (37-54) 1  Box Score

Binghamton did not produce a ton offense in Sunday’s game as they were limited to just three runs on seven hits, but this offensive output was more than enough to claim victory. Barnes put the Rumble Ponies ahead for good early with a two run home run in the first inning. It was his second straight game with a home run. Sanchea has struggled coming off of his ridiculously hot June and is hitting just .243/.263/.297 in July.

Wilson has not had a smooth adjustment to Double-A, but he managed to produce his strongest start at the level on Sunday. It was just his second start of six innings at the level and his first in which he did not allow a run. He has not walked more than two batters in a game since May 16. Hanhold has performed much better since a late-June demotion to Double-A.

Dunedin (58-32) 11, St. Lucie (50-43) 6  Box Score

The Mets had a strong all-around offensive showing in this game, with ever player in the lineup reaching base at least once. Six of the team’s 10 hits went for extra bases. Moreno has been outstanding since being called back up to St. Lucie from Columbia: In the first 13 games since his promotion, Moreno is hitting .375/.432/.625 with just eight strikeouts.

A quick look at Wilson’s line makes it obvious that he had absolutely no control in this start. Besides walking three of the five batters he faced, Wilson only threw 6 of his 22 pitches for strikes and only recorded one out in his start. This was the first time he had allowed more than two earned runs in a game since June 1. Worth noting that Wilson has been dealing with a blister.

Following a disastrous first few outings to his season, Cavallaro has actually been pretty good out of the St. Lucie bullpen: If one removes his first three appearances of the season, Cavallaro has a 2.41 ERA.

Columbia (36-53) 2, Charleston (47-46) 1  Box Score

The Fireflies offense pushed across just two runs in the first game of their Sunday doubleheader. Vientos is crushing the ball so far this month and has a .381/.458/.643 in 12 July games. Mauricio has been in a bit of a slump for the past couple of weeks, but his performance this season is still remarkable considering he is the youngest starting player in the South Atlantic League.

Butto continued an impressive stretch of pitching with five shutout innings and eight strikeouts (one shy of a season high). Since the All-Star break, Butto has a 1.91 ERA over five starts and his ERA has improved each month of the season: 6.16 in April, 3.72 in May, 3.18 in June, and 1.08 so far in July.

Columbia (37-53) 5, Charleston (47-47) 0  Box Score

The Fireflies had just six hits in the second game of the doubleheader, but still managed to score five runs in the seven inning game. Newton crushed his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot in the fourth inning, and is now hitting .391/.391/.609 so far in July. Sharp is another player who is heating up after a rough start to the season: In the 21 games following the All-Star break, he is hitting .284/.349/.473 with three home runs.

Acosta continued his breakout season with a truly dominant start. Needing just 83 pitches to get through six innings, the 20 year old righty blanked the opposition and struck out a career best nine batters.Through six starts this season, Acosta has allowed one run or less in every start except his first with Columbia. He also has 37 strikeouts in just 28.1 innings and has not walked more than two batters in a game.

Brooklyn (16-13) 4, West Virginia (15-14) 1  Box Score

The Cyclones didn’t have a ton of offense in Sunday’s game, recording only seven hits and scoring one run each on a fourth inning double play and eighth inning passed ball. Ritter has displayed excellent plate discipline so far in his brief profession career, as evidenced by his 16:20 BB:K ratio.

In many ways this start could be considered not only Cleveland’s best of the season, but also the best of his career. His 6.1 innings represent a career high and, while he only struck out a single batter, he was able to limit West Virginia to two baserunners and keep his pitch count at an efficient 73 pitches. Still, while Cleveland has shown some recent signs of progress at times this season, he is still walking more batters than he strikes out (14 walks against 12 strikeouts), which is a concerning trend that has persisted throughout his career.

Kingsport (13-12) 2, Greeneville (10-15) 1  Box Score

Alvarez continued his incredible rookie season with yet another multi-hit game. After failing to pick up a hit over the course of his first three games with Kingsport, Alvarez has had two hits in each of his last four games and is 8-for-12 over that span.

Garcia, who will be just 19 years old for the remainder of the season, was given an aggressive assignment of going from the DSL to Kingsport and, after a rough start, seems to be settling in nicely. Over his last two appearances, he has struck out 12 and walked only two batters in 6.1 innings.