Lowell 1
Cyclones 0
July 14 at MCU Park
The Cardiac Clones dropped a 1–0 game to Lowell at MCU Park on Thursday night as the Spinners executed a 4–2 double play to end the series opener.
“On a rare night where there’s no wind here, and I thought for sure we would score runs, we couldn’t get on the board,” manager Tom Gamboa said.
Facing Brian Johnson – a southpaw who pitched for the Red Sox last season – the Cyclones almost scored in the third. With Arnaldo Berrios on first after a two-out single, Michael Paez laced a double down the left field line. Berrios was waved around as the relay throw came into Steven Reveles. The shortstop hesitated, but recovered in time to nail Berrios at the plate.
Johnson pitched five shutout innings, giving up four hits, striking out five and walking one.
Brooklyn’s next chance came in the sixth against Pat Goetze as Nick Sergakis walked and Peter Alonso and Colby Woodmansee singled to load the bases with two outs. Blake Tiberi swung at the first pitch and grounded out to end the inning.
Cyclones starter Harol Gonzalez dominated early, despite not getting much help from his lineup. He retired 17 batters in a row after surrendering a leadoff walk to Matt McLean. The streak was snapped, however, when Gonzalez hit McLean in the sixth and Ryan Scott’s seventh-inning single broke up the no-hitter.
The MCU Park crowd gave Gonzalez a standing ovation for his six-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit, shutout ball and seven strikeouts. Adam Atkins came in and got the final out of the inning.
Taylor Henry entered to pitch the eighth for Brooklyn and was greeted by Victor Acosta’s opposite field single to right on an 0–2 pitch. Acosta moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a groundout.
McLean then grounded the first pitch of his at-bat up the middle. Paez – the Cyclones second baseman – fielded it, but his throw to first pulled Alonso off the bag as Acosta scored the lone run of the game.
“Nobody feels worse than Paez,” Gamboa said. “He’s a shortstop, it’s his first game at second base. It looked to me like Michael got flat-footed and then just as he hit ready to throw, appearing surprised, it’s going to be closer than (he) thought and now it’s a rushed throw and it’s a bad throw.”
Brooklyn did have a chance for a comeback in the ninth as Colby Woodmansse hit a grounder in the hole between first and second. Tiberi couldn’t advance the runner, but Woodmansee moved to third on a passed ball. An Ali Sanchez walk put runners on the corners with one out.
Jay Jabs followed with a pop up into foul territory along the short right field side and Lowell second baseman Chris Madera was able to make the catch. Madera then threw out Woodmansee at the plate. The throw was a little behind Nick Sciortino but the catcher had time to recover and tag the runner.
Gamboa had no problem with third base coach Sean Ratliff’s decision to send Woodmansee, even though the call ended the game. It was a decision Gamboa himself would’ve made.
“My whole career, I’ve played and preached that when you’re in doubt you be aggressive,” the Clones skipper said. “And you do your homework before the fact. A couple of things came into the factor. I can get a good night’s sleep in defeat if I know that I did everything I could to try to win the game”
The 13–14 Cyclones look to even up the series when they host Lowell on Friday at 7 pm.
UPS AND DOWNS
The Cyclones are now 2–13 from Wednesday-Saturday and 11–1 on Sunday-Tuesday.
Tiberi’s bad night at the plate wasn’t just limited to Thursday’s loss. The Cyclones third baseman is now hitting .177. “Nobody on our team has struggled more from game one to game 27 more than Tiberi,” Gamboa said. “And now it’s to the point where he’s just pressing so bad.”
