Gant Gets Little Support In His Return To Binghamton | Astromets Mind

Monday, July 6, 2015

Gant Gets Little Support In His Return To Binghamton

Portland Sea Dogs @ Binghamton Mets


July 5, 2015



Teams
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

R
H
E
Portland
2
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
2

6
8
0
Binghamton
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1

1
5
2
W: Haley (3-0, 4.84 ERA); L: Gant (2-4, 4.29 ERA)


The Highlights:

Pitchers

John Gant (L, 2-4, 4.29 ERA) – 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R (1 ER), 5 SO, 97 Pitches (59 Strikes), 7 GO: 4 FO
Dario Alvarez (3.67 ERA) – 1 IP, SO, 1 GO
Josh Smoker (0.00 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 FO
Akeel Morris – 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, BB, 2 SO, 2 Balks, 1 FO

Batters

Gavin Cecchini – 1-3, BB, SO
L.J. Mazzilli – 1-3, BB, GIDP
Michael Conforto – 1-3, 2B (10), BB
Dustin Lawley – 1-4, 2B (16), RBI (20), SO
Eudy Pina – 1-3

Recap


            In his return to the B-Mets Sunday night, John Gant pitched better than the final score would indicate, but he got little support from his teammates, offensively or defensively, as Binghamton fell a game under .500 at home for the season. There were errors committed behind Gant in 2 of the 3 innings that the Sea Dogs scored runs, meanwhile the B-Mets were held scoreless until the 9th, and they didn’t even pick up a hit during their ‘rally’. Dario Alvarez looked good working a scoreless 7th, and then Josh Smoker looked great making his AA debut during a scoreless 8th. Akeel Morris came on for the 9th and got into a little trouble right away, and then 2 runs would eventually come around to score, but there were two weird balks called on him in the inning that didn’t help his situation.
            Gant would allow a leadoff single in the 1st, but then induced 3 straight fly balls that would land in his outfielder’s gloves. Unfortunately, Eudy Pina got to the first one, but then he dropped it, and then the next two would go for sac flies to give Portland a 2-0 lead. Gant worked around a single for scoreless innings in the 2nd and 3rd, but then gave up some loud contact in the 4th. Jantzen Witte led off with a ground-rule double out of Nimmo’s reach in CF. After a pair of groundouts advanced Witte to 3B, Manuel Margot lined a triple over Nimmo’s head. In the 5th, Gant retired the first two batters, but then Marco Hernandez reached 2B on an error from Aderlin Rodriguez, as a grounder near the line went under his glove. Asuaje followed with an RBI single to make it a 4-0 game. Gant finished his night with a scoreless 6th, striking out the final two batters of the game. The B-Mets feed didn’t show any CF camera angles with Gant on the mound, but it sounded like he was using his regular mix, with his fastball sitting in the low 90’s, and topping out at 95 MPH on at least one pitch. Apparently Gant made some mechanical tweaks after working with St. Lucie Mets pitching coach Phil Regan, and now he’s consistently in the low 90’s, which is a nice bump for him. He was able to blow his heater by some of the Sea Dogs batters for swinging strikes, which wasn’t always the case in his first taste of AA. As I’ve said on here before, I didn’t think he needed to go to A+ when he was demoted, because it seemed like he was just adjusting to his first taste of AA after initially skipping A+, but that view didn’t consider the impact a different coach could have on him. Regan is often known for ‘vulturing’ wins with the Dodgers (Sandy Koufax nicknamed him the Vulture for picking up 14 wins as a reliever in 1966), but he’s a baseball lifer with a lot of knowledge to impart upon the Mets young pitchers
            Check out a few hits from some top prospects below, although there are no run-scoring hits to show from this game. This series continues Monday evening at 6:35 PM, with Robert Gsellman scheduled to pitch for Binghamton.


Scoring Highlights

            L.J. Mazzilli extended his hitting streak to 6-games with a single in the 1st inning.





            Gavin Cecchini also extended his hitting streak to 6-games with his single in the 3rd inning.





            Eudy Pina reached on an infield single with two outs in the 5th, although the Portland third baseman did everything he possibly could to make the play.





            Michael Conforto hit his tenth double since joining the B-Mets in the 6th inning.





            The B-Mets finally scratched out a run in the 9th, when Nimmo led off with a walk, and then came around to score on a wild pitch, passed ball, and RBI groundout.


Bonus Defense


Brandon Nimmo added a little leap to his step to make this catch in CF.






Pitcher Coverage

John Gant


Table 1 – Pitch stats by inning

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Total
Total
14
12
12
25
21
13
97
Strikes
8
10
7
14
13
9
61
Swinging*
1
0
2
4
2
4
13
*13.4% Swinging strike rate




Josh Smoker was sitting mid-90's with his heater, and he hit 96 MPH for both of his strikeouts.












The Akeel Morris balks










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