Pill the Surprise Star, but Trenton Comes Out on Top in the End

Binghamton Mets @ Trenton Thunder

July 24, 2014

Tyler Pill @ Luis Severino

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Binghamton	0	0	0	2	2	0	1	0	0	5	10	1
Trenton	1	0	0	1	1	0	3	0	X	6	7	3

W: Rondon (1-1, 2.79 ERA); L: Leathersich (1-3, 3.24 ERA)

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Tyler Pill (4.07 ERA) – 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 9 SO, HR, 97 Pitches (61 Strikes), 7 GO: 2 FO

Batters

Brandon Nimmo – 3-5, R, 2 2B (6), SO

Dilson Herrera – 1-4, R, HBP, SO

T.J. Rivera – 3-4, R, 2B (5), RBI (9)

Travis Taijeron – 2-4, SO

Recap:

Tyler Pill matched touted Trenton starter Luis Severino strikeout for strikeout over the first four innings Thursday night, and then stuck around for two more innings and two more strikeouts. He would leave in a position to win, but lefty reliever Jack Leathersich had a rare rough outing, giving up the lead just one inning after Pill left. After giving up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 7^th, Leathersich retired the next two batters without allowing that runner to advance beyond 1B. Unfortunately, he’d allow the next four batters to reach base, and then a Gary Sanchez grounder found a hole on the right side of the infield to turn a 5-4 BMets lead into a 6-5 deficit. The Mets seemed a bit deflated by the turn of events, as back-to-back Thunder had reached safely without hitting the ball out of the infield. The Mets offense was unable to string anything together over the final two innings, and so Binghamton would lose the first game of the series.

The Mets offense had struggled to get anything going against Severino over the first three innings – at one point, Luis struck out 4/5 batters – but they broke through for two in the 4^th, Severino’s last inning of work. Severino looked great, sitting 94-95 MPH with his fastball most of the night, but hitting 96 and 97 a few times too. The Mets also struggled to hit his breaking stuff throughout the night - the announcers said he throws a curve and a slider.

The Lineup

(Taijeron didn't get a name bug)

Tyler Pill

Table 1 – Pitch count by inning

Count	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th	Total
Pitches (Strikes)	22 (12)	12 (9)	14 (11)	12 (9)	21 (11)	16 (9)	97 (61)

1^st inning

After two fastballs made it a 1-1 count to leadoff hitter Ben Gamel, Pill got him to lunge at a change-up and pop out to shallow CF. Jake Cave ripped a 1-0 fastball into the RF corner and was thinking double out of the box – most runners would settle for a single on such a hit, but Cave forced the play and beat the throw from Taijeron. Pill got two swinging strikes against Gary Sanchez with his slider, but Sanchez lined the 2-2 offering off the end of his bat and into CF for an RBI single. Nimmo made a strong throw home and might have had a chance at Cave, but his throw bounced off the top of the mound, which slowed down its progress considerably. Pill bounced back to strikeout the last two batters of the inning: Peter O’Brien swinging at a curveball and Tyler Austin swinging at a slider.

2^nd inning

Pill worked quick and ahead to all three batters in the 2^nd. He struck out Dan Fiorito on three pitches – fastball on the corner, change-up that he was early on, breaking ball below the knees.

3^rd inning

Ali Castillo was caught looking at a 1-2 fastball that painted the inside corner to star the 3^rd. Pill blew a letter-high fastball passed Gamel to start their encounter, and eventually got him to hit a 2-2 inside fastball weakly to Boyd for a 3-1 putout. Pill finished the inning with his fifth strikeout: Cave fouled off a fastball, took a curveball over the middle for strike two and then chased a curveball in the dirt for strike three.

4^th inning

Pill struck out the first two batters of the 4^th, which were the Trenton 3-4 hitters: Sanchez swinging at a 2-2 change-up and O’Brien swinging at a 1-2 breaking ball in the dirt. Tyler Austin launched the 0-1 offering over the wall in dead CF to tie the game up at 2. The inning ended on the next pitch, as Mason Williams hit a groundout to Dilson.

The Austin HR deflected off the CF wall

Good angle of his windup

5^thinning

Pill was burned after walking the first two batters of the inning on a combined 12 pitches. Castillo followed with a sacrifice bunt to advance both the runners, and then Fiorito came home on a groundout to Boyd.

6^thinning

Pill had a 1-2-3 final frame, sandwiching a groundout with two strikeouts. The Thunder broadcast switched to a CF camera for this inning, so check out the swinging strikes he got.