Koch Strong and Then a Big 8th Boosts the B-Mets Over Erie

Erie Sea Wolves @ Binghamton Mets

April 21, 2015

Derek Hankins @ Matthew Koch

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

W: Sewald (1-0, 0.00 ERA); L: Hankins (1-2, 3.38 ERA; S: Velasquez (4, 1.93 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matt Koch (4.96 ERA) – 7 IP, 5 H, R, 6 SO, 90 Pitches (60 Strikes), 6 GO: 2 FO

Paul Sewald – 1 IP, H, R (0 ER), SO

Dario Alvarez (H, 2, 7.71 ERA) – 0.2 IP, H, SO

Jon Velasquez – 0.1 IP, 1 IR – 0 S

Batters

Gilbert Gomez – 1-4, R, RBI (2), 3 SO

Jayce Boyd – 1-4, 2 RBI (8)

Josh Rodriguez – 1-2, R, HR (2), RBI (5), BB

Dustin Lawley – 2-3, R, HR (2), RBI (5)

Jairo Perez – 1-3, R

Eudy Pina – 2-3, R, CS

Recap

            The B-Mets followed a similar recipe for success in winning their second straight game over Erie Tuesday night: good starting pitching plus two-out magic late for a come from behind win. Starter Matt Koch had his best start of 2015, looking sharp over 7 innings while more than doubling his season strikeout total. Erie would jump on Paul Sewald for an unearned run to take their first lead as soon as Koch departed, but the B-Mets didn’t let that lead last for too long, jumping out to a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the frame. Dario Alvarez would allow a leadoff hit in the 9^th, but bounced back to retire the next two batters. Still, Pedro Lopez preferred Jon Velasquez for the matchup with Jeff McVaney, so Velasquez came in for the easy one pitch save.

            Koch was working quickly while pitching to contact early, reaching as high as 94 MPH with his fastball. Erie had 3 singles off of him through the first 3 innings, but Koch was bailed out by two double plays turned on the infield. Koch would retire the side in order during the 4^th and 5^th innings, but Erie scratched out a 2-out run in the 6^th on a single and double. He’d rebound to pitch a 1-2-3 7^th inning with two strikeouts before being lifted at 90 pitches. Not known for striking out a lot of batters, Koch finished the game with 5 strikeouts over his final 2.1 IP.

            Check out the offensive highlights with gifs below. The series between these two wraps up Wednesday night at 6:35 PM, with Rainy Lara taking the mound for Binghamton looking for his third win of 2015. Lara is off to a hot start with Binghamton, as he’s pitched to a 2.31 ERA/3.14 FIP, but his BB% is way up early, and he’s benefitted from a .242 BABIP against.

Scoring Highlights

            Josh Rodriguez hit this one-out blast in the 2^nd to put Binghamton up early.

He is a AA veteran

            Eudy Pina had his second straight multi-hit game, picking up this single with one out in the 3^rd.

He's been hitting a lot of singles early

            Lawley broke out of an extended 0-fer with two hits Tuesday night, tying the game back up with a one out blast in the 8^th.

Not sure how long until Lawley gets to do this in the PCL

            The B-Mets were again able to capture some two-out magic later in the 8^th, as Jairo Perez, Pina, and Gilbert Gomez hit three straight singles to make give the lead back to Bingo.

If he wasn't filling in here, Jairo would likely be filling in with the 51s

Pina's been mostly going up the middle and to RF so far

It's been a struggle to get playing time early for Gomez, but comes through with a big hit here

            After Brandon Nimmo walked to load the bases, Jayce Boyd gave the B-Mets some breathing room with this two-run single to RF.

Boyd has been Mr. Clutch in his Bingo career

Color differences could recalibrate cosmic acceleration rate: http://t.co/jaDaLItv5H pic.twitter.com/Ca5txFgRSe
— Science News (@ScienceNews) April 21, 2015