Staten Island Yankees Recap: Baby Bombers Collect First Home Win Of 2015

By Ricky Keeler |

Last night, at the Richmond County Bank in St. George, the Staten Island Yankees (6-5) defeated the State College Spikes (St. Louis Cardinals) by a final score of 5-1. For the Baby Bombers, who are the New York Yankees’ New York-Penn League affiliate, it is their first home win of the season in four games.

On the mound last night for Staten Island was 21-year-old right-hander Domingo Acevedo. In his second start of the season, Acevedo was able to get his fastball up to 100 miles per hour, but he had struggles with his command. In three innings, he gave up no runs on three hits, struck out three batters, and walked two on 78 pitches (45 strikes).

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In the bottom of the third inning, the Yankees would get on the board first. Jeff Hendrix would lead off the inning with a base hit to right field. Two batters later, with Hendrix on second with one of his two stolen bases, Thairo Estrada hit a double to center field that scored Hendrix and gave Staten Island a 1-0 lead. After the game, I asked manager Pat Osborn about the leadership Estrada has shown in his second year with the team:

“He’s a quiet leader,” said Osborn. “He lets his play do the talking. When you watch him play, he does everything right.” He’s an even kiel personality that you love in this game.”

Estrada would make a great play defensively in the top of the sixth to help preserve the 1-0 lead. With two outs, State College’s Danny Martin hit a fly ball to left that was dropped by Griffin Gordon. However, Gordon got the ball in quickly to Estrada, who fired it home to keep the tying run, Brian O’Keefe, from scoring. O’Keefe was trying to score from first after reaching on a two-out single against Mark Seyler.

Once again, in the bottom of the seventh, it was Hendrix to reached base with a one out walk. After stealing second, Brandon Wagner drove in Hendrix with a RBI single to right to extend the lead to 2-0.

Tonight, despite Acevedo’s short outing, the bullpen was able to shut down State College for most of the game. Josh Roeder, Seyler, Michael Schaub, and Sean Carley combined to give up one run over the final six innings of the game. State College had the first two men on in the eighth after leadoff singles, but Schaub and Carley, who entered with men on second and third with two outs, kept the Spikes off the board:

“The bullpen was big tonight and I imagine it will be like that for the rest of the year. I like our bullpen,” replied Osborn.

In the bottom of the eighth, Staten Island found a way to break the game open. After a leadoff double by Gordon and a base hit for Eduardo de Oleo, Drew Bridges hit a 3-1 pitch from reliever Nicholas Frey over the right field wall for a three-run homer. Bridges’ second home run of the season gave the Baby Bombers a 5-0 lead:

“I was looking for a pitch up and elevated that I can drive up the middle,” said Bridges about the pitch he was looking for going into that at-bat.

Bridges, the 20-year-old third baseman, is hitting .382 with two home runs, ten RBI’s, has a .523 on-base percentage, and has walked nine times in ten games. Last night, he saw at least five pitches in each of his four at-bats and 22 pitches for the game:

“He’s been a very aggressive swinger,” said Osborn about Bridges’ approach last year in the Gulf Coast League. “Here, he’s been amazing. He’s getting into some good counts and battling. I’m very proud of him.”

After the game, Bridges told me about his plate discipline that last year, he was “too patient at times” and that this year, he is trying to “fine tune it, be patient at the right times and being aggressive at the right times.”

The Spikes made things interesting in the top of the ninth when they scored their only run on a RBI single by Thomas Spitz off Sean Carley. They had the tying run in the on-deck circle with one out, but Carley retired the final two hitters to record his first save of the season. Josh Roeder (1-0, 3.60) got the win for Staten Island while Landon Beck (0-1, 0.90) took the loss for State College.

Next Game: The Staten Island Yankees will try to win the three game series tomorrow night when they take on State College (4-6) at 7:05 PM ET. Derek Callahan (1-0, 0.00) gets the start for Staten Island against Carson Cross (professional debut) for the Spikes.

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