Game One Gets Out Of Hand For The Rumble Ponies

Richmond Flying Squirrels @ Binghamton Rumble Ponies

June 7, 2017

Game One

Sam Coonrod @ Donovan Hand

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Richmond	0	1	0	1	1	1	4		8	11	0
Binghamton	0	0	1	0	0	1	0		2	6	3

W: Coonrod (2-6, 4.81 ERA); L: Hand (3-2, 3.08 ERA)

Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Donovan Hand (L, 3-2, 3.08 ERA) – 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 2B, 1 HR, 8 TB, 6 K (2 K/Sw), 6 GB: 3 FB: 2 LD: 2 PU, 71 Pitches (51 Strikes), 5 Swinging, 19 Called, 7% SwStr, 15.6% Whiff/Swing, 14.2 Pitches/IP, 20 BF

Scarlyn Reyes (5.63 ERA) – 1+ IP, 4 H, 4 R (4 ER), 1 HR, 7 TB, 1 BB, 5 GB: 1 FB: 1 LD, 30 Pitches (15 Strikes), 2 Swinging, 2 Called, 6.7% SwStr, 15.4% Whiff/Swing, 30 Pitches/IP, 9 BF

Luis Mateo (3.45 ERA) – 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 2B, 4 TB, 3 GB: 2 FB: 1 LD, 18 Pitches (11 Strikes), 1 Swinging, 1 Called, 5.6% SwStr, 10% Whiff/Swing, 18 Pitches/IP, 6 BF

Batters

CF - Champ Stuart - 0-2, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB, 20% SwStr, 60% Whiff/Swing, 5 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Guillorme - 2-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 6.7% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 5 Pitches/PA

C - Tomas Nido - 0-3, 1 GIDP, 9.1% SwStr, 11.1% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

LF - Kevin Taylor - 2-3, 1 2B, 4.33 Pitches/PA

1B - Cody Decker - 0-2, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 2 K, 16.7% SwStr, 33.3% Whiff/Swing, 4 Pitches/PA

RF - Kevin Kaczmarski - 1-3, 5 Pitches/PA

3B - David Thompson - 0-3, 1 K, 11.1% SwStr, 20% Whiff/Swing, 3 Pitches/PA

SS - Gustavo Nunez - 1-3, 1 R, 1 SB, 22.2% SwStr, 28.6% Whiff/Swing, 3 Pitches/PA

P - Donovan Hand - 0-0, 1 SAC, 4 Pitches/PA

PH – Patrick Biondi - 0-1, 3 Pitches/PA

PH – Jio Mier - 0-1, 1 K, 20% SwStr, 100% Whiff/Swing, 5 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            A rainout Tuesday forced the Binghamton Rumble Ponies to play yet another double-header on Wednesday and the Richmond Flying Squirrels took the opener 8-2. The game was close until the end, when the Flying Squirrels doubled their score with four in the 7^th. Donovan Hand pitched well over his five innings, but left trailing 3-1 after just 71 pitches. This was likely so that Manager Luis Rojas could get his relievers some work, which has been hard to find with the Binghamton starters consistently going deep into games, but backfired when Richmond torched Scarlyn Reyes for four runs over his inning-plus of work.

            The star of the game for Richmond was Slade Heathcott, who finished with a pair of homers among three hits. Heathcott let off the game with a single but Hand was able to keep him at first.

            Luis Guillorme connected on the first Bingo hit in the bottom of the 1^st, but then a double play ended the frame suddenly.

            The Rumble Ponies gifted Richmond a run in the 2^nd. C.J. Hinojosa reached on a throwing error from David Thompson to start the frame and then went to third on a pickoff attempt throwing error from Donovan Hand. This set up a sac fly, which put Richmond up 1-0.

            Kevin Kaczmarski reached on an infield hit with two outs in the 2^nd, but it led to nothing for Binghamton.

            Binghamton got the run back in the 3^rd. Gustavo Nunez led off the frame with a single to RF, went to third on a sac bunt, stole third, and then came home on an RBI groundout from Luis Guillorme. Enjoy some Tomas Nido defense highlights below in lieu of offense to show.

            Unfortunately, that tie did not last long. Jerry Sands doubled home a run in the Richmond 4^th to put them back on top 2-1.

            Kevin Taylor started the Bingo half of the 4^th with a single of his own, but the next three Bingo batters went down quietly.

            Hand had struck out three straight Richmond batters when Heathcott took him deep in the 5^th, making it a 3-1 game.

            Scarlyn Reyes was the first out of Binghamton’s bullpen and that’s when the game started getting out of hand for the Rumble Ponies. Reyes allowed a pair of singles, walked a batter, threw a wild pitch, and was called for a balk in the 6^th, but he somehow limited the Flying Squirrels to just one run.

            Binghamton got a run back in their half of the 6^th to make it a 4-2 game, although I’m sure they were hoping for more after the setup. Guillorme led off with a single and appeared to have scored on an RBI triple from Kevin Taylor two batters later, but then the home plate ump changed the call to a ground-rule double (likely the right call, but can’t tell from the highlights). The next batter brought home Guillorme with a sac fly, but that would’ve been Taylor coming home to make it 4-3 had the ball not been ruled dead on the previous play.

Guillorme

Taylor

Given his history as a starting prospect, it makes sense the Rumble Ponies are trying to get more than one inning out of Reyes at a time for now, and I’m sure Rojas only wanted to use one reliever in game one, so he was sent out for the 7^th. But after that 6^th, it wasn’t really surprising that Reyes faced just three batters in the 7^th and retired none: single, homer, HBP. Luis Mateo came in to clean up the mess and he was greeted with some extra base hits, which allowed an inherited runner to score, before the frame finally ended.

            After letting game one get away from them, the Rumble Ponies turned to their newest starting prospect, Chris Flexen, to earn them a split in game two.

Pitcher Coverage

Table 1 – Hand pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
Total	13	11	16	18	13	71
Strikes	10	10	10	11	10	51
Swinging*	0	1	1	2	1	5

*7% Swinging strike rate; 15.6% Whiff/Swing rate

  

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— arXiver (@arXiver) June 8, 2017