New York Mets Class A Affiliate Can Blame it on the Rain
By Jason Burke
The New York Mets are enjoying a nice cushion atop the NL East, leading the Washington Nationals by five games after Sunday’s action. Their A ball affiliate, the Savannah Sand Gnats, have been on quite a roll as well, winning 18 straight. That is, until rain cut short the second game of their double-header with the Kannapolis Intimidators–ending the game after five innings in a 1-1 tie. According to the MiLB website, the 18-game streak is the longest in the minors in over a decade.
Including Sunday’s tie game, the Sand Gnats outscored their opponents 119-38 over those 19 games which averages out to a final of 6-2 each night. To say that most of these games have not been close would be an understatement, as the Mets’ affiliate won by scores of 20-3 (at Rome, August 4), 8-1 (at Charleston, August 8) and 12-3 (vs. Rome, August 12) with plenty of four to five runs wins in between. Only four games were decided by one run, with two more being decided by two runs. The other twelve were by three runs or more.
One of the many standouts during this streak has been ninth round pick in the 2013 draft centerfielder Patrick Biondi, who had six RBI in the 20-3 blowout in the second game of the streak, and thirteen RBI over the duration of the surge. Biondi has seen his average fall since August 4 however, after going 5-for-7 in the game that saw his highest RBI total as a pro, the 24-year-old is 10-for-48 since, dropping his batting average from .309 to .292.
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Sticking in the outfield, right fielder Wuilmer Becerra has driven in 15 while going 23-for-69 (.333) over his last 19 games.
The team’s co-leader in wins, Corey Oswalt, a six-foot-four righty taken in the seventh round of 2012 has gone 3-0, totaling 15 innings pitched, giving up just one run (0.60 ERA) on 14 hits and a walk while striking out 19. The player that he is tied with in wins (at ten), Scarlyn Reyes, a 25-year-old Dominican right-hander, was promoted to the St. Lucie Mets on July 27 and made his debut for his new club on the second day of Savannah’s streak.
Chris Flexen has known nothing but winning, aside from a Sunday’s tie, since he arrived in Savannah on August 3. Flexxen has made three starts in that span, totaling 20 1/3 innings pitched while allowing just one run and striking out 20. The run he allowed was in his first inning worked as a member of the Sand Gnats, and it came on a sac-fly. Since that run scored, the 21-year-old right-hander has racked up a scoreless streak of 19 1/3 innings.
Sand Gnats manager said of the way the winning streak ended (from MiLB.com), “No doubt, it was a very strange way to end it, but in our minds, the streak continues. Until we lose a game, the streak continues. We don’t care if it doesn’t count number-wise, but that’s what I told the guys, ‘Guys, we didn’t lose this game.”
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