Staten Island Yankees Recap: Baby Bombers Beat Cyclones On Walk-Off Balk

By Ricky Keeler |

Last night at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark In St. George, the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets) and Staten Island Yankees (New York Yankees) added another chapter to their unique New York-Penn League rivalry. With the game tied at two in the bottom of the tenth, Cyclones pitcher Carlos Valdez balked home the winning run (Thairo Estrada) to give Staten Island a 3-2 win in the first game of this three game series.

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Staten Island would find a way to get on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the first. After a Kyle Holder single and Thairo Estrada walk, Jhalan Jackson hit an infield single to third that David Thompson threw away, which allowed Holder to score and gave the Baby Bombers a 1-0 lead. It would only be the beginning of Jackson’s great night.

Tonight’s starter for Staten Island, Yoel Espinal (1-2, 7.00) continued his command issues, but managed to keep Brooklyn from scoring a run. He went four innings, gave up no runs on one hit, struck out two, walked five (a season-high) and hit a batter. He threw 70 pitches, with 35 of them being for strikes. Despite walking nine batters in his last two starts combined, manager Pat Osborn said after the game that the outing by the 22-year-old right-hander was “productive.”

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Osborn. “He kept us in the game and you build on that. He knows that and the kid has really good stuff. He just needs to be more consistent in the strike zone.”

The score would remain 1-0 until the top of the sixth. Reliever Mark Seyler would end up loading the bases on a hit-by-pitch, a base hit, and a walk. With one out, Zach Mathieu hit a groundball to first. The Yankees would get the first out on the throw to second, but Holder threw the ball away from Seyler, who was covering first. One run would have scored anyway, but the Cyclones got two runs off of the error by Holder to take a 2-1 lead.

That lead wouldn’t last long. In the bottom of the inning, Estrada led off with a single to left. Then, Jackson came up to the plate and lined a double down the left field line to tie the game. The seventh round pick in this year’s draft went 4-for-5 with a RBI and is hitting .302 on the season with four home runs and 15 RBI’s.

“I think he’s the best player I’ve seen in this league so far hands down,” replied Osborn about Jackson. “This kid is going to be something special. I don’t know how he lasted until the seventh round of this draft to be honest.”

The game would remain tied until extra innings thanks to some great defensive plays by center fielder Jeff Hendrix. In the seventh, Hendrix saved a run by running in and making a diving catch on a ball hit by Michael Bernal. Then, in the following inning, David Thompson hit a ball into the gap in right center that Hendrix ran down and made another great catch.

In the bottom of the tenth, Holder would get on base first via a one-out bunt single. After Estrada reached on a fielder’s choice Jackson’s hit a bloop single to center, his fourth hit of the night, to put runners at the corners.

With Jake Hernandez at the plate, the left-hander Valdez had a lefty on deck, Drew Bridges, the Cyclones tried for the intentional walk. With a 2-0 count, Valdez did not finish the pitch, which led to a balk and the Yankees winning the game. Staten Island reliever Michael Schaub, who gave up no runs on one hit in 1.2 innings of relief, got his first win of the season.

Next Game: The Staten Island Yankees (14-10) head off to MCU Park to take on the Brooklyn Cyclones (15-9) in the second game of their three game series tonight at 7:05 PM ET. You can catch the game on SNY. Kolton Mahoney (0-0, 3.52) starts for the Yankees against a starter yet to be announced for the Cyclones.

This season, the Baby Bombers are 10-5 in their first 15 road games, including a 3-2 record on their recent five game road trip in Aberdeen and Auburn. Osborn told me about the game that playing a lot of road games early “is good because if we are playing baseball in the end, which I hope we are, we are going to have win big games on the road.”

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