The farm did not exactly throw a parade last night. Syracuse got washed out, Binghamton got blanked in a rain-shortened seven-inning game, Brooklyn got punched late in the ninth, and St. Lucie hit three homers and still found a way to lose. That’s baseball, the dumb beautiful lunatic.
Syracuse did not have a playable game last night. The official club notice says the April 16 game vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was postponed due to rain.
Binghamton read
This one was dead on arrival. The Ponies managed only three hits, got no run support at all, and watched Akron put it away with a three-run seventh after already controlling the game for most of the night.
The big pitching name on the wrong side was Will Watson, who took the loss. The bigger issue, though, was that Binghamton never made Akron work enough to flip the script. Three hits in seven innings is the offensive equivalent of showing up to a fistfight with a napkin.
Brooklyn read
This was the best affiliate game of the night, and that almost makes it more annoying. Brooklyn had offense, got a big swing from Antonio Jimenez, and still watched the whole thing bend sideways when Greensboro sent eight men to the plate in the ninth.
The encouraging part is obvious. Jimenez is hot, and A.J. Minter looking sharp in rehab matters more than people admit. The ugly part is also obvious. Good games still count as losses when the bullpen door opens and the inning turns into a crime scene.
St. Lucie read
This was the most chaotic box score in the system. St. Lucie jumped out early, got power from JT Benson, Branny De Oleo, and Randy Guzman, and still watched Daytona flip the game with a four-run sixth.
From a prospect angle, Guzman is the name that jumps off the page. The official recap says he has now hit three home runs in two games, which is the kind of sentence that gets real interesting real fast if he keeps stacking impact like this.
Player of the Night
Randy Guzman gets it. Brooklyn had the tighter prospect headline with Antonio Jimenez going deep again, but Guzman’s power surge is louder right now. Third homer in two games, and he nearly came up as the tying run in the ninth. That’ll play.
Best affiliate story last night
Brooklyn probably had the most frustrating loss, but St. Lucie had the loudest performance. When a lineup leaves the yard three times and still walks off the field pissed off, that game usually tells you there was plenty of life there, just not enough execution when it mattered.
