Mired in a mini−slump, Nick Santomauro has been fiddling with his batting stance of late. Cyclones hitting coach Jack Voigt noticed that the outfielder’s hands were too far from his body, making his swing tight and rigid. They are now up and away from his body more to make his stroke shorter and freer.
“It felt weird for one round of BP,” Santomauro said of the adjustments. “It’s weird because it really hasn’t felt that awkward for me. I really do like the change.”
The new swing looked just fine Sunday afternoon.
Santomauro connected on a 2−1 pitch from Auburn starter David Sever and sent it over the wall just to the left of the centerfield backdrop in the bottom of the fifth to give Brooklyn the lead for good. It was the leftfielder’s first home run as a Cyclone.
The blast gave starter Darin Gorski more than enough cushion. He held down Auburn for six innings and the bullpen did the rest as Brooklyn completed its three−game sweep with a tidy 2−1 victory.
“He has tremendous power,” Cyclones manager Pedro Lopez said of Santomauro, the team’s 10th−round draft pick out of Dartmouth. “You saw how he hit that ball today. It was good to see because once you see the result of something that you have been working on, it kind of takes your confidence to a next level.”
The Cyclones (21−9 after Sunday’s game) got on the board in the first when centerfielder Justin Garber led off with a ground single to right and shortstop Robbie Shields, who also had two hits, followed with a walk. A groundout by Sam Honeck moved Garber to second and he came around to score on an RBI groundout by Ralph Henriquez. The Doubledays (9−21) evened the score on a homer to left by rightfielder Welinton Ramirez to make it 1−1 in the bottom of the fourth, the only blemish for Gorski.
“I left it up a little bit and he got a hold of it,” Gorski said. “We were trying to go in and be aggressive. That is going to happen.”
The left−hander was superb for six innings, allowing one run on two hits, while walking one and striking out four. He didn’t work into any jams, only putting one runner on in two other innings. Reliever Wes Wrenn got into some trouble in the top of the seventh. A one−out double by Auburn’s Sean Ochinko and a two−out single from Jimmy Gonzalez put runners on first and third. After a lengthy battle, he got Eric Eiland to groundout weakly to end the threat.
It helped make Santomauro’s homer a game winner in front of Met general Manager Omar Minaya, who was in the ball park.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a good spot to have a good game.”
