Squirrels pack bags for only trip to Binghamton

Coming off of a commanding shutout of the Reading Phillies (17-25), the Flying Squirrels (24-19) continue their road-trip through the Eastern Division for their only away games of the season at the Binghamton Mets (20-22).

May 24, 2010; 6:00 AM • by John Murden

Coming off of a commanding shutout of the Reading Phillies (17-25), the Flying Squirrels (24-19) continue their road-trip through the Eastern Division for their only away games of the season at the Binghamton Mets (20-22).

The Flying Squirrels beat the Reading Phillies 6-0 on Sunday as Daryl Maday (7-0, 1.36) pitched seven scoreless innings and Andy D’Alessio drove in four runs. The shutout is the league-leading 7th of the season for Richmond. Maday is now tied with Altoona’s Jared Hughes for the Eastern League lead with his seventh win of the season. Andy D’Alessio returned from the DL with a bang, hitting a homerun off of Phillippe Aumont in his 1st at-bat since May 3rd. Tony Pena Jr. (3-0, 1.01) worked the mound for the final two innings without allowing a run or a hit.

Even with Sunday’s victory, Richmond has only won 2 of their last 6 games (and haven’t won 2 straight since May 14). Despite a few rough series with Erie and Reading, the Flying Squirrels still hold 2nd place in the Western Division, 3 games behind the Altoona Curve (27-16) and 1 1/2 games up on the Erie SeaWolves (23-21).

As hit or miss as the Squirrels have been of late, the B-Mets have been even cooler. Binghamton recently endured a 9-game losing streak, but managed to pick one up from New Britain on Saturday. They lost again yesterday to the Rock Cats, though, and have now dropped 10 of their last 11 games.

Like the recent series with Erie, this looks like it will be a contest of the Mets’ hitting vs the Flying Squirrels’ pitching. The Mets’ Lucas Duda OF, Nick Evans 1B, and Zach Lutz 3B are among the league leaders in OPS and homeruns. As might be expected, the B-Mets have scored some runs: Binghamton is 3rd in the Eastern League with 217 runs in 41 games (5.29 per game). The B-Mets are the heaviest-hitting, highest-scoring team that the Flying Squirrels have yet faced this season. At 224, though, the Mets have also let in 7 more runs than they’ve scored, more than anyone else in the league except the Akron Aeros. For comparison, the Squirrels have allowed a league-fewest 138 runs (while putting up 146 of their own).

These 4 games are the only games that the Flying Squirrels will play at Binghamton. The Mets come to the Diamond for 3 games in the middle of June. (It’s really a shame that the 2 clubs don’t meet more often as they’d make such a better nemesis than the Bowie Baysox: it comes so natural to just want to whomp on some Mets.)

Monday May 24 – 6:35 PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels at Binghamton Mets
RHP David Mixon (4-2, 3.28) vs LHP Mike Antonini (3-4, 4.84)

Tuesday May 25 – 6:35 PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels at Binghamton Mets

Wednesday May 26 – 6:35 PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels at Binghamton Mets

Thursday May 27 – 6:35 PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels at Binghamton Mets

May 24, 2010 6:00 AM 0