Brooklyn Boro

Cyclones ‘walk’ away losers yet gain

Simon’s First-Inning Wildness Dooms Brooklyn vs. Rival Staten Island

July 18, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Despite four innings of scoreless relief from Nicolas Debora Monday night, the Cyclones couldn’t overcome a brutal first inning in which they yielded four runs to the rival Staten Island Yankees in Coney Island. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Cyclones
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Much like this brutal 17th summer on Coney Island, Monday night’s matchup with arch rival Staten Island got away from the Brooklyn Cyclones early.

Starter Jake Simon issued three walks, hit a batter and surrendered a pair of run-scoring singles in the first inning as the league-worst short-season franchise by the sea suffered a 5-3 defeat to the first-place Yankees in front of 5,047 frustrated fans at MCU Park.

Simon (0-3) remained winless on the season after yielding five earned runs on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts in only 1 1/3 innings.

The lanky 20-year-old right-hander from Galveston, Texas never found his groove and left the Baby Bums in an early 5-0 hole that they never quite climbed out of on a night they hoped to begin making up ground in the McNamara Division race.

“The first inning is the one that killed us,” first-year Brooklyn manager Edgardo Alfonzo lamented as his struggling unit slipped to 7-20 and dropped 13 games behind Staten Island in the division race.

“When you get behind the hitters, you’re going to get killed. That’s what happened today.”

The Cyclones, who own the league’s lowest team batting average at .229 and second-highest earned run average at 5.20, failed in their bid to win back-to-back games for the first time since July 1-2 here against visiting Connecticut.

Brooklyn was hoping this was the summer the team would snap its franchise-record four-year playoff drought.

But all signs point to another early September departure for the Cyclones, who haven’t been in serious contention for a New York-Penn League championship since the summer of 2012.

Outfielders Quinn Brodey and Ricardo Cespedes combined for four of Brooklyn’s eight hits, and the Cyclones averted a blowout loss thanks to a stellar performance by the bullpen.

Relievers Gregorix Estevez, Nicolas Debora and Keaton Aldridge combined to 7 2/3 scoreless innings following Simon’s early departure, but Brooklyn was unable to overcome the poor start, falling to 2-4 against the Yankees this year.

The Cyclones appeared primed for a big inning in the bottom of the third, plating a run on reigning NY-Penn Player of the Week Jose Miguel Medina’s RBI single before putting runners on the corners with one out.

Yankee reliever Will Jones inherited that jam and got out of it on a bizarre play in which designated hitter Walter Rasquin lifted what appeared to be a sacrifice fly to left field, cutting the deficit to two runs.

But Medina was called out at third for leaving the base early, resulting in an inning-ending double play that ended the frame and Brooklyn’s best chance to rally past the Yanks.

“The last thing I was thinking was that [Medina] was going to home plate,” Alfonzo ceded.

“I like to be aggressive, but you need to know when and how to do it. That’s not how you should be aggressive at all.”

After crawling back within a pair of runs entering the bottom of the ninth, the ‘Clones had the tying run at the plate in Rasquin, who promptly rapped into a game-ending double play.

This first managerial campaign for Alfonzo is presenting the Mets icon and longtime Major League veteran with plenty of teachable moments, albeit more than he could have anticipated when he took the job.

“We came up short again,” he said. “Another good game, but we came up short.”

This, That and the Other Thing: Medina was named NY-Penn Player of the Week Monday after hitting .400 (10-for-25) with four doubles, a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored. He is hitting .278 overall this summer after going 1-for-3 in Monday’s loss to S.I. … LHP David Peterson has yet to make his professional debut after signing with the parent-club Mets earlier this month as the team’s first-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft in June. The University of Oregon alum did make his first appearance in front of the Brooklyn media Saturday as he prepares to take the hill for the Cyclones at some point this week. “It’s probably not going to be more than two innings at a time,” Peterson admitted of his first several appearances. “They want me to get a feel for professional baseball, and I threw a lot of innings in college, so I think they want me to take it pretty slow right now.” Peterson went 11-4 with a 2.51 ERA while amassing a school-record 140 strikeouts over 100 1/3 innings for the Ducks this past season. The Cyclones took a similar approach with first-round pick Justin Dunn out of Boston College in Brooklyn last summer, limiting the hard-throwing right-hander to no more than three innings per appearance. Dunn flourished in the brief stints, 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA in 11 outings, including eight starts. Dunn is currently pitching at Class A Advanced St. Lucie in the Florida State League.

 

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