B-Mets Ride the High of Some Big Rips in the 5th to Burn Erie

If you hadn't heard, B-Mets now have home MiLB.tv coverage!

Erie Sea Wolves @ Binghamton Mets

April 20, 2015

Guido Knudson @ Seth Lugo

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Erie	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1		3	12	1
Binghamton	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	X		4	12	0

W: Lugo (1-0, 1.54 ERA); L: Smith (0-1, 9.00 ERA); S: Velasquez (3, 2.08 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Seth Lugo – 5.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, BB, 7 SO, HBP, 93 Pitches (63 Strikes), 5 GO: 5 FO

Jake Kuebler (H, 1, 0.00 ERA) – 0.2 IP, 2 H, SO, 2 IR – 0 S

Chase Huchingson (H, 2, 4.32 ERA) – 1.1 IP, 2 BB, SO, 2 GO: 1 FO

Jon Velasquez – 1.1 IP, 3 H, R, 2 SO, 1 GO: 1 FO, 1 IR – 0 S

Batters

Jared King – 1-5, R, 2B (3), RBI (5)

Brandon Nimmo – 3-4, 2B (2), 2 RBI (6), SO

Jayce Boyd – 2-4, 2B (4)

Xorge Carrillo – 2-4, R, 2B (1)

Jairo Perez – 2-4, R

Eudy Pina – 2-4, R, RBI (3)

Recap:

            Seth Lugo followed his ‘brilliant’ AA debut with another very good start for Binghamton Monday night, as the B-Mets took the opener in a 3-game series against Erie. The B-Mets had 6 different players with multiple hits in the game, but left 9 men on base, which kept things close. Jake Kuebler made his AA debut when Lugo reached his pitch limit in the 6^th inning, striking out the first batter he faced on three pitches, capped off with a nasty breaking ball on the outside corner. Chase Huchingson and Jon Velasquez took care of things the rest of the way, holding on for a 4-3 win.

Lugo was pitching extremely efficiently early, retiring 12 of the first 15 batters he faced without really breaking a sweat. He ran into real trouble for the first time this season during the 5^th inning, when Erie put runners on 2B and 3B with only one out. The next two batters would each follow with an RBI single, which put Erie in the lead by the score of 2-0, for the moment. The four hits allowed were the only hard hit balls against Lugo up to that point, but he ended up striking out the side in the 5^th, so it wasn’t all terrible. Lugo retired the first two batters in the 6^th with haste, but couldn’t finish the frame, allowed a double and single before being lifted for Jake Kuebler. His fastball was low 90’s throughout the start and I could see the drop on his curve from the camera behind home plate, so he has a couple of solid pitches to work with. At 25, he’s a little old for a SP prospect just reaching AA, but I’m excited to watch and see if Lugo can repeat this kind of success as a starter throughout the season with Bingo, because he’s looked great so far.

The offensive explosion can be seen below, but it was good pitching in some key moments from the pen that kept Binghamton ahead in this game. Kuebler remained in the game to start the 7^th inning, but he had to be bailed out with runners on 2B and 3B by Chase Huchingson. Chase would start the 8^th, but Pedro Lopez chose to get to Velasquez for the third out of the inning with a runner on 1B. Velasquez has been the teams closer so far, so he didn’t have anyone behind him to bail him out, but he picked up the big strikeout with the tying run on 2B to end the game.

Binghamton sends Matt Koch out for his 3^rd start of the season Tuesday evening at 6:35 PM with a chance to clinch a series win. Expect Gavin Cecchini to return to the lineup after missing a few days with a sore groin.

Scoring Highlights

            Brandon Nimmo had a nice day at the plate, and it started with this one-out double in the 1^st – he’d be stranded on 3B. He’d pick up his second hit of the day with two out in the 3^rd.

Nimmo would end up at 2B on this hit

Nimmo served this single into left-center

             The B-Mets scored all of their runs in one crazy stretch to start the 5^th, during which the first 6 batters picked up hits, including 3 doubles – check it out below.

Xorge Carrillo got things started with this double

Perez blooped this single into RF

Pina followed with a bloop of his own, which made it 2-1

Then King tied the game up with this double into the RF corner

Nimmo drove home both runners with his third hit of the day

With nobody out, Pedro Lopez held Nimmo at 3B on this double, but both runners were stranded

            Jairo Perez and Eudy Pina picked up a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the 8^th, but lefty Joe Mantply would come in and retire King – too bad we couldn’t get a Nimmo vs. LHP showdown.

Lot's of moving parts in that swing

Pina with a sharper hit single in his final at bat, though he hit one harder for an out to right center earlier

Mysterious 'Cold Spot': Fingerprint of Largest Structure in the Universe? http://t.co/f3T4hUtcyt pic.twitter.com/GCPE86dPfU
— Discovery News (@DNews) April 21, 2015