Jannis Flirts With A No-No While Bats Explode Behind Him

Binghamton Mets @ Erie Sea Wolves

April 14, 2016

Mickey Jannis @ Myles Jaye

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Binghamton	0	3	4	0	0	0	0	5	0		12	17	0
Erie	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0		2	4	2

W: Jannis (1-0, 2.57 ERA); L: Jaye (0-1, 6.75 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Mickey Jannis (2.57 ERA) – 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, BB, 5 K, HR, 80 Pitches (50 Strikes), 8 GO: 6 FO

Mike Hepple (0.00 ERA) – 2 IP, H, BB, 4 K, 1 GO

Batters

2B – L.J. Mazzilli – 3-6, R, RBI (2), K

3B – Derrik Gibson – 2-6, R, 2B (2)

SS – Niuman Romero – 3-6, 2 R, 3 2B (4), RBI (1), SO

DH – Dominic Smith – 2-5, R, 2B (2), 2 RBI (2)

1B – Matt Oberste – 1-4, 2 R, RBI (2), BB

LF – Victor Cruzado – 1-3, 2 R, RBI (3), 2 BB, 2 SO

RF – Stefan Sabol – 1-4, RBI (1), 2 SO

C – Colton Plaia – 2-5, 2 R, 2B (1), 2 RBI (2), SO, GIDP

CF – Maikis De La Cruz – 2-5, R, HR (1), 3 RBI (4)

Recapish

            Mickey Jannis nearly led the B-Mets to the second no-hitter from the farm system within a week Thursday night, flirting with Eastern League history into the 7^th, when a leadoff single got by shortstop Niuman Romero. Jannis had good ‘control’ of his knuckler against Erie, keeping near the plate most of the night, and getting squeezed by the ump on more than one occasion in my opinion. He didn’t need much support, but the B-Mets gave him all the runs he’d need in the 2^nd inning, and the 3^rd inning, and the 8^th inning. They would put up crooked numbers in all 3 frames, combining to send 25 men to the plate while collecting 13 of their hits. Mike Hepple came in for Jannis after Mickey allowed a single and two run blast in the 8^th – a knuckler was hung belt high down the middle – and Hepple would strike out 4 in a row while finishing the final two innings.

Dominic Smith had a double for the second straight night, and Maikis De La Cruz had an extra base hit for the third straight night – he had doubles the past two nights before going way deep Thursday night. Binghamton also received a double from their catcher for a third straight night, as Colton Plaia picked up his first extra base hit and multi-hit game in AA after Xorge Carrillo doubled each of the past two nights. Derrik Gibson and Niuman Romero continue to provide veteran production for this lineup, though Romero’s defense at shortstop is hard to watch. Romero is slow and doesn’t have the arm for shortstop so I expect Gibson will probably get more chances at shortstop if the Mets won’t play Jeff McNeil there until they promote Amed Rosario. McNeil is out of the lineup for now with an abdominal strain. Victor Cruzado continues to put together great at bats, and he had an OF assist to end the game in the 9^th.

            I break this game down with GIF’s below, so enjoy! This series continues in Erie Friday night at 6:35 PM, with Robert Gsellman scheduled to pitch for the B-Mets. First things first, here's the hit that broke up the no-hitter.

Scoring Highlights

            Matt Oberste reached on a fielding error by left fielder Jason Krizan, who just didn’t catch a ball that hit the palm of his glove. Victor Cruzado followed with a walk, and then both runners advanced when Stefan Sabol flied out to medium depth CF – impressive hustle from Oberste. Next up was Colton Plaia, and he provided the first of many big hits in this game, doubling both runners home on a line drive to RF. Plaia would come around to score when L.J. Mazzilli singled through the left side of the infield.

            Niuman Romero picked up three doubles in this game: in the 1^st, leading off the 3^rd, and in the 8^th. In the 3^rd inning, Dominic Smith followed with his second double of the year, this one pulled into the right center field gap for an RBI. After Oberste walked, Victor Cruzado kept his hot start going with an RBI single into RF. Stefan Sabol quickly kept the train moving by adding an RBI single of his own, and Maikis De La Cruz capped the scoring two batters later with one more RBI single.

            Plaia led off the 8^th inning with a single into RF, and Maikis followed with an absolute blast to LF. The B-Mets would string together 4 more hits in a row after the homerun, and ending up sending 10 men to the plate in the frame. Mazzilli reached on an infield single when the Erie first baseman fell over, Gibson singled to LF, Romero added his third double, and Smith added a second RBI hit (the only hit included is Smith’s).

            Oberste added a single in the 7^th, and L.J. added one in the 9^th inning.

Defensive Highlights

            You can’t throw a nono (or at least threaten to) without some great defensive plays, and Derrik Gibson made a huge play behind Mickey Jannis in the 6^th inning.

            The game ended on a Victor Cruzado OF Assist from left field. Dean Green ripped one to the wall, but Cruzado played it perfectly and fired a one-hopper into 2B.

            Mickey finishes in a good position to field his position, and does a nice job on the accidental comebacker here in the 7^th.

Pitcher Coverage

Mickey Jannis

Table 1 – Jannis pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Total
Total	12	8	13	10	13	6	11	7	80
Strikes	7	6	7	6	9	4	6	5	50
Swinging*	2	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	6

*7.5% Swinging strike rate

First pitch strike to 11/24 batters faced (46%)

            Jannis started his night with a strikeout of Gustavo Nunez. He then walked Tyler Bortnick, who would be the only Erie baserunner until the 7^th inning, and he’d be erased instantly when Jeff McVaney hit a double play grounder to Niuman Romero.

            After working a clean and quick 2^nd inning with no strikeouts, Jannis would strikeout Connor Harrell and Kody Eaves back-to-back to end the 3^rd inning.

            His hot pitching continued in the 4^th, when he added a strikeout of Bortnick.

            Dean Green went down swinging to start a clean 5^th from Jannis.

Bonus

           

Mike Hepple

            Hepple came in after Jannis allowed a two run blast to Jason Krizan and walked the first batter he saw. He bounced back to strikeout the next 4 batters: Harrell, Eavez, Nunez, and Bortnick. Hepple allowed a two out single in the 9^th, but Green was thrown out trying to advance his hit into a double.

K1

K2

K3

K4

Dark Energy, Cosmology part 2: Crash Course Astronomy #43 with @BadAstronomer https://t.co/wxjftFAaRq pic.twitter.com/R9cwRGr5EM

— The SETI Institute (@SETIInstitute) April 9, 2016