Tag Archives: Matt Clark

6 May 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Posted by on 7 May 2014 Comments Off on 6 May 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

This one’s gonna sting

Coming off a shutout loss here the night before, the Binghamton Mets were looking to even the series behind Hansel Robles, who pitched five shutout innings here last month.  The Binghamton offense would need to produce more than ground balls to make that happen though.  Robles had everything working for the first couple of innings and the offense came back to life for a few more, but it didn’t add up to a win as the Fisher Cats took this one 6-4 with Kevin Plawecki getting the final word (which is best not said in polite company).

Box Score

Hansel Robles was leaning on his fastball early and was holding steady at 92mph for the first two innings, touching 93.  Robles started getting into trouble when he lost velocity on his fastball.  At only 90mph, it just wasn’t enough to keep the Fisher Cats offense in check, resulting in a flurry of ground balls.

Round and round they go…

Wilfredo Tovar was able to get to three of them, but four ground balls plus a line drive and a fly ball made it into the outfield for hits before Robles was pulled in the 6th.  The final straw was a grounder that shot into the Binghamton bullpen where Cory Vaughn, playing in left field for a change, had trouble getting to it.  Cody Satterwhite was warming up at the time and entered the game to face the next batter.  His first order of business though was to pick off the runner Robles left behind.

Robles only gave up one run in the 6th, but it was enough to earn him the loss after Jayce Boyd had just tied the game in the top half for the final Binghamton run (Boyd’s HR was followed by six ground outs as the bats went cold).  The B-Mets offense got off to a shaky start, stranding four runners in the first two innings, but they scored four runs for Robles on home runs by Matt Clark and Jayce Boyd and a Wilfredo Tovar line drive.  Boyd went 4-for-4 on the night with a home run and two doubles (one aided by the setting sun) while Tovar went 2-for-3 with a walk.  Boyd had the stat line night (just a triple shy of the cycle with two runs scored), while Tovar impressed at the plate, on the basepaths, and in the field.

For his effort though, Tovar would not make it past third base, getting stranded there twice and watching the end of the game at second base after walking on a full count to lead off the 9th and advancing on a ground out that might have been a double play if he hadn’t been running on the pitch.  Kevin Plawecki came up with two outs representing the tying run.  We’ve seen this one before.  Plawecki drew a full count before taking a pitch and preparing to take his base.  The umpire had other ideas though and Plawecki had words with him before walking back to the losing dugout in an exact repeat of the game two years ago.  This time though, the dugout was silent except for a single exclamation as Plawecki packed up his gear.

Those who do not learn from history…

Final score: New Hampshire 6, Binghamton 4

13 April 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Posted by on 14 April 2014 Comments Off on 13 April 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

He’s the walking man, born to walk, walk on walking man

Matt Clark watches one of 20 balls he saw on Sunday

Matt Clark is not the fastest runner on this team.  Twice this series, Clark grounded out on plays with less than stellar fielding.  He also had two home runs, so that brisk jog is working rather well for him.  In the series finale though, Clark proved that the eye is mightier than the leg with five straight walks, two of which eventually brought him around to score.  All that walking pushed the game time past the three hour mark despite a lack of offense on the opposing side as the Mets finished off the series with a 6-0 win over the Fisher Cats.

Box Score

Hansel Robles hasn’t seen his prospect status rise since his playoff run two years ago on the all-star Brooklyn Cyclones rotation.  He hasn’t gone bust either, but this outing illustrated why he’s in prospect limbo.  At times, he was lights out, with six strikeouts over five shutout innings, two of which saw the Fisher Cats go down in order.  It took him 81 pitches to get through those five innings though, two of which ended with the bases loaded.  It was a mixed bag of an outing that left the B-Mets bullpen on the hook for another four innings.

Travis Taijeron frequently looked lost on the basepaths

New Hampshire pitcher Aaron Sanchez had a few problems of his own, but fastball speed sure wasn’t one of them.  At 92-95, Sanchez’s fastball was easily the fastest of the series.  Speed alone wasn’t enough though; the Mets put runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings but failed to score because of double plays and baserunning blunders like Travis Taijeron getting a late read on the stop sign after rounding second and getting caught with nowhere to go.  Taijeron would find himself in a similar situation later in the game when he rounded second on a fly ball that was caught and couldn’t get all the way back to first base in time.  The lane from second to third claimed another victim in the 8th when Wilfredo Tovar saw the runner ahead of him hold up at third and turned around to see second base occupied.  Tovar held perfectly still between second and third and went unnoticed for a short time before someone realized that the count of runners vs. bases was off.  Looks like Binghamton will be working on some baserunning drills…

Dustin Lawley follows Matt Clark’s walk with a HBP

After going down in order in the third, the B-Mets got on the board in the fourth inning without putting a ball in play.  After Matt Clark took his customary walk, Aaron Sanchez hit the next two batters to load the bases and then used a 95mph fastball to walk in the game’s first run.  After giving up a sac fly and an RBI single, Sanchez struck out Darrell Ceciliani to end his outing on a high note.

Brad Glenn strikes out to end the 5th inning

Robles got into his biggest jam in the 5th when Mike Crouse hit a ground ball down the right field line that veered into the New Hampshire bullpen and settled under a tarp.  Crouse reached third by the time Travis Taijeron was able to dig the ball out from under the tarp but the ball was never ruled dead.  Binghamton Manager Pedro Lopez came out to argue, to no avail.  Robles, clearly flustered by the situation, got the next batter to ground out and then hit Kenny Wilson with a pitch, drawing words from the home plate umpire.  A strikeout, stolen base, and walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Robles struck Brad Glenn out to end the inning with a smile.

Cody Satterwhite took over to pitch the 6th and 7th innings, giving up just one hit in that span.  John Church struck out the side in the 8th and Jon Velasquez pitched a perfect 9th to secure the shutout victory.  That side of the game went quickly, but the top half of each inning slowed the pace considerably.

Dustin Lawley finds a less painful way to get on base

While the Fisher Cats only managed a lone single over the final third of the game, the B-Mets put runners on second and third in three straight innings.  Darrell Ceciliani scored on a passed ball in the 7th, but that was the only Mets run in the final third until Dustin Lawley doubled in a run with nobody out in the 9th.  Cory Vaughn drove in the game’s final run with a pop fly before the B-Mets stranded Lawley at third.

This lopsided story left me nothing to say about Jon Velasquez.  So here he is, presented without comment.

Mike Crouse strikes out to end the game

10 April 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Posted by on 11 April 2014 Comments Off on 10 April 2014 – Binghamton Mets at New Hampshire Fisher Cats

The B-Mets go balls to the (center field) wall

The last time I saw Darin Gorski, the Fisher Cats jumped all over him for 9 runs in 4+ innings.  Two years later, Gorski is back in control despite a fastball that tops out around 88mph.  Like the pitcher in Big Windup though, He was able to use what he had effectively enough to strike out 10 while only giving up one unearned run in 6 innings of work.  That one run wasn’t enough to beat a B-Mets offense that seemed to have it out for the 400ft deep center field fence and produced 9 runs to give the Mets an easy win.

Box Score

The last time I saw Kevin Plawecki, he struck out looking (and swearing) to end the game in a Cyclones loss.  Plawecki was swinging away on Thursday night, though his first attempts weren’t pretty.  He then grounded out to third three times in a row before finally reaching base on an error in the 9th to cap an 0-5 night.  Defensively, he didn’t fare much better, producing the lone run for the Fisher Cats.

Binghamton started the center field assault in the top of the second when Jayce Boyd bounced one off the wall for a double.  Fisher Cats center fielder Kenny Wilson jumped into the wall after it but was unable to make the grab.  Dustin Lawley then put one over the left field wall to give the B-Mets a 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Darin Gorski was dealing, ending both the second and third innings on swinging strikeouts.  The only runner he allowed in the first three innings was on a ball that Darrell Ceciliani misplayed off the center field wall and very well could have turned into an inside-the-park home run.  The runner held up at third and then got to spend the next two at-bats watching Gorski do his thing.

The Fisher Cats offense came alive in the 4th when Jon Berti reached on a bunt single and then stole second on a strikeout.  Plawecki’s throw was on target but late, about what you would expect from a catcher known more for his bat than his arm.  Berti then quickly stole third on an inside pitch to the right-handed Brad Glenn.  The pitch pushed everyone into the worst possible position for Plawecki to make a throw, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the ball fly into left field, scoring Berti.  Gorski then issued two walks, putting runners on first and second with one out in what was now a 2-1 game before a double play ended the threat.

Binghamton resumed their assault on the center field wall in the 5th, but their attempts were weak and off target.  After giving Fisher Cats left fielder Mike Crouse a good workout, the B-Mets claimed victory when Brian Burgamy crushed one over the wall in the deepest part of the park.  With the wall slain and a healthy 5-1 lead, it was up to Gorski to return to form and keep the Fisher Cats in check.

Which he did, ending the next two innings on swinging strikeouts while allowing just a pair of singles before what would be his 10th and final strikeout of the night.  With his fastball sitting at 88, Gorski was getting a lot more contact putting balls in play instead of the foul balls that had been setting up his earlier strikeouts.  Still, it was a solid outing.

Both sides went to the bullpen in the 7th, which didn’t work out well for the Fisher Cats.  After a single, stolen base, single, and walk, the B-Mets had the bases loaded with no outs in the top of the 7th.  Brian Burgamy, not one to follow suit with this whole “everyone gets on base” thing, grounded into a double play to drive in a run.  Kevin Plawecki then grounded out to third for the third time to end the inning.

First up from the B-Mets pen was Jon Velasquez, who exited without incident after a 1-2-3 inning.  Adam Kolarek came in to finish things out, as he always seems to do around here when a big lead is involved.  Not closer material, I guess.  Brian Burgamy once again broke pattern when the Fisher Cats were helping the B-Mets with some fielding drills.  After ground outs to third and short, Burgamy bobbled the ground ball to second.  This guy really does not like patterns.

Kevin Plawecki doesn’t always ground out to third. Sometimes he reaches on error after grounding to second.

The Manchester air turned chilly by the 9th inning, so you would expect the Mets, already weary from an overnight bus trip and now 6 trips around the bases, to want to wrap things up quickly.  Cory Vaughn started things off right by sending the first pitch into Kenny Wilson’s glove (via a slick sliding catch), but the next three batters resumed the assault on center field with three consecutive doubles.  That brought up pattern-buster Brian Burgamy.  Burgamy walked.  After a pitching change, Kevin Plawecki changed up his pattern, grounding out to second instead of third.  Or at least he would have if the second baseman hadn’t thrown the ball away going for the force out at second and, likely, an inning-ending double play.  Plawecki ended the night karma-neutral on throwing errors and the run that scored on the play was the final one in this 9-1 B-Mets victory.