Baseball: Long Day, Monsters Swept at Staten Island

Posted on , updated on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Lake Monsters

STATEN ISLAND, NY — The Staten Island Yankees scored seven runs in the bottom of the third inning just after the resumption of Wednesday’s suspended game and went on to beat Vermont 13-5 before tossing another shutout against the Lake Monsters with a 7-0 New York-Penn League victory in Thursday’s scheduled game at Richmond County Ballpark.

The suspended game from Wednesday resumed in bottom third with Staten Island leading 1-0 and a pair of runners aboard with no outs. The Yankees used four hits and a pair of walks by reliever Carlos Sanchez to plate seven runs in the frame to take an 8-0 lead.

The Yankees led 10-0 when the Lake Monsters snapped a 28-inning scoreless streak against Staten Island in top of the seventh. Vermont got its first run on two walks and two hit batters before Jordan Diaz smashed a grand slam homer to left cutting deficit to 10-5. It was Diaz’s sixth home run and the Lake Monsters first grand slam since Migues Mercedes in August of 2016.

Staten Island added three runs in the seventh including a two-run single for Jacob Sanford, who went 4-for-6 with two doubles in the win. Carlos Narvaez was 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Ezquiel Duran was 3-for-6 with two runs, two doubles and an RBI.

Duran then opened the day’s second game with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first off Vermont starter Hogan Harris (1-2) before Spencer Henson and David Metzgar RBI singles later in inning. Harris, who had allowed just one run (a solo homer) over 19 1/3 innings in his previous five outings, left after giving up three runs in just 2/3 innings.

Yankees scored four more times in the fourth after Duran led off the inning with a double and scored on a Andres Chaparro double. The Yankees, which came into the series with one more hit on the season than Vermont, outhit the Lake Monsters 14-4 in each of the two games Thursday.

The shutout was the eighth of the season against Vermont (13-20), which has scored just five runs (all in seventh inning of Wednesday’s suspended game) over its last 38 innings vs. Staten Island (which also shutout the Lake Monsters June 29th and 30th).

Vermont and Staten Island will wrap up the series at 7:00pm on Friday before the Lake Monsters return to Centennial Field for a three-game homestand against the Tri-City ValleyCats beginning Saturday.