The Brooklyn Cyclones pitching staff may have collectively coughed up Sunday’s game before the offense came through in extra innings, but they were dominant on Monday, registering 14 strikeouts in a 2-1 win over the Batavia Muckdogs.

“They were great,” said shortstop Reese Havens, who ended up with the game-winning RBI. “As far as I’m concerned, they’ve been great all season.”

Just like Sunday, the Mets Single-A affiliate got on the board first. Batavia starter Zach Pitts wasn’t sharp in the early going and gave up a pair of doubles from Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Jordan Abruzzo, sandwiched in between a wild pitch that allowed Nieuwenhuis to score and gave Brooklyn a 1-0 advantage. Havens then padded the lead with a two-out RBI single that scored Abruzzo and gave the Clones a 2-0 lead after one inning of play.

“When you get an early lead, it helps,” said Cyclones skipper Edgar Alfonzo. “You play harder. It happened tonight.”

Coming off of his first win of the season on Aug. 6, Brooklyn starter Pedro P. Martinez [1-2, 3.20 ERA] wasn’t his normal solid self early on and was unable to work his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, giving up a Jairo Martinez RBI single that cut the Brooklyn lead in half.

That’s all the Cardinals Single-A affiliate could muster off the righty however, as Martinez stifled them over his last three innings pitched, striking out a season-high eight batters and keeping the game at 2-1.

“He did his job tonight,” Alfonzo said. “He pitched well enough to win.”

Jimmy Johnson came out of the Brooklyn bullpen in the sixth and kept the Muckdogs scoreless through the eight and left with two outs in the ninth. Yury Santana was then inserted and got the final out, securing the team’s 29th win of the season in the process.

With Staten Island’s doubleheader split on Monday, the Baby Bums are now only three games out of first place and feel confident going on the road against Auburn, before coming back home for a three-game series with the Tri-City Valley Cats this weekend.

“We’ve played great on the road this season,” Johnson said. “The offense always steps it up away from home and the way we’ve been playing as a team lately, we know this is an important stretch.”

Notes-

The rumor circulating around the park tonight was that Mets closer Billy Wagner will be making a rehab appearance at Keyspan this weekend.

Video-

Amazing grab by Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the eighth

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Photos and Video by Ron Hatcher.

After a week in Brooklyn, Jason Jacobs was headed back to last Friday St. Lucie a different player.

Subbing for injured first baseman Ike Davis who injured his foot a few days earlier, Jacobs was brought to Brooklyn to provide a jolt to an offense in desperate need of one and the leadership that comes with being a two-time New York Penn-League All Star. Hitting just .176 with three hits in four games with his former team, Jacobs’ time in Brooklyn didn’t go exactly as planned, but it did serve a purpose.

Alone in the Cyclones clubhouse after a 9-4 loss against Staten Island on Sept. 4, the shaggy haired catcher packed his bags and talked about his season with the same reporters that watched him slug 12 home runs and 46 RBI last season.

“I’m not hitting the ball as good as I was last year, but I’ve learned a lot,” Jacobs said. “The game is simpler and even though I still make mistakes all the time, I know what they are now and it’s much easier to fix them than it was before. It’s a slow process, but I feel like I’m learning and that’s what being in the minors is all about.”

Spending a week in Brooklyn has afforded the slugger the opportunity to work on his game and continue that process. Quickly becoming one of the boys, Jacobs grew a mustache because every one else on the team had been doing so for about two weeks in a ritualistic effort to get the offense rolling. While Jacobs insists he won’t let his wife see it when he gets home, he proved in a short time that he’s still the same leader in clubhouse he was last season and the year before.

His play on the field isn’t exactly what it was last season however. Before being sent to Brooklyn, Jacobs, In spite of a solid .380 on-base percentage and 20 walks, was hitting .223 with 14 RBI in 38 games with St. Lucie,. Because of those struggles, Jacobs relished the chance to get to work with a coaching staff that watched him flourish last season.

“My swing is not the same as it was last year at all,” said Jacobs. “The coaches here, [Edgar] Alfonzo and [Guadalupe] Jabalera know me better than anyone. The coaches in St. Lucie are just starting to know what to expect from me. Over the past week, I’ve worked really hard and I feel a lot better about my game and I’m looking forward to going back to work.”

Despite heading back to St. Lucie, Jacobs wasn’t about to dismiss his week back in Brooklyn or the two All-Star years that preceded it.

Instead, he deflected the attention to his now former teammates, believing that they have what it takes to do something the teams he was an instrumental part of didn’t- win a NYPL championship.

“It was nice to be back. I missed you all,” he said to the handful of reporters surrounding him. “This a great place to play and winning matters a lot here. Most of the time in the minors, it’s about development, so it’s fun to have that type of competition, it takes you back in college. But being back here for a few days, I’ve gotten an opportunity to play with some great guys that I’ve seen develop in just the week that I’ve been here. I’m looking forward to hearing about this guys taking it home this season.”

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Box Score to last night’s 5-2 Cyclones win.

Photos by Ron Hatcher and Jim Dolan

It may have just been a coincidence that Saturday’s game against the Yankees was Ladies Night, but the Baby Bums weren’t anything like the bunch of strapping young men that have gotten back into the playoff hunt over the past week.

Riding a five-game winning-streak that got them within two games of Staten Island, Brooklyn, who wore pink embroidered letters on their jerseys for the night, looked shy at the plate and confused on the mound, falling 6-1 to their cross-bridge rivals.

“Things didn’t go our way today,” said. DH Jordan Abruzzo. “We have to put this game behind us.”

Staten Island got started early after a Marcos Vechionacci RBI single in the first off Brooklyn starter Scott Shaw, who allowed two hits and struck out two in his first inning of work, despite falling behind almost every hitter he faced. Rather than bounce back after getting into trouble like he has most of this season, Shaw continued to struggle in the second and lasted only two outs, after a Taylor Grote RBI double, Addison Maruszak RBI triple and David Adams two-run homer gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

“It felt like everything I was throwing, they were hitting,” said Shaw. “It didn’t matter where it was.”

Mattias Carrillo was then summoned from the Brooklyn pen and gave up a RBI single to Vechionacci, his second in as many innings, before getting Mitch Albeita out on strikes to end the inning. Things then settled down, as Carrillo hurled four scoreless innings and kept the score 6-0 through the sixth.

The Mets Single-A affiliate’s offense couldn’t get back in the game however, as Staten Island starter Nick Montgomery was stellar, allowing only three hits in five innings of work. Jacinto Gonell replaced him in sixth and was also solid, keeping the Clones offense at bay through the seventh.

In the seventh, Clones pitcher Jim Fuller then made his first appearance since landing on the DL with a strained left shoulder a few weeks ago and responded with two scoreless innings. Wendy Rosa then pitched a scoreless ninth before Staten Island reliever Jason Kiley allowed a solo-homer from JR Voyles and a pair of hits to Jason Jacobs and Jose Jimenez.

“We had opportunities to get back in the game,” said Cyclones skipper Edgar Alfonzo. “We didn’t take advantage of them.”

Now three games back of the Yankees with two games left in the season series, Brooklyn knows the next week will be crucial in assessing their playoff chances.

“We’re pretty confident right now despite the loss,” said catcher Ralph Henriquez. “We just have to come back strong.”

Notes-

2006 & 2008 Brooklyn Cyclone Daniel Murphy made his major league debut with the Mets last night, going 1 for 4 with a run scored.

Cyclones first baseman Ike Davis is expected to take fielding and batting practice today. If he then feels up to it, he’ll play in today’s game.

Video-

Jason Jacobs first AB at Keyspan since 2007.

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Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr. & Jim Dolan. Video by Patrick Hickey Jr.