Pedro Lopez is not adverse to challenges. In his third season as the Manager of the Binghamton Mets, Lopez has faced a string of obstacles of one sort or another. But his current banged and bruised B-Met roster could mark the first time Lopez has met his match.
Thursday in Binghamton’s final game of a seven game home stand, Lopez and his B-Mets went to battle against New Hampshire with only one healthy position player on the bench. Yet, a resilient Binghamton nine banged out 11 hits, giving Hansel Robles all the support he would need in a 7-2 victory.
Lopez’s B-Met roster faced almost crisis conditions when both his middle infielders, Wilfredo Tovar and Matt Reynolds went down with injury. The B-Met middle infield pair has been a consistent and steady everyday force in the B-Met lineup and a big part of Binghamton’s early season success.
Tovar, a scrappy defensive whiz kid for Binghamton, was injured during Wednesday nights game against the Fischer Cats when he jammed his hand sliding into second base. The gritty Tovar was shuffled off to NYC so Met doctors could take a look at his injured hand. The skipper and the team have to be holding their breath that Tovar’s absence won’t be for long.
Although Tovar’s batting average inched below the .300 mark for one at-bat during the home stand, the middle infielder quickly rediscovered his batting groove and was hitting .313 at the time of his injury. More importantly, Tovar is a tough out, a guy who rarely strikes out. In fact, Tovar is the toughest player in the Eastern League to strikeout, fanning only one time in every 18.6 at bats; and averages 4.2 better at bats than the second toughest out in the league. And, should Tovar be lost for a considerable length of time, his .377 on-base-percentage will be sorely missed by the B-Mets.
Reynolds, sports a nifty .347 batting average. That’s the best on the B-Mets and the third highest batting mark in the Eastern League. His 27 base-on-balls give Reynolds an astronomical .434 on-base-percentage that have turned into 27 runs scored; one behind team leader Kyle Johnson.
Unfortunately, back issues have forced Reynolds out of the lineup, and results of an MRI for the B-Met batting leader is pending.
An injury to Dustin Lawley, ( on the 7-day disabled list) who prior to his absence, split time between left field and third base, has really put Lopez in a bind. The B-Met skipper has been forced to use his backup catcher, Nelfi Zapata, as his third baseman.
Thankfully, for the skipper, Brian Burgamy, playing in his 13th professional baseball season, recently returned from the disabled list and is manning second base for Binghamton. On Thursday he went 3-for-4 and blasted his seventh home run of the season in the B-Met win.
Rylan Sandoval arrived from Las Vegas just in time to take over the duties at shortstop.
Lopez’s woes aren’t limited to position players. The B-Met manager has some work to do reformatting his pitching staff. With Jacob deGrom and Rafael Montero both moving from Las Vegas to Flushing, Lopez lost his pitching ace Darin Gorski and starter Greg Peavey to the 51s. Complicating Lopez’s challenge was an injury to Rainy Lara in a recent game. Lara was hurt covering home plate after a wild pitch, but team officials are hoping he only misses a single start.
The B-Met medical woes come at a critical time. A recent 6-1 home stand elevated Binghamton into second place at 30-22, 4.5 games behind Portland. Reading trails the B-Mets by only 1/2 game and Trenton falls only one game behind the Binghamton club. The B-Mets start a 6 game road trip in New Britain tonight.