Mahoning Valley 2, Brooklyn 1
Despite the excitement of Justin Turner’s debut with the Cyclones as he continues his rehab assignment, the Cyclones lost in a pitchers duel, 2-1, to Mahoning Valley on Friday Night.
Robert Gsellman came in to Friday’s game with a 1.98 ERA, good for third in the NYPL, and gave the Cyclones another great performance with a quality start. But his counterpart, Scrappers starter Luis Lugo was also ranked in the top ten in ERA, and shutout the Cyclones line up in his five innings of work. Gsellman tossed seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, striking out five. Gsellman picks up his second loss of the season, and through all his efforts is still without a win.
It took until the seventh inning for either team to score a run, but it was the Scrappers who got on the board first in Gsellman’s only rough inning. The Scrappers best hitter as of late, Nellie Rodriguez, led the inning off on a line drive single to left field. Rodriguez advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by the next batter James Roverts.Gsellman then allowed Rodriguez to get to third on a wild pitch with one out.Gsellman would get another out before he hit Josh McAdams with a pitch. Scrappers catcher Martin Cervenka then doubled off the left field wall that scored both Rodriguez and McAdams, giving the Scrappers a 2-0 lead.
Brooklyn made it close in the bottom of the eighth when they scored their first run of the game. Spark plug Patrick Biondi worked a one out walk, and Turner followed with a walk of his own to quickly put Biondi in scoring position. A wild pitch moved both runners over, setting up designated hitter L.J. Mazzilli with an opportunity to tie the game. Mazzilli hit a groundball out to first to drive in Biondi from third. With the score 2-1 and Turner on third, Jared King hit a line drive to left field that looked like it was going to fall for a base hit, but left fielder Josh McAdams robbed King of a game tying hit with an amazing diving grab to end the inning.
Mazzilli extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single to left field in the sixth inning. The hitting streak is the longest of any Cyclone this season, and of Mazzilli’sprofessional career. Justin Turner finished 1-3 with a walk, collecting his first Cyclones hit in his first at bat with a line drive single to left field.
Key Stats
Jared King: 2-for-3, 1 BB
L.J. Mazzilli: 1-for-4, 1 RBI
Justin Turner: 1-for-3, 1 BB
Robert Gsellman: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 5 K
Paul Paez: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
Johnny Magliozzi: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
(Team Report)