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MMN Recap: Szapucki Strikes Out Seven In Strong Start

By Daniel Muras

August 3, 2019 No comments

Thomas Szapucki, Photo By Ernest Dove

 

Syracuse (56-55) 5, Buffalo (57-54) 3  Box Score

Half of Syracuse’s eight total hits went for extra bases and they went 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position, allowing the offense to push across five runs. Guillorme has displayed a surprising amount of power this season, especially recently, even considering the juiced balls used in Triple-A. After never hitting more than three home runs in a season prior to this year, Guillorme has seven total for the season, including three in the last week.

  • RHP Drew Gagnon (W, 5-4, 2.43 ERA) 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, ER, 6 K
  • RHP Tim Peterson (S, 2-6, 2.76 ERA) 1.1 IP, 2 H, ER, K

Gagnon had his longest start of the season, needing just 95 pitches to make it into the eighth inning. He has given up more than two earned runs in a start just once so far this season out of his eleven starts.

Binghamton (57-52) 3, Akron (49-62) 2  Box Score

Binghamton had just seven total hits in the game, but they made the most of their opportunities and pushed across the three runs that they needed in order to take the victory. With two extra base hits, Bossart impressed in his second game in the Mets organization. With Ali Sanchez promoted to Triple-A, Bossart should be sharing much of the catching with Patrick Mazeika. After an extremely rough first few weeks in Double-A, Brodey seems to have adjusted nicely and has a .255/.361/.490 line since the All-Star break.

Wilson has struggled to miss bats since his promotion to Double-A, but he has been outstanding at limiting runs over the last month. In each of his last four starts, Wilson has pitched six or more innings and has given up no more than two earned runs. He has seen his ERA drop from 7.90 to 4.56 over that span. Over his last five appearances, Uceta has pitched 8.0 scoreless innings with a 7:0 K:BB ratio.

St. Lucie (60-49) 7, Daytona (54-54) 1  Box Score

With ten base hits, four stolen bases, and a sacrifice bunt that brought home two runs, the Mets offense played some small ball on their way to victory in Friday’s game. Rodriguez is 12-for-38 with just six strikeouts over the span of his last ten games. With back-to-back multi-hit games, Cortes is hopefully starting to heat up from his prolonged slump.

Szapucki had another strong outing and surpassed the 70 pitch mark for the third time out of his last four starts. Overall, his 32 strikeouts in 22.0 innings with St. Lucie prove that he still possesses the huge swing-and-miss stuff that made him a top prospect prior to his injuries. Hernandez has a 2.18 ERA over his last 10 appearances.

Kannapolis (48-60) 6, Columbia (40-66) 4  Box Score

This game began on Thursday, but was suspended in the third inning due to rain and continued on Friday. The Fireflies offense jumped on the board early, posting three runs in the first inning. The team would then be held scoreless for the next 24 hours (although only 8 innings occurred during this span) and would score their fourth run in the ninth. While Vientos was extremely hot through mid-July, he had cooled off quite a bit recently and was hitting just .158 in the ten games prior to this game. Mauricio is 13-for-34 over his last 9 games.

  • RHP Daison Acosta (1-2, 4.43 ERA) 2.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, BB, 5 K
  • RHP Willy Taveras (L, 5-10, 5.35 ERA) 3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 K
  • LHP Jake Simon (0-0, 3.86 ERA) 2.2 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 2 K

Acosta’s outing got off to a poor start, with him allowing three runs in the first inning, and, with the rain, he never had the opportunity to settle in. He has been unable to fully replicate his success with Brooklyn in Columbia, but has still struck out 26 batters in 20.1 innings. The continued ability to miss bats is very encouraging to see from a pitcher who is nearly two years younger than the league average.

Kannapolis (49-60) 3, Columbia (40-67) 1  Box Score

  • Mark Vientos 3B: 1-for-3, K, .258/.303/.416
  • Brian Sharp RF: 1-for-2, .219/.291/.362

Columbia’s offense struggled to get anything going in Friday’s game as they were limited to just three hits, all of which were singles. The lone run of the game scored in the fourth inning on a Chase Chambers groundout.

After missing over a month with injury and spending the prior two weeks rehabbing with Brooklyn, Holderman made his return to the Columbia rotation. He needed just 43 pitches to get through four no-hit innings, although he did struggle at missing bats. Gordon’s early success to begin his professional career has begun to evaporate recently and he has now given up multiple runs in three of his last four appearances.

Williamsport (17-29) 1, Brooklyn (26-20) 0  Box Score

The Cyclones were completely stymied offensively in Friday’s game: the team had just three singles and one walk over the course of the game. Ritter and Genord are two recent draft picks who got off to strong starts to their professional careers, but have struggled mightily in recent weeks.

Otanez was making his second start with Brooklyn and was excellent over five and a third innings. In what has been a breakout season for the oft-injured hard-throwing righty, Otanez has a 53:14 K:BB ratio in 43.0 innings. Biddy has been one of the most impressive players from the recent draft: In Brooklyn, he has not given up a single earned run and has a 16:1 K:BB ratio in 13.2 innings.

Kingsport (18-23) 9, Burlington (24-18) 1  Box Score

The Kingsport offense bunched up all their runs in just two innings: a three run second and a six run eighth inning. Palmer is hitting .308 with two home runs over his last ten games, but also has 17 strikeouts over that span.

Santos had one of his best starts of the season, as this start represented just the third time (second in a row) that he did not allow an earned run and the second time that he struck out five batters. He has struggled more with walks this season and has already doubled his season walk total from last year despite pitching half as many innings (24.2 innings in 2019 compared to 50.0 in 2018).

GCL Mets (18-13) vs. GCL Nationals (14-18)

The Mets’ game against the Nationals was postponed due to rain. A makeup of the game will be played as part of a doubleheader on August 7.

DSL Mets1 (24-22) 13, DSL Yankees (21-26) 12  Box Score

The Mets offense had just nine hits in the game, but were able to push across thirteen runs with the help of an incredible ten errors from the Yankees defense. Valdez is hitting .333 with an 8:5 BB:K ratio over his last 10 games.

Six pitchers, none of whom made it to the three inning mark, were required to pull out the win in Friday’s game.

DSL Mets2 (25-28) 12, DSL Cardinals Red (19-34) 1  Box Score

Five players in the Mets’ lineup had multi-hit games as part of the team’s 15 hit, 12 run effort.

Mets pitchers allowed just three hits in this game. Vargas has struck out 42 batters in 37.0 innings pitched.

 

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Written by Daniel Muras

I fell in love with the Mets during the 2006 playoff run and became obsessed with the Mets minor league system while looking for a brighter future during the 2009-2014 era. I hope to provide interesting analysis of the minors and am excited to have the opportunity to write for MMO and MMN.

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