Staten Island 4
Cyclones 3
August 17 at Staten Island
The Cardiac Clones tied the game with two outs in the ninth, but lost in the bottom of the inning, falling in a tough 4–3 defeat at the hands of the hated Staten Island Yankees on Wednesday.
“That’s why they call it rookie ball,” Brooklyn manager Tom Gamboa said. “We made so many mistakes tonight and yet to still be in the game in position to win.”
Brooklyn got on the board in the second as Blake Tiberi singled, moved to second on an error by shortstop Angel Aguilar, advanced to third on a Jay Jabs groundout and scored on a Brandon Brosher groundout. In the third, Gene Cone led off with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a Colby Woodmansee sacrifice fly.
Merandy Gonzalez pitched two scoreless innings to open the game, but Staten Island got one back in the bottom of the third. With one out, Yancarlos Baez struck out, but reached first when the pitch bounced away. Baez moved to third on a Dom Thompson-Williams double. Gonzalez then uncorked a wild pitch – with two strikes and two outs – which scored Baez. Gonzalez recovered to strike out Drew Bridges – his fourth strikeout of the inning.
Gonzalez gave up one run on three hits in five innings, while walking one and striking out seven.
Austin McGeorge entered in the sixth and quickly surrendered the lead. Thompson-Williams singled, stole second, moved to third on a Nick Solak single and scored on a wild pitch. The wild pitch bounced to Darryl Knight at first base and the Cyclones were able to tag out Solak, who had taken too wide of a turn around second.
Brooklyn had a chance to score in the seventh as two singles – with a wild pitch mixed in – put runners on the corners with nobody out. Joe Henry struck out Gene Cone and Michael Paez before David Palladino entered from the bullpen to strike out Desmond Lindsay to end the inning. Gamboa said the three strikeouts “shocked” him.
Taylor Henry pitched a scoreless seventh for the Clones, but his defense let him down in the eighth. With one out, Thompson-Williams hit a grounder to third, but Tiberi’s throw was high and pulled Knight off the first base bag. It was Tiberi’s second error of the night. Drew Bridges then flew out to right to score Thompson-Williams with the go-ahead run.
David Sosebee came in to put the Cyclones away. Knight singled to keep Brooklyn alive. with two outs in the top of the ninth Then Sosebee’s throw over to first was mishandled by Bridges – although it went as an E-1 – as Knight took second.
Down to his final strike, Cone singled past the shortstop and into center as Thompson-Williams overthrew the catcher and Knight scored to tie the game. Michael Paez flew out to center for the third out.
Gabriel Feliz entered to pitch the bottom of the ninth and retired the first two batters. Then he walked Aguilar and gave up a double to Jerry Seitz. Baez – and his .029 batting average – then stepped up to the plate and lined the winning hit to right-center.
“I had real bad vibes when Feliz walked that guy with two out and nobody on,” Gamboa said. “It was that kind of game. This might be the only guy we’ve walked tonight and this might bite us in the a– and it did.”
The 30–27 Cyclones are back in action in Staten Island when they take on the Evil Empire of the New York-Penn League at 7 pm.
UPS AND DOWNS
Deja vu: A few weeks ago, the Cyclones were down to their final out but a Staten Island error kept the game going. Brooklyn was able to pull that one out.
Notes: The teams combined for five errors. Gabriel Feliz now has a 6.48 earned run average.
