Reyes misses pop-up, goes 0–2 in Cyclones win

Cyclones 6

Hudson Valley 5

June 27 at MCU Park

Jose Reyes dropped a pop-up and went hitless in two at-bats in his final warm-up appearance with the Brooklyn Cyclones Monday night, but Darryl Knight’s walk-off hit in the 10th inning lifted the Cyclones to a come-from-behind win in which the Boys of Summer tied the score with three runs in the ninth.

With the majority of the 6,517 fans at MCU Park watching to see Reyes, the popular ex- and new Met’s defensive lapse in the fourth played a role in the first run of the game. Hudson Valley’s Jake Fraley hit a pop-up which Reyes had trouble with due in part to the heavy winds. He dropped the ball and Fraley ended up at second. A Jim Haley single moved Fraley to third and Fraley scored on a groundout to short.

Hudson Valley looked to put the game away in the sixth. Fraley led off with a single and Haley hit a ball to center field which was dropped by Jacob Zanon — the fourth Brooklyn error. Then Gabriel Llanes plunked Nathaniel Lowe to load the bases with nobody out. Angel Perez’s run-scoring single over short made it 3–1. A strikeout followed before Popadics hit a grounder to first which Darryl Knight couldn’t field cleanly — getting the out at first, but letting another run scored. That was followed by a run-scoring single from Oscar Rojas to give the Renegades a 5–1 lead.

The Cyclones got one back when Knight led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple and scored on a Jay Jabs double. Knight came in the game after Dionis Paulino hurt himself diving back into first on a pickoff attempt in the third inning, and Jabs entered the game in the eighth to replace Reyes.

Still trailing 5–2 in the ninth, Zanon led off with a walk. Dan Rizzie followed with a single. Rojas then struck out before Noel Rodriguez entered for a two-out save. Knight greeted him with a run-scoring single to cut the lead to 5–3.

With Jabs at the plate, a wild pitch from Rodriguez moved the runners into scoring position and a walk to Jabs then loaded the bases. Nick Sergakis singled up the middle to score two runs and tie the game at five. Rodriguez recovered to get the final two outs as the game moved to extra innings.

Taylor Henry pitched a quick 1-2-3 inning for the Cyclones in the top of the 10th.

With Rodriguez still on the mound, Gene Cone worked a walk and advanced to second on Zanon’s sacrifice bunt. Rizzie was then intentionally walked to set up a double play, but with Rojas at the plate, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third.

Knight then became the hero with a hit into the gap in right-center on an 0–2 pitch, and the man who didn’t even start the game ended it with his third hit in three innings.

Knight credited taking a two-strike approach for his late-inning success.

“Basically choke-up, anything close just try to protect,” he said. “He started me off with two breaking balls. The first one, I felt like I was right on it but I swung under it. The next one was a good slider away, swing through it. I had already seen two of them and then that one, it just hung up there and nice, short easy swing to it and luckily it fell in for a hit.”

It’s redemption for Knight who had been scrambling early this season.

“Knight has been struggling big-time, but boy, tonight he had three real quality at-bats,” manager Tom Gamboa said.

The 5–6 Cyclones look to get to .500 when they travel to take on the State College Spikes at 7:05 pm.