Yankees’ MILB Roundup for May 14th: O’Brien Homers, Staten Island Opens Penn-League Season

Peter O’Brien-Mandatory Credit: MiLB.com

Saturday night in the New York Yankees’ farm system saw the opening game for the New York-Penn League affiliate, the Staten Island Yankees. The Tampa Yankees were not in progress on Saturday, but some of their players took part in the Florida State League All-Star Game down in Bradenton, Florida. The four players (Dante Bichette, Jr.” href=”http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=bichet000dan” target=”_blank”>Dante Bichette Jr., Zach Wilson, Jake Cave, and Dan Camarena) were part of the North-All Stars’ win over the South All-Stars by a score of 6-4. All in all, the Yankees’ minor league teams who saw game action went 1-for-4, including the Trenton Thunder losing a game that was suspended on Friday night due to rain in the eighth inning. You can read all about the night’s action in the roundup below:

TRIPLE-A 

Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railriders (32-35) lost to the Columbus Clippers (35-33) 7-0 

For Scranton starter Brian Gordon, it was the third inning that turned his outing into a disappointing one. In the loss, Gordon gave up five earned runs on six hits in five innings of work, striking out four and walking three. Four of those runs came in the bottom of the third inning, all with two outs. After a RBI single by Columbus’ LF Tim Fedroff, Gordon gave up a three-run homer to 1B Jesus Aguilar to give the Clippers a 4-0 lead. While Scranton managed just seven hits in the game, one player contributed to four of those hits. 3B Scott Sizemore had four hits in as many at-bats in the contest with a double. The Railriders have now lost four straight games, and will look to avoid the sweep against Columbus Sunday night at 6:05 PM ET. Joel De La Cruz (2-4, 3.57) will get the start for Scranton against a starter yet to be determined for Columbus.

BOX SCORE!!!

DOUBLE-A 

Completion of Friday’s game: Trenton Thunder (34-34) lost to the New Britain Rock Cats (31-32) 3-2 

In a game that took two days to complete, the Thunder started off the game on a solid note. In the top of the first inning, LF Ben Gamel drove in a run via a sacrifice fly to give the team a 1-0 lead. Manny Banuelos got the start for Trenton. He threw three scoreless innings, gave up one hit, struck out three batters, and walked none. However, the star of the night on the mound for the Thunder on Friday was Zach Nuding. In 4.2 innings of relief, Nuding struck out five batters, walked one and gave up only one run on two hits. In the top of the eighth, after a triple by RF Taylor Dugas, 2B Casey Stevenson drove in Dugas on a RBI single to break a 1-1 tie.

The game picked up on Saturday night in the bottom of the eighth inning, but did not end well for the Thunder. In the bottom of the ninth, reliever Fred Lewis blew the save when he gave up a walk-off, two-run single to 3B Brandon Waring.

BOX SCORE!!!

Originally Scheduled Game: Trenton Thunder (34-35) lost to the New Britain Rock Cats (32-32) 4-3 

The losses have continued to pile up for the Thunder this week, as they have lost five of their last six games. Just like Friday night’s game, the Thunder got on the board first. In the top of the fourth inning, 1B Peter O’Brien hit a solo home run, his 13th of the season, to give the team a 1-0 lead. O’Brien had two hits in four at-bats on the night.

Trenton’s starting pitcher, Eric Wooten, was cruising in this game as he held the Rock Cats off the board until the sixth inning. Wooten left the game in the middle of the seventh inning after giving up just one run, a solo homer. Then, Tyler Webb came in, and gave out back-to-back RBI singles, which gave New Britain a 3-1 lead. Wooten took the loss despite giving up two earned runs on seven hits over 6.1 innings. He struck out four batters and walked one.

Trenton made the game interesting in the top of the ninth inning when RF Tyler Austin led off the inning with a triple. However, the next three batters failed to send him home. 3B Rob Segedin also had a RBI double in the loss. The Thunder will look to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 PM when Bryan Mitchell (1-4, 5.03) takes the ball against New Hampshire’s Taylor Rogers (5-4, 4.72).

BOX SCORE!!!

SINGLE-A 

Charleston Riverdogs (32-37) defeated the Lexington Legends (29-40) 3-1 

For the Charleston Riverdogs, all of the runs that were needed to win this ball game were scored in the first inning. After DH Michael O’Neill led off the game with a double, SS Tyler Wade would drive him in with a RBI single to give Charleston the lead. Later in the inning, LF Dustin Fowler would hit a RBI single to score Wade, and give Charleston a 2-0 lead. After the Legends got a run back in the bottom of the first, Charleston would get that run back in the third inning on a RBI double by 1B Reymond Nunez to make the score 3-1.

Charleston got an excellent start by Luis Severino. In the win, Severino went six innings, gave up one run on three hits, struck out eight and did not walk a batter. He has now lowered his ERA to 2.79 on the season. Once Severino left the game, the bullpen did the job as Evan Rutckyj and Philip Walby threw three scoreless innings of relief, giving up two hits combined. Walby struck out the side in the ninth inning to pick up his fourth save of the season. In their final game before the All-Star Break, Charleston would look for the sweep of Lexington on Sunday night at 6:05 PM. Ian Clarkin (2-3, 4.17) will get the ball for the Riverdogs against Lexington’s Crawford Simmons (1-1, 8.10)

BOX SCORE!!!

NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE 

Staten Island Yankees (0-1) lost to the Brooklyn Cyclones (1-0) 8-2

After Friday’s night season opener for Staten Island was cancelled due to rain, the team started their regular season in Brooklyn on Saturday night, and it did not get off to a great start. For Staten Island’s starter David Palladino, it was his lack of command that hurt him in this game. Palladino walked five batters, gave up six earned runs, on six hits in 3.1 innings, and struck out just one batter in the loss. Palladino and one of the team’s relievers, Francis Joseph, combined to walk nine hitters in Saturday’s night loss.

As far as the offense goes, they only managed five hits against three Brooklyn pitchers. Two of those hits came from second baseman Jose Javier, who went 2-for-4 in the loss. The only two runs that were scored in the game came when RF Austin Aune was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, and when 3B Renzo Martini hit a RBI single in the ninth inning for the second Staten Island run.

The two teams will play a doubleheader as part of Staten Island’s first two home games of the season. The first game will begin at 4:00 PM ET when Sam Agnew-Wieland starting for the Yankees against Brooklyn’s Casey Meisner. Game 2 will take place 30 minutes after the first game as Staten Island will start Jordan Cote against Carlos Valdez for the Cyclones. Yanks Go Yard will be on site tomorrow for the doubleheader.

BOX SCORE!!!