Wednesday, the Mets affiliates alternated excellent pitching peformances with poor ones in descending order by level.  Philip Humber was brilliant in triple-A, Tobi Stoner rolled in the FSL, and Dylan Gee and friends were solid in the NYP.  Binghamton and Savannah – not so much.

            Pedro is scheduled to start on Sunday, but where he will take the hill is still unclear.  I have been told the Mets would like him to pitch at one of the upper level affiliates, but it’s up to cagey veteran.  New Orleans is home against the Iowa Cubs, Binghamton is in Trenton while St. Lucie plays an hour away from home in Palm Beach.  Per Accuweather.com, the forecast for New Orleans is for a high of 91 with RealFeel of 102 and an afternoon thunderstorm possible.  Trenton has a forecast high of 88 with a 91 degree RealFeel.  An afternoon thunderstorm is possible, but less likely than in New Orleans.  Palm Beach is forecast for sunny with a high of 90 with a RealFeel of 98, after a morning rain shower.  Based on the current weather forecasts, and in the interests of minimizing the number of flights in my life, and getting myself ready to pitch in the big leagues, if I were Pedro, I’d choose to join the B-Mets and head to Trenton on Sunday.

 

Stars of the Day:

AAA: **Philip Humber**/Andy Tracy  

AA: Wilson Batista

A+: *Tobi Stoner*/Victor Mendez

A: DJ Wabick

SSA: Dillon Gee & Dan McDonald/Raul Reyes

R-App: Wet grounds

R-GCL: Off

 

AAA – New Orleans (Pacific Coast League)

@ Zephyrs (67-65) 4, Iowa Cubs (72-60) 3

 

            Philip Humber carried a no-hitter through eight and a third innings in his best performance as a professional on Wednesday night in New Orleans against the PCL’s highest scoring offense.  Pinch-hitter John Nelson broke up the no-hit bid by grounding a single between short and third on Humber’s 123rd and final offering of the night. 

            Humber, who hadn’t won a game since July 16th or gone past five innings in any of his last five starts was very pleased with his effort, “I needed this, the last 3 or four starts I’ve been scuffling, as a team we needed a win tonight…it was just a fun game to be a part of,” the righty said post-game.  When queried about what changed on Wednesday, Humber pointed out that it was really the best he’d thrown all year: “We’d been working on things all year and tonight it came together.  I had probably the best breaking ball I’ve had all year, and was able to move the fastball around the strike zone and keep ‘em honest with a changeup every once in a while.  I don’t know why tonight, but I’m glad it happened.” 

            After Eric Patterson reached on David Newhan’s error to begin the fourth inning, Humber set down 16 batters in a row until Nelson’s single in the ninth.  He struck out a season high 10, walking just one batter.

            However Humber, was not perfect and took advantage of his spacious park on a muggy night when the ball did not carry well.  He gave up three well-hit drives to Matt Craig in the third, Josh Kroeger in the fifth and Geovany Soto in the seventh that might have been hits or home runs in another park, “There’s a lot of places in this league where I would have given up three or four runs tonight, just on homers.  It was good to be here.  This is a good pitcher’s park.”  All three drives came on elevated fastballs.

            After Humber left with a 3-0 lead and one out in the ninth, Ambiorix Burgos gave up two run scoring doubles and a flare into shallow center by PCL batting leader Soto to tie the game. 

            Ivan Maldonado flashed a good slider in the top of the 10th and in the bottom half of the inning, Andy Tracy drew a bases loaded walk to give the Zs a 4-3 win.  Tracy was 3-4 with a home run in the sixth that put New Orleans up 3-0.

            Newhan was 0-4 to snap his 22-game hitting streak, the second longest in the PCL this year.

            With the win and the Albuquerque Isotopes’ loss, the Zephyrs are back to within a game of first. 

            More Humber quotes here.

 

 

AA – Binghamton (Eastern League)

@ Portland Sea Dogs (65-62) 10, Mets (55-72) 2

 

            As precise as Humber was in triple-A, the double-A pitchers were wild, walking 11.  Sal Aguilar walked five in five innings and Marcos Carvajal issued four free passes in a nightmarish two-thirds of an inning in relief.  Brandon Nall contributed two more. 

            Wilson Batista was 3-4 with a solo home run his fourth. 

           

 

A+ -- St. Lucie (Florida State League)

@ Mets (32-26) 6, Brevard County Manatees (29-29) 0

 

            It wasn’t 8+ no-hit innings, but Tobi Stoner wasn’t far off.  The righty allowed just four hits in eight shutout innings, fanning a career high ten without giving up a walk.

            Ambio Concepcion was 3-4 with a double.  Victor Mendez was 2-4, with a three run jack in the sixth and four RBI. 

            The Mets have now opened up a three game lead for first place in the FSL East.  St. Lucie has won 10 of 11 games and 18 of their last 22.

 

A – Savannah (South Atlantic League)

Rome Braves (32-26/61-67) 7 @ Sand Gnats (19-39/39-88) 3

 

            The Gnats, the worst team in minor league baseball have dropped five in a row.  DJ Wabick (.299/.343/.420) was 3-3 with two doubles and a walk. 

            Greg Mullens gave up four runs in six innings. 

 

SSA – Brooklyn (New York-Penn League)

@ Cyclones (38-18) 4, Oneonta (35-25) 2

 

            After four good innings from Dylan Gee at the game’s outset, the Cyclones showed off their deep bullpen, going to five relievers over the game’s final five frames.  Gee allowed just one run on two hits, fanning four.  Dan McDonald (1.66) fanned two in a perfect 1.2.  Eddie Kunz punched out one in a one-hit ninth for his fourth NYP League save. 

            Raul Reyes (.222/.317/.409 – age 20) led the Cyclone attack, going 3-4 with a double.  Three other Brooklynites, Lucas Duda, Will Vogl and Matt Bouchard had two hits.  Bouchard (.249/.312/.314) was 2-2 with a walk. 

 

SSA – Kingsport (Appalachian League)

Mets @ Bristol White Sox

 

            Postponed by wet grounds.  They’ll play two in Kingsport Thursday.

 

R – St. Lucie (Gulf Coast League)

Mets

 

Off

 

Toby Hyde has written Toby’s Mets Minor League Report since 2004.  Please pass this along to friends, family, co-workers, enemies and most importantly Mets fans.  To subscribe to the email newsletter, sign up here: http://groups.google.com/group/mets-minors?hl=en.  Archives are available at http://metsminors.metsblog.com.