Slices Burnt by Tri-City, Fall 4-2
Brooklyn, NY – August 4, 2017 -- For one night only, the Brooklyn Cyclones turned into the Brooklyn Slices and took on the Tri-City ValleyCats. A day after almost getting no-hit, the Cyclones offense failed to kick into a higher gear and fell 4-2 to Tri-City.
David Peterson began his first professional appearance with a fastball down the middle, drawing raucous applause from the 4,751 in attendance. In his first competitive game in 73 days, Peterson's next pitch skipped to the plate. He would get behind in the count 3-1, and give up an infield single— a bouncer over his head.
"It's tough to see over one inning," Cyclones manager Edgardo Alfonzo said. "But he looks good. I'm looking forward to the next start."
He would fall behind the next better as well before giving up another cheap hit, this one a blooper to center. Then Peterson threw a wild pitch, putting runners on second and third before recording his first professional out. A swing and a miss would change that shortly.
The following grounder to short brought in a run and a fly out to center ended his first, and only, inning of the night. A misleading 9.00 ERA and 17 pitches under his belt.
Jose C. Medina entered the game in the second and three hits later the 'Cats had doubled their lead.
In Thursday's 3-1 loss, the Slices waited eight innings to notch their first hit. MCU Park would have to wait just one inning to see BKLYN crack the hit column. Scott Manea turned on an inside pitch and hooked it just fair down the left field line. As Manea touched the plate on what would be his first professional home run in over two years, he pumped his fist and tapped helmets with Jose Maria.
"I just tried not to do too much," Manea said. "It was a really good feeling. It's been a long process. Definitely a good feeling. A sign of hard work paying off in the cages."
The Slices tied the game in the bottom of the third. Jeremy Wolf beat the shift with a double down the left-field line. Franklin Correa punched a single to right, and runners were on the corners with one out and Leon Byrd at the plate. Byrd sent a high pop-up to center field that was caught with ease as Wolf tagged. The throw beat him by a few feet but the ball skidded underneath Michael Papierski's glove and went to the back-stop.
Tri-City regained the lead in the sixth and extended it in the seventh. Jake Adams — who was tied atop New York-Penn league home run leaderboards — blasted a ball off the scoreboard in left-center to make it 3-2. A catchable ball turned into a double and a single brought the run home to make it 4-2 after six and a half innings. And the score would remain that way until the final out.
"It's tough," Alfonzo said of the offense's struggles. "It's tough to win a game like that. We were hitting pretty good until last night. I would say a few guys were a little tired. Let's see what happens tomorrow."