Binghamton Mets @ Akron Rubber Ducks
April 20, 2016
Teams
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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R
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H
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E
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Binghamton
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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2
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0
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0
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0
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2
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4
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0
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Akron
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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1
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0
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0
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1
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1
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3
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7
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0
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W: Romero (2-0, 8.64
ERA); L: Hepple (1-1, 1.42 ERA)
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| Robert Gsellman |
The Highlights:
Pitchers
Robert Gsellman (1.45 ERA) – 6.1 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 7 K, 101 Pitches
(60 Strikes), 8 GO: 1 FO
Beck Wheeler (H, 2, 2.57 ERA) – 1.2 IP, H, 2 K, 2 GO, 3 IR –
0 S
Akeel Morris (BS, 1, 7.71 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, R, 2 BB, 3 K
Mike Hepple (L, 1-1, 1.42 ERA) – 0.1 IP, H, R, BB, 1 FO
Batters
2B – L.J. Mazzilli – 1-5, 2 K
3B – Niuman Romero – 2-3, R, BB
CF – Maikis De La Cruz – 1-3, RBI (5), BB
Recapish
Robert
Gsellman continued to shine out of the gate for Binghamton with 6+ sparkling
innings in Akron Wednesday night, but the offense and bullpen came up short
behind him. Akron starter Michael Peoples matched Gsellman 0 for 0 over the
first 5+ innings, and both had a one-hitter entering the 6th inning.
Gsellman would falter first, allowing a two out run in the 6th, but
his teammates picked him up and seized the lead for the B-Mets in the 7th.
Binghamton stayed ahead 2-1 until the 9th inning, when Akeel Morris
lost his command with two outs and then walked in the tying
run. Akeel recovered enough to send the game to extra’s, but the B-Mets offense
continued to flounder, and then Akron won on a walkoff sac fly against Mike Hepple in the bottom
of the 10th.
Gsellman
continues to incorporate the slider into his repertoire more often, and it was
working well for him Wednesday night. I didn’t think he needed another pitch
coming into 2015, just to throw his breaking stuff more often, but if it takes
a second breaking pitch to help him to do that, then good. Plus, Mets fans
don’t need to be told how good a certain slider has been for their stud
pitchers. His sinker has been very sharp, and he’s living at the knees with
that pitch. As long as he’s locating his fastball like he has the past two
starts, he can have success in the majors. I’ve yet to watch a Mets minors game
on MiLB with a velocity bug, and there aren’t consistent velocity reports from
radio announcers, but the Akron crew mentioned Gsellman hitting 95 MPH on a
handful of pitches.
The
B-Mets offense has been struggling lately, but everyone in the lineup is working
good AB’s, and I think the results will start improving soon. Dominic Smith,
Victor Cruzado, Matt Oberste, Maikis De La Cruz, and Colton Plaia are all AA
rookies and it’s April, so they’re still adjusting to the league, but it’s not
like they’re overmatched up there. Despite the B-Mets light output on offense,
they still had a chance to win this game with two outs in the 9th
inning.
Throughout his career, Akeel Morris has
been extremely reliable closing out games in the minors, but you can’t be
perfect all the time. After Akeel struck out the leadoff batter in the 9th,
the next two Akron batters hit grounders through the
infield for singles. He struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning, but then lost
his command for a pair of batters. After walking in the tying run, he recovered enough to strikeout the
Indians #2-prospect Clint Frazier and keep the game tied.
Mike
Hepple came in for the 10th and Joe Sever greeted him with a double
to RF. After falling behind to Bradley Zimmer, the B-Mets chose to walk him
intentionally, but the plan backfired when Hepple uncorked a wild pitch to the
next batter. With a runner on 3B and 0 outs, he had almost no chance of
escaping, and Nellie Rodriguez proved why when he hit a harmless fly ball to LF
that went for a sac fly to end the game.
I
break this game down further with highlights below. The B-Mets head home to
face Erie Thursday night, with Andrew Barbosa scheduled to make his Binghamton
debut after a very nice org.
debut with Las Vegas last week. The game has an expected start time of 6:35
PM, but no Erie starter has been reported to MiLB.com yet. The game will be one
of 3 Mets affiliates games available on MiLB.tv, and the one with the worst
camera’s, so if I get overloaded covering the other two games, it may be the
first one I end up skipping. Of course, if anything happens with Dom Smith, I’ll
share a GIF regardless!
Scoring Highlights
Once
again, there really weren’t many B-Mets scoring highlights to share. Niuman
Romero had half the hits, and they only scored in one frame. L.J. Mazzilli
picked up his single with two outs and Maikis De La Cruz on 1B (walk) in the 6th.
 |
| L.J. Mazzilli |
Niuman
Romero picked up his second hit of the game leading off the 7th, and
he’d come around to score, tying the game for Binghamton. Later in the frame,
Colton Plaia came up with two on and two outs and struck out swinging, but the
ball got away from Akron’s catcher, and Plaia reached 1B to keep the inning
alive. Maikis De La Cruz followed with a single hit back up the middle that
shortstop Eric Stamets kept on the infield. Stamets had no chance at Maikis,
but Victor Cruzado tried to score on the play, and he was mincemeat at home.
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| Maikis De La Cruz |
Defensive Highlights
Colton
Plaia made a nice play on a weak grounder in front of the plate during the 3rd
inning - Dom Smith does make the catch on the other side of the bag.
L.J.
Mazzilli made a nice play in front of the 2B bag in the 7th to prevent
a run from scoring.
Pitcher Coverage
Robert Gsellman
Table 1 – Gsellman pitch stats by inning
1st
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2nd
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3rd
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4th
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5th
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6th
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7th
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Total
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Total
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17
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12
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8
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14
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11
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13
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26
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101
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Strikes
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11
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7
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6
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9
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7
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6
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14
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60
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Swinging*
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2
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2
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1
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1
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4
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1
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3
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14
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*13.9% Swinging strike rate
First pitch strike to 15/24 batters faced (63%)
Gsellman’s
7 strikeouts matched a Double-A personal best, which he set on opening day. The
14 swinging strikes represent a new Double-A high, besting his previous high of
10. Gsellman had only one two-start stretch with 14+ swinging strikes
previously in his Double-A career, so this is clearly uncharted territory for
him. He allowed a single and stolen base in the 1st inning, but
ended the frame with a strikeout of Nellie Rodriguez.
He
struck out Eric Stamets to end the 2nd.
Todd
Hankins was punched out in the 3rd.
 |
| 95 MPH |
Gsellman
struck out both Michael Brantley and Rodriguez in the 4th inning.
The
5th was very dominant: groundball halfway back to the mound,
strikeout of Bryson Myles on back-to-back 95 MPH heaters, pop out halfway back to the mound.
A
two out walk to Clint Frazier came back to burn Gsellman in the 6th,
as Michael Brantley followed with an RBI double to RF that took a weird
deflection of the wall. The Akron announcer’s had been talking nonstop about
Frazier’s hustle during the game, so as if on cue, he hustled around the bases
to easily beat the throw home. Gsellman picked up his final strikeout of the
night starting the 7th when Bradley Zimmer went down swinging. He
ended up walking the final two Rubber Ducks batters he faced Wednesday night,
leaving a bases loaded, one-out jam for his bullpen, but Beck Wheeler came in
and escaped the jam.
Bonus
Akeel Morris' strikeouts
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| Akeel Morris tends to have this effect on batters |
LIGHT: Beyond the Bulb #POTD Volvox #IYL2015 #LBTB https://t.co/wbPvMli4oq pic.twitter.com/icoCPldTjc— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) April 20, 2016
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