BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Binghamton Mets have been on the receiving end of many of the Eastern League’s worst beatings this season.
The Mets changed roles Monday night, batting around in consecutive innings of a 13-2 rout of the Portland Sea Dogs.
Though they’ve been trounced often, the Mets showed they were capable of delivering.
“They just got the momentum on their side,” Sea Dogs Manager Kevin Boles said. “The game got a little quick for us and we were pitching out of the stretch a lot.”
Brahiam Maldonado’s batting average was below .200 prior to a surge at the plate during Binghamton’s trip to Portland.
When the Mets and Sea Dogs got together again Monday, Maldonado continued a hitting tear that had earned him Eastern League Player of the Week honors earlier in the day.
Maldonado and Raul Reyes, the first two hitters in the six-run sixth and five-run seventh innings, each had a homer and triple to help Binghamton move past Portland by percentage points to escape the Eastern Division cellar.
“When we checked their last five and last 10 games, they were hitting .298 for the last five and .295 for the last 10,” Boles said. “They’ve been swinging hot bats lately.
“We elevated some pitches and they were consistently driving the baseball.”
Maldonado’s homer to start the sixth inning broke a 2-2 tie. His triple was followed by a Reyes homer to begin the seventh.
After going 9 for 20 with three homers and nine RBI in six games last week, Maldonado went 2 for 5.
Reyes also had a single to finish 3 for 5 with three runs scored.
What Maldonado and Reyes started, Jordany Valdespin kept going.
Valdespin, who went 3 for 4 with two doubles, a homer and four RBI, completed the scoring in both innings. He hit a two-run homer in the sixth and doubled in two runs in the seventh.
Jon Malo also had three hits, while Matt den Dekker and Allan Dykstra added two each to Binghamton’s 17-hit attack.
Robert Carson (3-8) got the win by working six innings and allowing just two runs (one earned) on five hits while striking out six.
While Carson won for just the second time in 15 starts since April 17, Sea Dogs starter Brock Huntzinger continued to struggle.
Huntzinger threw 13 of his first 19 pitches for balls and faced a bases-loaded situation before third baseman Will Middlebrooks started an inning-ending double play in the first.
The Mets managed hits in every inning off Huntzinger but had only scored two runs through five before Maldonado and Reyes combined to knocked the right-hander out two batters into the sixth. Huntzinger (5-8) allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks and had his earned run average inch up to 6.86.
Chih-Hsien Chiang continued to carry the Portland offense.
Carson retired nine of the first 10 before Chiang’s mammoth home run several rows into the parking lot beyond the right-field bullpen.
Chiang was the only Sea Dog with two hits. The league’s top slugger has six doubles, four homers and 11 RBI during a 10-game hitting streak in which he is 20 for 44 (.455).
“We’ve just got to have a short-term memory and move on,” Boles said.
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