Mike Attack: August 31, 2008

By Mike McGann
Posted Sunday, August 31, 2008

It’s a little hard to be totally focused on baseball, tracking the course of Hurricane Gustav, which seems to be headed dead for New Orleans — and Hurricane Hanna, which seems primed for a run up the East Coast — including Savannah and the mid-Atlantic.

Knowing we have readers in both locations (not to mention key, beloved contributors), we at FU offer our hopes and prayers for our friends and readers and their families to make it through in one piece. We shall watch and wait and hope.

Losses:

Cubs 51
Brewers 56
Mets 61
Cardinals 62
Phillies 62

But baseball does continue. Last night’s loss was an annoying and difficult one. It was interesting to see Duaner Sanchez pitch with something resembling velocity last night — and clearly he’s adjusted his mechanics to something a bit more like what he used in 2006.

But I suspect there will be other bad news today as Billy Wagner is expected to try throwing off a mound today — and the whispers suggest he’s still in pretty serious pain. If that’s true, he’s probably done for the 2008 season. That would make the road to the playoffs — and beyond — extremely rocky for the Mets. With Luis Ayala nursing a sore hammy — it comes down to the mystery of why Aaron Heilman suddenly can’t pitch again.

After 2007, disappointment lurks again in September — unless the bullpen can find a way to pull itself together over the final 26 games.

Binghamton

Fernando Martinez went deep, but the New Britain Rock Cats scored in four different innings for a 7-1 win over the Binghamton Mets at New Britain Stadium Saturday. The loss ends Binghamton’s win streak at three.

New Britain (62-77) got to B-Mets starter Jose Sanchez in the first, thanks to back-to-back RBI doubles by Dustin Martin and Brian Dinkelman. Steve Tolleson homered off Sanchez (13-7) in the fifth before Danny Valencia singled in another for a 4-0 Rock Cats advantage. Valencia and Dustin Martin had back-to-back, run-scoring hits in the seventh before Tolleson’s double drove in another in the eighth.

Binghamton (73-67) was held at bay by Ryan Mullins (9-9), who went the distance, striking out seven. Martinez blasted a one-out solo homer to righthfield in the ninth to account for the B-Mets’ lone run.

Sunday, the Binghamton Mets play the third of four against the New Britain Rock Cats. Dylan Owen (1-0, 3.18) will start for Binghamton against Yohan Pino (6-7, 4.63) of New Britain. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. at New Britain Stadium with the radio broadcast beginning at 1:20 on Newsradio 1290 WNBF.

Notes: Portland defeated New Hampshire 7-0, moving two games ahead of Binghamton and reducing their magic number to one to clinch a playoff spot. Therefore Binghamton needs to win their final two regular-season games and Portland would have to lose their final two to force a one-game tiebreaker Tuesday night in Portland…Sanchez missed out on a chance for his 14th win of the season, which would’ve tied a B-Mets single-season record (Cory Lidle 1996, Bill Pulsipher 1994).

St. Lucie
St. Lucie edged Brevard County 1-0, as five pitchers combined to limit Brevard to five hits. Marlon Anderson, on a rehab assignment, had two hits for St. Lucie.

Gnats
Charleston’s Brandon Laird homered off Savannah reliever Mike Powers (0-1) in the top of the 10th inning to help the RiverDogs defeat Savannah, 5-4. It was Laird’s 22nd home run of the season.

The Gnats were behind most of the game, tying the game in the third inning and once more in the eighth. Trailing 4-3 entering the eighth stanza, Stefan Welch hit his first home run in a Sand Gnats uniform to tie the game at four. Charleston put the go-ahead run on in the ninth but Jason LaVorgna worked through the inning and didn’t allow Austin Krum to move past first.

Starter Mike Olmsted wasn’t as effective in his second start, going 4.1 innings allowing four runs on nine hits with five strikeouts. Manny Olivares returned to form by throwing 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to keep the Sand Gnats in it.

In the third, a leadoff walk to Luis Nieves started the Savannah rally. RiverDogs’ starter Adam Olbrychowski then made an errant throw to first allowing Nieves to move up 90 feet. Pena grounded out on a high hopper to move Nieves to third. Carlos Guzman walked and Francisco Pena singled in Nieves. Welch would ground out but drive in Guzman to tie the game momentarily.

Welch finished the game 2-for-3, with a double and the home run. He also drove in three runs. He was the only Sand Gnat to register multiple hits. Charleston scored just five runs on 13 hits but it would prove to be enough. Stephen Artz (3-0) earned the win out of the ‘pen while Jonathan Ortiz notched his league-leading 33rd save.

The series continues tomorrow with a rare 7 p.m. Sunday night contest from Historic Grayson Stadium. It’s Southside Community Night sponsored by St. Joseph’s/Candler. Postgame fireworks will be shot in honor of the Labor Day holiday on Monday. For tickets and more information, visit www.sandgnats.com or call 912.351.9150.

Clones
The Cyclones extended their winning streak to seven games with a 5-4 win on Saturday night in 10 innings. The seven-game streak is the longest of the season, as Brooklyn was also able to extend its streak of at least nine hits to eight games with an 11-hit effort.

1B Ike Davis was able to push his hitting streak to eight games by going 3-for-5 with three RBI. Davis (pictured, by George Napolitano) singled in his last three at-bats in the contest, including a 2-RBI single in the fifth inning. LF Eric Campbell provided the rest of the run support, hitting an RBI single in the first inning and belting his fourth home run of the year to lead off the tenth inning, which led to the eventual game-winning run. C Jordan Abruzzo went 2-for-4, DH Juan Lagares hit a double and scored a run, and 2B Josh Satin hit his second triple of the season. SS Wilmer Flores and CF Sean Ratliff also delivered hits for Brooklyn.

RHP Chris Schwinden made his 13th appearance of the season and his seventh start of the year for the Cyclones. In his second start since the NYPL All-Star Game, Schwinden pitched five innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits with eight strikeouts. It was the third time this season Schwinden struck out at least eight batters in a game (8/7 and 8/17). LHP Roy Merritt entered in relief and worked three innings, giving up a run on three hits and a strikeout. LHP Jim Fuller picked up his first win of the year in 1.2 innings of relief before RHP Yury Santana notched his second one-out save in as many nights, giving him 12 saves for the season.

The win by the Cyclones put them within one game of the wild card in the NYPL playoff race behind Batavia. Brooklyn remains four games back of Staten Island in the McNamara Division. The Cyclones return home on Sunday, August 31st at 5:00 pm to face the Hudson Valley Renegades. On Sunday, the first 1,500 kids will receive a mini Pee Wee Bobblehead as well as Baby’s First ballgame, when parents will be able to stroll their kids around the bases after the game!

This day in Mets’ history
1967: Mets purchased Bill Graham from the Detroit Tigers.
1977: Mets trade Jerry Grote to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dan Smith and Randy Rogers.
1997: Mets deal Pete Harnisch to the Milwaukee Brewers for Donny Moore.
1998: Mets sell Tim Spehr to the Kansas City Royals.