“Anything you can do I can do better”. I am not talking about the famous song from “Annie Get Your Gun”, I am talking about possible silent dialogue from top pitching prospects Alex Meyer (Rochester) and A.J. Cole (Syracuse) that might have happened after their respective half innings on the hill on Tuesday. Both pitchers were caught in the middle of a good old fashioned duel in the first game of a double header. Syracuse would win in walk-off fashion taking the game 1-0.
Meyer (Twins #4 prospect) was having a difficult start to his 2015 season. In his previous two starts he logged just 8.2 innings issuing 11 walks with just nine strikeouts. Tuesday he lasted a season-high six innings, and although he still allowed three free passes, he struck out 11 and just gave up two hits and most importantly no runs. The unfortunate thing for him in this start is his offense didn’t provide him any runs either.
Cole (Nationals #3 prospect) was just as good lasting the same six innings. He didn’t tally the same strikeout total and allowed more hits, but didn’t allow a walk and had no Red Wing player go past second base. Cole hasn’t had the same control problems as Meyer, and in fact has only allowed one walk this season so far.
All-in-all, both pitchers allowed the same amount of base runners (5), but Meyer had the edge with strikeouts (11 to 5).
With both pitchers pulled after the sixth inning of the seven inning affair, it was up to the bullpens. Rochester was able to get a base runner in the top half of the seventh inning thanks to a single by Reynaldo Rodriguez. Unfortunately though, Rodriguez would get caught stealing in a strike ’em out, throw ’em out ending any type of threat the Red Wings could muster.
Syracuse didn’t mess around in the bottom half of the seventh when Jason Martinson picked the right time to hit his first home run of the season. He took Rochester’s A.J. Achter deep for the walk-off win.
With the win the Chiefs improve to 5-7, while the Red Wings fall to 5-6. This was a tremendous start to a long home-and-home series between these two teams. Depending on weather and some other factors, Cole and Meyer could potentially pair up again on Saturday.
John Ginder
John has recently graduated from the University at Albany with a B.A. in History and is currently finishing his Master's Degree there as well in secondary education. After being away from school for over two decades he decided to go back and work towards his dream of becoming a social studies teacher.
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