Syracuse 7, Buffalo 1
Garcia pounded; released by Mets
Aching starter runs into trouble in fifth inning
Published: April 27, 2009, 8:50 pm
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A broken-down pitcher. A broken-down offense. Another embarrassment for the Buffalo Bisons.
That's the capsule summary of the latest sorry affair in Coca-Cola Field as the Syracuse Chiefs rumbled past the hapless Herd, 7-1, on Monday night to complete a four-game sweep and improve to 7-0 against the Bisons this season.
A paid crowd of 5,140 saw Buffalo fall to 2-15 — the worst record in professional baseball.
The Bisons were held to only two hits for the second time this season but that's old news for this punchless bunch.
The biggest story in the eyes of the desperate-for-pitching New York Mets is that Freddy Garcia says the front area of his right shoulder is sore.
Once an ace for Seattle and the Chicago White Sox, Garcia had shoulder surgery in 2007 and is a shell of his old self.
After giving up six runs in the fifth, the last four on Ryan Langerhans' grand slam to right, a downcast Garcia sounded close to calling it a career.
"Maybe I want to try it one more time. If I don't feel the way I'm supposed to be feeling right now, I don't know," said Garcia, 32. "I have to make a decision what I'm going to do. I don't know yet. Hopefully next time I'll feel better. I want to wait for tomorrow and see how I feel.
"I don't feel I have any power so I tried to do the best I can do with whatever I have."
Garcia was prophetic. He was released this morning by the Mets.
Garcia has an 8.18 earned run average and has lost both his starts for the Herd. He threw 80 pitches Monday, 54 for strikes. He twice hit 85 mph and had a few other pitches in the low 80s. He was mostly in the mid-70s and was throwing offspeed stuff in the mid-60s.
None of that, of course, is near major league velocity.
"Obviously he's not the young Freddy Garcia but he's a veteran, he's got to locate," said manager Ken Oberkfell. "He battled, there's no question. He was one pitch away from getting us through the fifth inning.
"His velocity is definitely not there. Hopefully he's healthy."
A few minutes later, Garcia revealed he's not.
That's a shame, too. Because if Garcia was anything close to the guy who threw seven shutout innings for the White Sox in the 2005 World Series clincher at Houston, he would easily have a ticket to New York.
Garcia was OK for the first four innings Monday, allowing a run on three hits. But with two out and just one run home in the fifth, he couldn't get the final out. Joel Guzman, who entered the game 2 for 29 with no RBIs, got his second RBI single of the night and Langerhans bombed Garcia's next pitch onto the grass in right-center.
"I want to do the best things I can the next couple days. I want to feel better," Garcia said. "Hopefully it will work out for me but I don't know. I'm working really hard to try to get right but my shoulder doesn't respond.
"I'm going to try my best. If not, I guess I'll go home. I don't know. That's it, man."
As for the Buffalo offense, there was nothing to it again. Cory Sullivan's leadoff home run in the first and Jose Coronado's leadoff single in the fifth were all the Bisons mustered against four Syracuse pitchers.
The team batting average fell to .196 and the Bisons have scored just 45 runs in their 17 games.
"It's the same broken record day in and day out," said Oberkfell, whose club is 1-11 at home. "I honestly don't know what to say. Should I go in there and break a bunch of tables and chairs? Does that get them going? I don't know."
Nelson Figueroa, just back from New York, will start for the Herd tonight in the opener of a two-game set in Rochester (6:35 p.m., Radio 1520 AM).
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