Mickey Jannis’ Knuckler Floated Like A Butterfly And Rumbled Like A Pony For A Win In Reading

Binghamton Rumble Ponies @ Reading Fightin’ Phils

July 14, 2017

Mickey Jannis @ Ranfi Casimiro

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Binghamton	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	0
Reading	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0		1	5	1

W: Jannis (6-4, 4.02 ERA); L: Casimiro (1-2, 2.89 ERA); Save: Peterson (5)

Boxscore

Guillorme

The Stats:

Pitchers

Mickey Jannis (W, 6-4, 4.02 ERA) – 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 HR, 8 TB, 2 BB, 6 K (5 K/Sw), 9 GB: 6 FB: 2 LD: 2 PU, 97 Pitches (67 Strikes), 13 Swinging, 14 Called, 13.4% SwStr, 24.5% Whiff/Swing, 13.9 Pitches/IP, 27 BF

Tim Peterson (S, 5, 1.49 ERA) – 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K (1 K/Sw), 1 GB: 4 FB, 22 Pitches (14 Strikes), 3 Swinging, 1 Called, 13.6% SwStr, 23.1% Whiff/Swing, 11 Pitches/IP, 7 BF

Table 1 – Jannis pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Total	15	12	18	12	13	19	8	97
Strikes	12	11	11	8	10	9	5	67
Swinging*	3	1	4	2	0	3	0	13

*13.4% Swinging strike rate; 24.5% Whiff/Swing rate

Batters

SS - Luis Guillorme - 0-3, 1 R, 2 BB, 4% SwStr, 11.1% Whiff/Swing, 5 Pitches/PA

RF - L.J. Mazzilli - 2-5, 1 K, 1 SB, 4.8% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 4.2 Pitches/PA

CF - Kevin Kaczmarski - 0-3, 2 BB, 2 K, 11.1% SwStr, 37.5% Whiff/Swing, 5.4 Pitches/PA

1B - Matt Oberste - 1-5, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 1 CS, 15.4% SwStr, 33.3% Whiff/Swing, 5.2 Pitches/PA

LF - Kevin Taylor - 1-2, 2 BB, 1 K, 5.3% SwStr, 20% Whiff/Swing, 4.75 Pitches/PA

3B - David Thompson - 1-4, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 21.4% SwStr, 37.5% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA

C - Colton Plaia - 1-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 11.1% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 4.5 Pitches/PA

2B - Dale Burdick - 0-4, 1 K, 14.3% SwStr, 30% Whiff/Swing, 5.25 Pitches/PA

SP - Mickey Jannis - 2-2, 1 R, 1 SAC, 2.67 Pitches/PA

PH - Tomas Nido - 0-1, 3 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            The Binghamton Rumble Ponies won their second straight in Reading to pull within a game and a half of the second place Fightin Phils Friday night, riding a great performance from knuckleballer Mickey Jannis to a 2-1 win. Jannis made just one mistake over his seven innings, and Jiandido Tromp launched it over the LF wall for a solo blast. Had anyone been on base, this game might’ve ended differently, but Jannis limited the Fightins to six base runners (since Tromp is never actually on base for his homer), while striking out six, for his sixth win of the year.

            With eight hits and seven walks drawn, the Ponies had plenty of scoring chances, but they finished just 2-9 with runners in scoring position, and could only scratch out a pair of runs in the 3^rd inning. Jannis actually started the 3^rd inning rally with his first of two hits in the game. He came around to score on a walk, followed by an L.J. Mazzilli single and a passed ball. Matt Oberste singled home the Ponies second run later in the frame, and that was it for Binghamton’s scoring.

Jannis

Mazzilli

Oberste

            Jannis was doing a great job of dropping his knuckler in at the bottom of the zone Friday night, which allowed him to finish with the six strikeouts plus eight groundouts. The Reading announcer said he thought calling a knuckler’s start was boring, but I guess that’s just a matter of perspective, because I enjoyed watching the future Phillies flailing at Jannis’ knuckler all night. I’m not really sure what factors you look for when determining whether a knuckler is ready to advance, but Jannis has been much more consistent with Binghamton this year, so I wonder if he could work his way into the 51s rotation soon (or if the Mets want to avoid a knuckler in those environments).

            Per the Reading broadcast, his knuckler was coming in around 77 MPH and he also threw a few upper 80’s fastballs. Jannis struck out Mitch Walding in the 1^st, Cord Sandberg in the 2^nd, Shane Watson and Zack Coppola in the 3^rd, Sandberg again in the 4^th, and Damek Tomscha in the 6^th.

K #1

K #2

K #3

K #4

K #5

Plaia CS

Guillorme at SS

K #6

Guillorme ranging into shallow LF

            The Ponies had chances down the stretch because of all the walks, but they just couldn’t come through with a big hit for some insurance runs: David Thompson and Jannis singled in the 6^th, Kevin Taylor singled and went to third on a Colton Plaia double in the 8^th, L.J. Mazzilli singled, stole second, and ended up on third in the 9^th, but all of them were stranded.

Thompson

Jannis

Taylor

Plaia

Mazzilli

            With his starter’s pitch count near 100 after seven, Manager Luis Rojas went to reliable Tim Peterson for the final two frames. Peterson would issue a leadoff walk in the 8^th before retiring six in a row for his fifth save of the season, striking out Walding along the way.

Peterson

Kacz makes the catch and avoids Mazzilli

Mazzilli in RF

            Looking ahead, the Ponies are up two games to zero with Corey Oswalt (6-3, 2.26 ERA) and Marcos Molina scheduled to pitch in Reading this weekend. That means good coverage of two interesting pitcher’s within the system, but more importantly for the Ponies, it’s a chance for them to move back into second place. There’s obviously still plenty of season left, but there are only two playoff spots per division, and the Ponies have been a top-3 Eastern League team all season (the other two being Reading and Trenton, with the Thunder commanding a huge lead), so these games will matter later in the season.

  

#SaturnSaturday On this day in 2008, we captured this view of the immense vortex at #Saturn's south pole. Details: https://t.co/JzNqGUdXx2 pic.twitter.com/dlWERuPBCw

— CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) July 15, 2017