It was home run derby night at Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium on Monday night. The red-hot B-Mets blasted four round-trippers, downing Reading, to win for the 12th time in their last 14 games. Binghamton moved to 12 games above .500 with a record of 44-32, but still trail first place Portland by six games.
Night after night, Brian Burgamy continues to pound the baseball. Burgamy blasted a pair of home runs, one from the right side of the plate and one from the left, to lead the Mets long ball arsenal.
Reading scored two runs in their first at-bat, but the Flyin’ Phils starting pitcher Jesse Biddle struggled mightily to locate his fastball, which always means trouble. Biddle opened the contest with back-to-back free passes to Juan Lagares and Dilson Herrera. After fanning Burgamy, Biddle only added to his woes by walking Kevin Plawecki.
Jayce Boyd and Darrell Ceciliani singles, scored the first two Binghamton runs of the inning. Dustin Lawley‘s sacrifice fly added the third run for the Mets. The big blow came off the bat of Travis Taijeron, a towering fly ball that cleared the left field fence for a three-run home run, putting the B-Mets on top 6-0.
Binghamton went back to work in the second inning scoring three more times. Lagares led off the inning with a base hit. Herrera hit a long double off the right field wall scoring Lagares. Batting from the right side of the plate, Burgamy followed with his first home run of the night, a two-run shot over the left field wall.
Both teams added a run in the third inning, Binghamton’s run coming on a Lagares RBI single.
Pete Lavin hit a triple and drove in two runs for the visitors in the fourth inning narrowing the margin 10-5 in favor of the Mets. Lavin, Readin’g right fielder, had a great night at the plate with a home run, a triple, and a double in his first three at-bats.
Burgamy would counter with a lead-off home run, his 13th of the season, in Binghamton’s half of the fourth, this time from the left side of the plate. Dustin Lawley continued to rake at the plate, his lead-off home run in the fifth, his ninth of the season, gave Binghamton their final run of the night.
Jack Leathersich looked untouchable catching two Flyin’ Phils looking, striking out the side in the sixth inning. He would run into trouble in his second inning on the mound surrendering a two-run double to Carlos Alonso in the seventh drawing Reading closer at 12-8.
Binghamton would call on Jon Velasquez to close the door. In the final two frames he allowed a single hit while striking out two. In 33 innings of relief, Velasquez is 4-2 with an ERA of 3.27 and a 0.91 WHIP. He has only allowed 23 hits while striking out 31 and only walking seven. Based on his sterling relief performance, the official scorer credited him with the win.
Mets skipped Pedro Lopez had to be pleased to get Rainy Lara back on the mound. Lara, who had missed three starts after suffering an injury in a collision at home, was on a strict pitch count which allowed him to only pitch 3.2 innings.