Burlington, VT- The Staten Island Yankees trudged up to the great state of Vermont to take on the Oakland Athletics affiliate, Vermont Lake Monsters, in the first game of a three game set.
The Lake Monsters entered the game having already been eliminated from the hunt for the NY-Penn League championship but still hold a chance to play the role of spoiler against the Yankees. Vermont and Staten Island will play each other six times over the next eleven games.
Staten Island, on the other hand, began the game fighting for their fall playoff life as the loss to Brooklyn the previous night dropped them a full three and a half games behind the Cyclones for the NY-Penn League wild card. In order to try and gain a win on the road, the Yankees sent twenty-one year old Jonathan Holder to the mound.
Through the first few innings Holder lived up to the expectations that Staten Island put on him as he held the Lake Monsters to just one hit over the first twin frames. He also struck out two and walked one.
His performance on the mound though was matched pitch for pitch by Vermont’s veteran pitcher Jerad Grundy. Although Grundy had struggled this season for the Lake Monsters, posting only a three and six record, he seemed to find his groove against the Yankees. Through the first three innings he struck out three and walked none while surrendering three hits to the Baby Bombers.
Vermont tried to break the early pitchers duel by threatening in the third putting runners on third and second with two outs. The threat was put in place courtesy of three stolen bases in the inning, two from Ben McQuown and one from Dayton Alexander. The threat though soon materialized into more than just a threat with three runs being plated. The runs came courtesy of RBI singles from Jose Brizuela and Max Kuhn.
Staten Island was not to be deterred though as the offense tried to get to work in the Top of the Fourth to close the scoring gap. Connor Spencer came home from third on an Isaias Tejada ground ball to bring the score to three to one.
That was all the trouble that Grundy would get himself into though as he would go on to pitch two more innings finishing up with a final line score of six innings pitched, striking out three, surrendering five hits, and one run. His outing put the Lake Monsters in a perfect position to win the game.
With Grundy out of the picture the Yankees attempted to get something going on offense but Vermont’s bullpen shut the door on the Yankees. The Yankees struck out four times over the last three innings to drop their second game in a row, right on the heels of the loss to Brooklyn.
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