Yard Goats With 'Roc' Solid win

Yard Goats With 'Roc' Solid win

Binghamton, NY - Roc Riggio slugged two home runs and Jose Torres one, as the Hartford Yard Goats utilized timely hitting and pitching to down the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, 4-2, Friday night at Mirabito Stadium. Victor Jaurez notched his first win of the season with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, while Austin Smith registered his first save, hurling a scoreless ninth. The Yard Goats (14-16) have won two straight and three of the first four games against the Mets affiliate (11-20).

The game was a scoreless contest through six innings, as Hartford starter Jake Brooks and his counterpart, left hander Jonathan Santucci of Leominster, MA, settled into an old fashioned pitcher's duel. The Yard Goats broke through in the seventh, however, when the lefty-hitting Riggio snapped the deadlock, leading off the inning with a towering home run over the right field wall. Binghamton countered, when Jacob Reimer led off the last of the seventh with a home run to left. The Rumble Ponies then took a 2-1 lead, when Chris Suero followed with a double, stole third base and scored on a head-first slide at the plate on a ball topped by Nick Lorusso. That play knocked Brooks, the Colorado Rockies Minor League Pitcher for April, from the game.

Hartford came right back in the eighth, after Cole Messina reached on a two-out error by Lorusso and Riggio followed with his second home run in two innings and fifth of the season. The Yard Goats added another marker in the ninth on a two-out home run by Jose Torres to left, his fourth home run of the year.

Brooks, who tossed just 50 pitches through six innings, turned in his longest outing of the season, going 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs, while striking out four. Hartford pitching did not walk a batter.

Riggio had two home runs and three RBI, while Torres belted a homer and single to pace the Yard Goats seven-hit attack.

The Yard Goats continue their six-game series in Binghamton on Saturday afternoon (1:00 PM). RHP Connor Staine will pitch for the Yard Goats. The game will be broadcast on the free Audacy app, iHeartRadio app, Yard Goats website and streamed on MiLB.TV.