Flexen And Guillorme Do The Heavy Lifting In Rubber Match Win Over Charlotte

Charlotte Stone Crabs @ St. Lucie Mets

May 26, 2016

Benton Moss @ Chris Flexen

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Charlotte	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
St. Lucie	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	2	5	2

W: Flexen (3-5, 3.95 ERA); L: Moss (2-5, 4.81 ERA); Save: Taylor (6)

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Chris Flexen (W, 3-5, 3.95 ERA) – 6.1 IP, 1 H, 1 TB, 2 BB, 5 K (1 K/Sw), 0 GIDP, 8 GB: 4 FB: 1 LD: 2 PU, 96 Pitches (63 Strikes), 5 Swinging, 18 Called, 5.2% SwStr, 11.1% Whiff/Swing, 15.2 Pitches/IP, 23 BF

Robert Coles (H, 2, 2.08 ERA) – 0.2 IP, 1 BB, 1 GB: 1 PU, 13 Pitches (7 Strikes), 1 Swinging, 3 Called, 7.7% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 19.5 Pitches/IP, 3 BF

Ben Griset (H, 2, 1.53 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 K (0 K/Sw), 2 GB, 12 Pitches (8 Strikes), 1 Swinging, 4 Called, 8.3% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 12 Pitches/IP, 3 BF

Corey Taylor (S, 6, 0.96 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 TB, 2 GB: 1 FB: 1 PU, 13 Pitches (8 Strikes), 2 Swinging, 15.4% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 13 Pitches/IP, 5 BF

Batters

CF - Champ Stuart - 1-1, 1 R, 3 BB, 9.1% SwStr, 28.6% Whiff/Swing, 5.5 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Guillorme - 3-4, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 CS, 3.25 Pitches/PA

C - Tomas Nido - 1-3, 6 Pitches/PA

Recapish

The St. Lucie Mets took the rubber match in their series against the Charlotte Stone Crabs Thursday night behind a sparkling performance from Chris Flexen. Flexen turned in his best start of the year, if not as a pro, and was backed by big night at the plate from Luis Guillorme, who provided both RBI hits.

Flexen is a high school draft pick from the 14^th round of the 2012 draft that missed parts of the past two seasons after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. He throws a nice fastball that sat 90-94 throughout the start, and his big curve is the primary secondary pitch right now. He’s had trouble avoiding the big inning this year, but he had been effective, though underwhelming, in 7 of his first 8 starts before Thursday.

Flexen’s night actually started on the wrong foot, as he allowed a single to leadoff hitter Riley Unroe on his 6^th pitch of the game. Course, that was the only hit the Stone Crabs would manage against Flexen, and the only other baserunners to reach against Flexen came on a pair of walks and an E4 in the 6^th.

The man who made that 6^th inning error (and another in the 9^th), Luis Guillorme, made up for his fielding mistakes with a huge night at the plate. He extended his hitting streak to 7-games when he doubled home Champ Stuart in the 1^st inning. Stuart led off the frame with a walk, something he did 3 times while reaching base in all 4 PA’s Thursday.

Side note on Guillorme for a moment, he’s at .542/.593/.583 over 31 PA during his 7-game hitting streak. It took him until mid-June to hit his 4^th double last year, so he’s about 3 weeks and ~70 PA’s ahead of schedule. Equally as important, Guillorme still has a 10% BB-rate and has lowered his K-rate to 12.4% so far in 2016. In the field, he’s been playing 2B this year, but radio announcer Adam MacDonald mentioned on air that some Mets officials think he’d be a top-15 defensive shortstop in the league right now.

Starting with the last out of the 1^st, Flexen would retire 9 straight before a 4^th inning combo-breaking walk. He then retired the next 7 in a row through the start of the 7^th, when Guillorme made his first error. You can see from the log below that he gets great velocity separation on his fastball-curveball-changeup repertoire, which makes it all the more surprising that he hasn’t had a higher K% or swinging strike rate this year.

While Flexen was flexin’, the Mets added an insurance run in the 5^th inning thanks to some wild pitching. There were two walks and two wild pitches in the inning, but the Mets still needed a two out infield single from Luis Guillorme to knock in the games second run – check out the play below courtesy of twitter.

With Flexen’s pitch count nearing 100 pitches, manager Luis Rojas went to Robert Coles to finish the 7^th inning. Coles worked around the runner on 1B and a walk to keep the shutout intact.

Ben Griset worked a perfect 8^th to keep the game scoreless. I saw him pitching for Savannah once in Rome last year, plus several MiLB.tv looks, and his curve looked nice from the left side. He’s a little older for the league, but he has a great 1.53 ERA while striking out nearly ¼ of batters faced and allowing a mere .156 batting average against in 2016.

Finally, Corey Taylor came in for the save for a second straight night. The Mets 7^th round pick from 2015 has advanced farther than any other 2015 pick, and has been extremely effective as a pro. The one knock on his season to date is that he has an extremely low 13.2 K%, which makes his success confusing until you look at the spray chart and see that the ball has rarely left the infield against him.

Looking ahead, the Mets travel to Bradenton Friday for a double-header with the Marauders beginning at 5:00 PM. Corey Oswalt is scheduled to make the start in game one, and Kevin McGowan will be asked to go as deep as he can in game two. It’s McGowan’s first start of the year, so the Mets really need Corey Oswalt to give them some depth in game one in case he can’t.

Twitter Scoring Highlights

Big thanks to season ticket holder Ed Delany (@ed880) for posting these clips during home games, you’re awesome Mr. Delany!!

@Mets_Minors RBI single by @lguillorme13 pic.twitter.com/S0Fr0vj8dX
— Ed Delany (@ed880) May 27, 2016

Pitcher Coverage

Chris Flexen

Table 1 – Flexen pitch stats by inning

	1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th	7^th	Total
Total	19	10	13	18	7	15	14	96
Strikes	12	7	8	12	6	8	10	63
Swinging*	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	5

*5.2% Swinging strike rate; 11.1% Whiff/Swing

Pitch types and velocities courtesy of iscorecast

1^st inning

1) Riley Unroe blooped a single into LF (S7/L)

i. 92 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. 94 MPH Fastball – ball 1-1

iii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 2-1

iv. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 2-2

v. 86 MPH Slider – ball 3-2

vi. 92 MPH Fastball – in play

2) Alex Sole popped out to Urena in foul territory (5/P)

i. 92 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 0-2

iii. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 0-2

iv. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 0-2

v. 77 MPH Curveball – foul 0-2

vi. 92 MPH Fastball – in play

3) Cade Gotta hit a groundout to Rosario – Unroe to 2B (63/G)

i. 92 MPH Fastball – in play

4) Justin Williams walked (BB)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 92 MPH Fastball – ball 2-0

iii. 80 MPH Changeup – swinging strike 2-1

iv. 80 MPH Changeup – ball 3-1

v. 92 MPH Fastball – ball 4

5) Mac James hit a groundout to Rosario (63/G)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – in play

2^nd inning

1) Jace Conrad hit a groundout to Rosario (63/G)

i. 89 MPH Fastball – in play

2) Christian Toribiio popped out to Taylor in foul territory (3/P)

i. 92 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. 86 MPH Slider – ball 1-1

iii. 90 MPH Fastball – in play

3) Grant Kay flied out to Mora (9/F)

i. 89 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. 76 MPH Curveball – foul 0-2

iii. 94 MPH Fastball – foul 0-2

iv. 85 MPH Slider – ball 1-2

v. 94 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2

vi. 95 MPH Fastball – in play

3^rd inning

1) Thomas Milone hit a groundout to Guillorme (43/G)

i. 71 MPH Curveball – ball 1-0

ii. 71 MPH Curveball – ball 2-0

iii. 89 MPH Fastball – in play

2) Unroe flied out to Stuart (8/F)

i. 92 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 79 MPH Changeup – ball 1-1

iii. 80 MPH Changeup – in play

3) Sole struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 79 MPH Changeup – ball 2-0

iii. 89 MPH Fastball – foul 2-1

iv. 80 MPH Changeup – called strike 2-2

v. 85 MPH Slider – foul 2-2

vi. 84 MPH Changeup – foul 2-2

vii. 95 MPH Fastball – called strike 3

4^th inning

1) Gotta struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 1-1

iii. 92 MPH Slider – foul 1-2

iv. 94 MPH Fastball – called strike 3

2) Williams hit a groundout to Guillorme (43/G)

i. 90 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 78 MPH Curveball – called strike 0-1

iii. 95 MPH Fastball – in play

3) James walked (BB)

i. 90 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 88 MPH Slider – ball 1-1

iii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 2-1

iv. 92 MPH Fastball – called strike 2-2

v. 86 MPH Slider – foul 2-2

vi. 92 MPH Fastball – foul 2-2

vii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 3-2

viii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 4

4) Conrad hit a groundout to Guillorme (43/G)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 92 MPH Fastball – foul 1-1

iii. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 1-2

iv. 91 MPH Fastball – in play

5^th inning

1) Toribio struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 71 MPH Curveball – called strike 0-1

ii. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 1-1

iii. 90 MPH Fastball – ball 1-2

iv. 79 MPH Curveball – called strike 3

2) Kay flied out to Biondi (7/F)

i. 90 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 83 MPH Changeup – in play

3) Milone hit a groundout to Guillorme (43/G)

i. 90 MPH Fastball – in play

6^th inning

1) Unroe hit a groundout to Flexen (13/G)

i. 83 MPH Slider – ball 1-0

ii. 80 MPH Changeup – called strike 1-1

iii. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 2-1

iv. 90 MPH Fastball – ball 3-1

v. 81 MPH Changeup – in play

2) Sole struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 95 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-2

iii. 94 MPH Fastball – ball 1-2

iv. 82 MPH Changeup – ball 2-2

v. 95 MPH Fastball – called strike 3

3) Gotta struck out swinging (K/SW)

i. 95 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 76 MPH Curveball – called strike 1-1

iii. 95 MPH Fastball – ball 2-1

iv. 84 MPH Slider – called strike 2-2

v. 95 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 3

7^th inning

1) Williams reached on a fielding error by Guillorme (E4/G)

i. 70 MPH Curveball – ball 1-0

ii. 79 MPH Changeup – called strike 1-1

iii. 94 MPH Fastball – foul 1-2

iv. 96 MPH Fastball – foul 1-2

v. 83 MPH Changeup – foul 1-2

vi. 94 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2

vii. 85 MPH Slider – foul 2-2

viii. 95 MPH Fastball – foul 2-2

ix. 77 MPH Curveball – in play

2) James flied out to Mora (9/F)

i. 83 MPH Slider – called strike 0-1

ii. 84 MPH Slider – called strike 0-2

iii. 90 MPH Fastball – ball 1-2

iv. 95 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2

v. 83 MPH Slider – in play

Robert Coles

3) Conrad popped out on a bunt attempt (3/P)

i. 89 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 80 MPH Changeup – in play

4) Toribio walked (BB)

i. 86 MPH Slider – ball 1-0

ii. 86 MPH Slider – ball 2-0

iii. 91 MPH Fastball – ball 3-0

iv. 91 MPH Fastball – called strike 3-1

v. 91 MPH Fastball – ball 4

5) Kay hit a groundout to Rosario (63/G)

i. 91 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. 84 MPH Slider – called strike 0-2

iii. 84 MPH Slider – ball 1-2

iv. 92 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2

v. 92 MPH Fastball – foul 2-2

vi. 83 MPH Slider – in play

Ben Griset

8^th inning

1) Milone out on a failed bunt attempt (23/G)

i. 88 MPH Fastball – in play

2) Unroe hit a groundout to Taylor (31/G)

i. 90 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. 91 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-2

iii. 78 MPH Curveball – ball 1-2

iv. 81 MPH Curveball – ball 2-2

v. 90 MPH Fastball – in play

3) Sole struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 81 MPH Cutter – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 76 MPH Curveball – called strike 0-2

iii. 77 MPH Curveball – ball 1-2

iv. 90 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2

v. 83 MPH Cutter – foul 2-2

vi. 91 MPH Fastball – called strike 3

Corey Taylor

9^th inning

1) Gotta reached on a fielding error by Guillorme (E4/G)

i. 86 MPH Slider – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 86 MPH Slider – ball 1-1

iii. 94 MPH Fastball – in play

2) Williams singled through the right side (S9/G)

i. 95 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 95 MPH Fastball – in play

3) James hit a fielder’s choice grounder to Guillorme (46/G)

i. 95 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 95 MPH Fastball – in play

4) Conrad popped out to Urena in foul territory (5/P)

i. 96 MPH Fastball – ball 1-0

ii. 95 MPH Fastball – in play

5) Toribio flied out to Stuart (8/F)

i. 95 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 0-1

ii. 96 MPH Fastball – ball 1-1

iii. 87 MPH Slider – ball 2-1

iv. 93 MPH Fastball – in play

Clue to Mars' Climate History: Polar Cap Slowly Building - Institute scientist leads team https://t.co/ugUmP4iJAq pic.twitter.com/gKTx1r8VXW
— The SETI Institute (@SETIInstitute) May 27, 2016

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