Cyclones 7
Yankees 0
June 16 at MCU Park
The Mets and Yankees can make a trade — and the Mets can get the best of it!
The Cyclones proved it last night when Kendall Coleman — who came to Brooklyn in the blockbuster deal that sent former Cyclone L.J. Mazzilli to the Yankees in April — launched a grand slam with one out in the fifth inning, leading the Clones to a 7–0 Opening Day win in front of 7,702 fans at MCU Park.
Coleman, the first player in history to play for both the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Staten Island Yankees, said he had some butterflies when he put on the Clones red, white, and blue for the first time, but settled down in time for the first pitch.
“I was nervous before the game, but as soon as the anthem drops and the first pitch is thrown it’s just another game,” Coleman said. “Nerves are a good thing.”
And nerves didn’t get the best of second-year Cyclone Briam Campusano, the 22-year-old Dominican who held the Yanks hitless in six innings of work.
Campusano struck out three and walked two, throwing just 64 pitches and pitching to just one batter more then the minimum before acting manager Rich Donnelly — sitting in for Edgardo Alfonzo, who is on assignment being inducted into the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame — went to the pen.
Ezequiel Zabaleta and Mac Lozer then kept the Evil Empire of the NY-Penn League scoreless, with Zabaleta allowing the Yanks lone hit — a Junior Soto double in the seventh.
After taking a 1–0 lead in the second on Brooklyn-born shortstop Manny Rodriguez’s first professional hit and run batted in, the Clones bats came alive in a five-run fifth.
First baseman Jose Brizuela started things off with a triple on a line drive to center. Rodriguez then struck out before Carlos Sanchez’s single to center scored Brizuela, giving the Clones a 2–0 lead. After Oliver “The Programmer” Pascual’s single to left moved Sanchez to second, Jose Miquel Medina walked to load the bases for the Clones big off-season acquisition.
Coleman’s blast came on a 2–1 pitch from Drew Finley, who replaced starter Alex Mauricio one batter earlier.
The Cyclones tacked on a run in the sixth on a Sanchez single.
Trades between the two rivals are few and far between, because teams fear a one-sided deal could make the front office look extra bad.
That’s why rumors circulating right now on sports radio about a possible deal between the Yankees and Mets for Amazin’s star hurler Jacob deGrom are met with eye-rolls by pundits.
But some experts say this trade proves the teams can do business together — and the results can end in the Cyclones favor.
“Most saw the trade of Coleman for Mazzilli as a steal for the Yanks, because they were getting a triple-A player for a guy playing in the low A’s,” said Gersh Kuntzman, who has covered the Cyclones since the team’s inception in 2001. “But I saw this as a steal for Brooklyn from the moment it was announced. Mazzilli had no shot of helping the Cyclones this year. He was dead wood. But Coleman, as last night proves, certainly can.”
Asked if he thought the success of this trade might push the Mets to even consider the deGrom deal, Kuntzman demurred.
“I don’t cover that team in Queens,” he said. “I only report on the Brooklyn Professional Base Ball Club.”
The Cyclones hope to keep it going Sunday when they face the Yankees again at 1:30 on the Rock.
