Rafael Montero took the hill for Binghamton today on a wonderful Sunday afternoon preluding Memorial Day and continued to build on his entire season of success to date. At this point, as I mentioned in the title, he is just scary good. Either bring him up to AAA or have him skip Las Vegas all together and toss him onto the big stage with the Mets.

Montero was absolutely dominant through six innings today – allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out eight batters. He allowed no earned runs and dropped his ERA in AA down to 3.08. He was mixing his pitches beautifully and pitched the confidence and poise that a real major league pitcher should have. Montero embodies what I like to call the bulldog mentality on the mound and he’s in control mentally every time he steps on the mound.

He touched 95 on the gun with ease throughout the game. After he allowed the first two batters to reach base, he retired the next nine batters in a row – including striking out the side in the third inning. He allowed two hits in the fourth but did not even seem fazed as he navigated through the inning on cruise control. He was removed from the game after tossing 100 pitches – 64 of them for strikes. Binghamton went on to win the game, 5-0, on the strength of a home run each from Allan Dykstra and Darrell Ceciliani. You can check out the box score here.

It’s amazing to think that Montero has impressed almost more than Wheeler has this year and has vaulted himself to a level of play that is impossible to ignore. Opposing hitters are batting just .219 against him to this point in the year as he continues his path to what is almost undeniably a major league appearance at some point in 2013.