Ducks fall in home opener to York Revolution
Ducks second baseman Cody Puckett dives but misses a bloop fly to right by York's Chad Tracy in the top of the third on Friday, May 2, 2014. Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
The Ducks opened their 15th season on Long Island in grand fashion Friday night at Bethpage Ballpark. It started with a look back at the 2013 Atlantic League championship campaign, complete with a ring ceremony that featured the return of former Ducks Ray Navarette, Kraig Binick and Pete Budkevics.
Then the game started -- and there wasn't anything ceremonial about it. The Ducks had only three hits and fell to the York Revolution, 6-1, evening their record at 3-3 after the first week of the season.
The problems for Ducks starter John Brownell began in the second inning when Travis Garcia launched a monstrous two-run home run to leftfield.
"It was a cutter that was supposed to be down and away," Brownell said. "I left it in the middle and [Garcia] got a good piece of it and hit it out."
The next batter, Ofilio Castro, hit a ball to the same part of the field, but this drive died before clearing the fence, settling into the glove of leftfielder Adam Bailey.
The problems continued in the third. With former Met Wilson Valdez at the plate, Tim Torres scored on a wild pitch. The pitch rolled all the way to the Ducks' dugout, allowing Sean Smith, who was on first after singling earlier in the inning, to advance to third. Smith scored on Valdez's sacrifice fly to rightfield.
The inning may have been even worse if not for Bailey's athletic jumping catch on a Garcia line drive to deep leftfield with runners on first and second.
"It was one of those plays where you're running and it's too late to go back and play it off the wall," Bailey said. "You just throw your glove out there and it felt like it just fell in."Brownell's woes ended there, but it was enough to hand the righty his first loss of the season. He allowed four runs and six hits in six innings, struck out five and walked one.
"I felt like I was rushing early in the game," Brownell said. "But I slowed the game down after that. I tried to keep the ball down in the zone."
"Offensively, we're not clicking," manager Kevin Baez said. "Last week on the road, it was our pitching and defense and we had a couple timely hits. Right now, we have to get some hitting going on."
