Meisner Great and Cyclones Win but They're Still Eliminated from the Playoffs

Brooklyn Cyclones @ Staten Island Yankees

September 1, 2014

Casey Meisner @ Sean Carley

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Brooklyn	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0		3	8	0
Staten Island	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0		1	5	2

Win: Meisner (5-3, 3.75 ERA); Loss: Carley (1-4, 5.48 ERA); Save (15)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Casey Meisner – 5 IP, 3 H, BB, 3 SO, 5 GO: 4 FO

Brad Wieck (H, 4, 1.40 ERA) – 2 IP, 3 SO, 1 GO: 1 FO

Kelly Secrest (H, 6, 1.82 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, R, SO

Shane Bay (1.59 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 FO

Batters

John Mora – 1-4, RBI (5), SO, CS (2)

Amed Rosario – 1-4, 2 SO

Jhoan Urena – 2-4, R, 2 SO

Tomas Nido – 1-4, SO

Adrian Abreu – 1-4, R, 2 SO

Pedro Perez – 1-4, R, SB (3)

Jean Rodriguez – 1-3, 2 RBI (3)

Recap:

            It was a bittersweet victory Monday night for the Brooklyn Cyclones, as they watched the Lowell Spinners come up just short in their 2 out, 9^th inning comeback attempt against the Connecticut Tigers. With the victory, the Tigers find themselves going to the NYPL playoffs as the Wild Card representative, a spot the Cyclones were in control of heading into the final week. If the Cyclones had managed just one victory against Tri-City last week (or against the Tigers at any point), they would have controlled their destiny heading into the final day of the season, but instead it was the Tigers who had that luxury, and this time they made it count.

            Casey Meisner was great over his five innings Monday night, getting ahead in the count often (first-pitch strikes to 13/18 batters), and staying economical with his pitch count. He couldn’t continue his double-digit strikeout streak going, but that may have been a consequence of pitching on the last day of the season. As with the Sand Gnats game in Rome from Monday, the Yankees batters were up there to swing for contact Monday night, leading to more contact early in the at bats. Meisner finishes his season with the Cyclones red hot over his last six starts: 1.51 ERA over 35.2 IP with 31 hits allowed, a 38 SO: 6 BB (26.6 K%: 4.2 BB%) ratio, and a .589 OPS against. From what I’ve heard and read, it seems that Casey has improved his change-up and curveball significantly this season, and that he now feels comfortable throwing all three pitches in any count. It’s great to see how much he’s improved this year, and I look forward to watching him pitch for Savannah to start 2015.