Cyclones 2
Connecticut 0
Aug. 9 at MCU Park
Christian James threw seven shutout innings, striking out six, allowing three hits, and walking just one as our boys topped Connecticut for the second-straight night.
The Brooklyn starter said keeping a tight focus on his form helped him silence the Tigers’s bats for so long.
“I just tried to cool down with my mechanics, not open up too much,” James said after the game. “I brought it, and luckily I was able to have my defense do it all.”
The righty from Florida received minimal help from Cyclones batters, however, but our boys’ two runs scored were enough to seal the win.
Brooklyn got on the board in the fourth when Carlos Cortes homered to right, and again in the eighth, after James left the mound, when Cortes knocked a sacrifice fly that plated Manny Rodriguez, who had singled, moved to second on a balk, and reached third on a Ross Adolph groundout.
James said the one-run insurance didn’t phase him during his innings on the mound because he honed in on the task at hand.
“I wasn’t really focusing on the run, I was just trying to put up zeros, trying to win a ball game for us,” said James, who is currently one of the top 10 pitchers in the New York-Penn League with an earned–run average of 1.60.
Cortes, meanwhile, has cracked hits in the Clones’ last seven home games, batting .379 (11–29) over the stretch, and .360 with runners in scoring position, in his rise to become one of the team’s most-consistent sluggers.
“He’s more patient at home plate,” Brooklyn manager Edgardo Alfonzo said of Cortes. “He’s got a quick bat, he just waits for his pitch and turns hard.”
Eric Hanhold, rehabbing from AAA Las Vegas, replaced James in the eighth, before Tommy Wilson took the mound in the ninth to close.
Brooklyn attempts a sweep tonight at 6:40 pm at MCU.
