Playoff-bound: Cyclones clinch wild card despite season-ending loss
That afforded Brooklyn manager Rich Donnelly the opportunity to line up his rotation for the upcoming best-of-3 first-round playoff series with league-leading McNamara Division champion Hudson Valley.
Rather than start All-Star right-hander Luis Mateo against Lowell in Game No. 76, Donnelly opted to go with a bullpen-by-committee set-up, using Matthew Koch, Timothy Peterson, David Wynn, Paul Sewald (0-2) and John Mincone in an eventual 5-3 loss to the Spinners before a crowd of 4,442 happy Brooklynites at Coney Island’s MCU Park.
The defeat, meaningless as it was, did little to stop the youngest team in franchise history from celebrating its second consecutive postseason berth under the steady, guiding hand of Donnelly, who announced that staff ace and New York-Penn League ERA leader Hansel Robles (6-1, 1.11 ERA) would be on the hill for Friday night’s series opener against the Renegades at MCU Park.
“Our pitching staff, that’s our strength,” Donnelly added. “That and catching the ball. Without that, we don’t stand much of a chance.”
While the manager busied himself with preparation, the players took to partying after nearly blowing a comfortable lead atop the wild-card standings over the season’s final three weeks. The Muckdogs went on a mind-bending run in late August and the first week of September to apply serious heat to the Baby Bums, but Brooklyn persevered and now stands four wins shy of delivering the first NY-Penn title to Coney Island since 2001.
“It’s a pretty big deal (to make the playoffs) in my first year of professional baseball,” noted Brooklyn catcher Kevin Plawecki, the Mets’ supplemental first-round draft pick out of Purdue in the June MLB draft. “Hopefully we can dominate and get on a run.”
Cyclones center fielder Brandon Nimmo, who led the club in virtually every important offensive category other than homers and batting average this summer, was impressed with how the team hung together during the dog days of the stretch drive to the playoffs.
Nimmo also noted that the youth-infused roster benefitted greatly from having a veteran of 30 big league seasons at the helm.
“[Donnelly] really held us together. For guys like me who are so young, he’s been a rock,” Nimmo said.
The Cyclones (45-31), who posted their 12th winning record in as many seasons on Coney Island, finished tops in the league with a .977 fielding percentage, spearheaded by Nimmo’s .994 mark in center field.
Brooklyn also ended the campaign with five pitchers in the top 15 in the NY-Penn in ERA. Mateo, Robles, Gabriel Ynoa, Luis Cessa, and Rainy Lara all posted ERAs below 3.00.
Add to that a bullpen which combined for a league-best 27 saves, including 12 by closer Tyler Vanderheiden, and the Cyclones appear to have the tools to go on a long playoff run — if, of course, they score some runs.
Brooklyn’s offense finished 13th out of 14 teams on the circuit with a .230 batting average, and 12th in runs scored with 288.
Beginning Friday night at 7 p.m., all those numbers will be rendered meaningless as the second season begins with the hope of a championship parade down Surf Avenue in approximately two weeks.
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