Brooklyn showed why the saying “pitching wins ballgames,” holds true on Thursday night. The Cyclones (36-29) used timely hitting and solid pitching to defeat the Staten Island Yankees 2-0 at MCU Park.
Daisuke Matsuzaka. Photo by: Stacy Podelski/1495 Sports
The pitching staff, which combined to strike out 13 batters, was led by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who went five innings, giving up no runs, on two hits, while striking out seven batters and only giving up two walks.
Matsuzaka wanted to go into the game throwing first pitch strikes and did it well.
“That was definitely something I wanted to do today. In my previous experience in rehab starts the guys tended to be pretty aggressive, I kept that in mind and wanted to attack them early,” the 2007 World Series Champion said via translator.
Cyclones Manager Tom Gamboa saw this was a great opportunity for his young staff learn from a veteran like Dice-K.
“For our team it was huge. From a development stand point, we have 17 pitchers on our staff here for them to get a chance to see an established big leaguer, from them to watch him warm up, how he goes about his business, how he pitches, his balance point on the rubber, his ability to take the sting out of the hitters swing. He threw everything for strikes, constantly changed speeds, and kept the hitters off balance,” he said.
In the bottom of the fifth inning the Brooklyn bats broke the ice, with back-to-back doubles. After Pedro Perez started the inning with a two bagger, right fielder Michael Bernal drilled a double down the right line to plate Perez.
The Cyclones added insurance in the next inning. With Jhoan Urena on third, Tyler Moore put a chopper right back up the middle to make it 2-0.
Staten Island had the chance to plate the first run, as the Baby Bombers had bases loaded and one out. On this night Matsuzaka struck out the next two hitters he faced to keep the game scoreless.
“My plan for today was if runners got in scoring position was to get strike outs. Make sure they don’t get back home, I was able to get that in the first inning and continue it for the rest of the game,” Daisuke said.
Brooklyn closer Shane Bay retired the Yankees in order in the ninth to remain a perfect 14 of 14 in save situations this season. Relievers Brad Wieck and Kelly Secrest combined for two scoreless innings, as the two combined to strike out five Staten Island batters.
The Cyclones, who leads Connecticut by two games in the Wild Card race, returns to action tomorrow night when they welcome the Tri-City ValleyCats to MCU Park. Martires Arias, 1-0 1.59 ERA, gets the ball for the Cyclones with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 P.M.
For more information on the Brooklyn Cyclones, news and tickets fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here:
http://www.brooklyncyclones.com/home/
For the postgame videos fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here:
http://1495sports.com/2014/08/22/videos-brooklyn-cyclones-postgame-82114-daisuke-rehab-start/
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