Koch Struggles, B-Mets Can't Pick Up Big Hits in Erie Finale | Astromets Mind

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Koch Struggles, B-Mets Can't Pick Up Big Hits in Erie Finale

Binghamton Mets @ Erie Sea Wolves


April 15, 2015



Teams
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

R
H
E
Binghamton
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

1
9
1
Erie
2
0
1
0
2
0
0
0
X

5
9
0
W: Hankins (1-1, 1.64 ERA); L: Koch (0-1, 7.71 ERA)


The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matt Koch – 4.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, BB, 3 SO, HR, HBP, 88 Pitches (64 Strikes), 5 GO: 3 FO
Adam Kolarek (12.00 ERA) – 2 IP, H, 1 GO: 1 FO, 2 IR – 0 S
Beck Wheeler (6.00 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 GO: 1 FO

Batters

Jared King – 1-4, SO
Brandon Nimmo – 1-3, BB, GIDP
T.J. Rivera – 1-4, GIDP
Jayce Boyd – 2-4, 2B (1)
Dustin Lawley – 1-3, R, 2B (2), BB
Aderlin Rodriguez – 1-3, BB, SO
Gavin Cecchini – 1-4, RBI (7), CS
Eudy Pina – 1-3, SO

Recap:


            Matt Koch’s final line from his second start ended up looking similar to the one from his first start, but he was not nearly as sharp this time out, and the B-Mets could not come through with a big hit all day. It wasn’t that Koch was having trouble throwing strikes (he threw 72.7% strikes), but that Koch wasn’t really fooling anybody. He gave up loud contact throughout most of the start, while barely getting any swinging strikes – this is closer to what I expected from Koch coming into this season considering his minor league pedestrian numbers. He was in trouble from the get go Wednesday afternoon, allowing two base runners before picking up an out in the 1st. Erie had runners in scoring position against Koch in every inning except for the 4th, which was Matt’s only 1-2-3 inning of the game. There was a stretch of 8 straight batters retired (3 via strikeout) by Koch from the 3rd through the 5th, but then the next two batters recorded singles off of him, and manager Pedro Lopez decided he had seen enough. He’d bring in Domingo Tapia with runners on the corners and two outs, and Tapia was somehow worse than in his first appearance. He walked four and hit a batter over his 0.1 IP, and he only managed to throw 6 of 24 pitches for strikes. There has got to be something wrong here, AA pitchers should not have such terrible control, and it’s not like he was even missing close to the zone. Considering Lopez said he wanted to bring Tapia into easy situations as a reliever early in the season, I don’t understand why he has brought him in with runners in scoring position during both of his appearances – if you want to ease him into the role, let him start his innings for awhile. After Tapia walked the first two batters of the 6th, lefty Adam Kolarek came in and stranded both runners, and then worked around a two-out double in the 7th – Beck Wheeler would follow with a clean 8th. Offensively, the B-Mets had base runners on in every inning except the 5th and 7th, but they hit into 3 double plays, and just couldn’t pick up the big RBI hits. Bingo finally heads home for their opener Thursday night, and I’m sure they’ll be celebrating the 2014 EL Championship team a lot pre-game. The B-Mets turn to Rainy Lara for the 6:35 start, and he’ll be looking to build on an excellent 2015 debut.



Scoring Highlights


            The B-Mets picked up 9 hits Wednesday afternoon, but only managed one run, so these are more like ‘hitting’ highlights. Jared King led the game off with a single up the middle, but Brandon Nimmo followed with a grounder at the 2B bag for a double play.


            Dustin Lawley led off the 2nd with this double to LF.


            After the next two batters were retired, Gavin Cecchini came through with another big hit – he had a great first week to the season.


            Jayce Boyd picked up two hits Wednesday: a single leading off the 4th, and a double that bounced off the top of the LF wall with two outs in the 6th.



            Brandon Nimmo would reach on a two-out single in the 8th, but nothing would come of it.


Aderlin Rodriguez picked up a one-out hit with Lawley on 1B in the 9th, but the B-Mets couldn’t bring home either.





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