Staten Island Yankees Recap: Gaby Almonte Shuts Out Baby Bombers In Brooklyn’s 7-0 Win

By Ricky Keeler |

Last night, at the Richmond County Ballpark in St. George, the latest edition of the Battle of the Boroughs took place between the Brooklyn Cyclones (25-24) and Staten Island Yankees (25-23). After losing 2-1 in 11 innings Sunday afternoon, Staten Island’s offensive struggles continued against New York-Penn League All-Star Gaby Almonte (6-3, 3.22 ERA). Almonte gave up two hits over eight innings as the Cyclones defeated the Baby Bombers by a final score of 7-0.

The scoring began for the Cyclones in the top of the second. With runners at first and third and two outs, Yoel Espinal (1-5, 8.91) threw a wild pitch on a 1-2 count to Manuel Hilario that allowed David Thompson, who doubled to lead off the inning, to score and give Brooklyn a 1-0 lead.

One inning later, the Cyclones tacked on two more runs. With Tucker Tharp on first and one out, Vinny Siena lightly hit the ball past Drew Bridges at third and down the left field line. Tharp was able to come all the way around to score and double the lead to 2-0. Three batters later, Jeffrey Diehl hit a base hit to left to score Sienna and make the lead 3-0.

More from Yankees Minor Leagues

Espinal would end up pitching into the fifth inning, but left the game with runners at the corners and no out. It would be reliever Will Carter who would allow one of the runners to score when Thompson hit a sacrifice fly to left that drove in Tharp’s for the game fourth run. Diehl would follow that up with his second RBI single of the night to extend the lead to 5-0.

As for Espinal, he went four innings, gave up five runs on six hits, struck out six (a season-high), and walked two on 81 pitches (50 strikes). While Espinal took the loss, he did improve from his last start against Vermont, when he gave up eight runs over 3.1 innings.

“He was able to compete better with his fastball, but still had trouble throwing his secondary pitches for strikes. But, he threw the ball better and I’m happy for him” said manager Pat Osborn.

Carter would give up one more run in the top of the seventh when Thompson drove in his second run of the game with a RBI double to left that drove in Michael Bernal, who reached on an error by Kyle Holder. The Cyclones would score their final run of the game in the eighth against Andre Del Bosque when Emmanuel Zabala was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

The seven runs was plenty for Gaby Almonte as he had the Baby Bombers’ bats fooled all night. Almonte gave up a one out double to Kevin Cornelius, but he proceeded to retire the next 20 Yankees in order before giving up a single to Bridges to start the ninth. Almonte gave up no runs on two hits, struck out seven, and walked two on 104 pitches (63 strikes).

Ty Williams would come in with two on and no outs in the ninth. After giving up a single to Holder to load the bases, he struck out Zack Zehner and got Brandon Wagner to ground into a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the game and preserve the shutout

“From the third base coaching box, he [Almonte] was throwing a strike at any given time,” replied Osborn. “He threw the ball and every once in a while, you run into those nights where you don’t do anything right.”

Next Game: It will be a battle for first place in the McNamara division tomorrow night at MCU Park in Brooklyn as the Staten Island Yankees are only a half game ahead of the Cyclones. The game will be played at 7:05 PM ET. All-Star Luis Cedeno (4-3, 2.60) gets the start for the Yankees against a starter yet to be announced for the Cyclones.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Home / Yankees Minor Leagues