Spinners players have a good night at NYPL All-Star Game

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The calendar may say August 21, but an All-Star game was played last night. The New York Penn League staged their own game in Staten Island, N.Y. Three members of the Stedler Division-leading Lowell Spinners (35-29 ) were on hand to play for the Blue team as they took on a group of players that formed the Red team. There were events that took place before the game began. Included was a former New York Yankee being inducted into the Penn League Hall Of Fame. Former outfielder Bernie Williams was on hand to accept the honor and throw out the first pitch.

The three Spinners players were all featured in the Blue team’s starting lineup. Gilberto Jimenez batted second in the order and played center field. Joe Davis was hitting fourth and played first base. And the starting pitcher was Yusniel Padron-Artilles who came into the game as a leader in wins and strikeouts. Before Padron-Artilles took the mound for the game, he was staked to an early lead thanks in part to help from one of his Lowell teammates.

The Blue team raced out to an early advantage thanks to scoring runs in the first three innings. Batavia outfielder, J.D. Orr led off the game with a base hit to right field. He moved up on a passed ball and then there were back to back punch outs including one to Jimenez (0-2, 2 K’s), that looked like rally killers for the Blue team. But, Davis came through with an RBI single to left field off of Red team starter Anderson Munoz. The hit scored Orr to give the Blue team a 1-0 lead. Davis, not fleet of foot, tried to take second base on the play and was thrown out trying to advance.

Padron-Artilles had a lead to work with and almost gave it back. He would allow a single to the leadoff man Greg Jones. He would get the next two hitters before issuing another single to left by Vermont’s Jordan Diaz. With runners at first and second and two away, Padron-Artilles induced Martin Figueroa to fly out to left field to end the first inning. Padron-Artilles’ night was finished (1 IP, 2 H. 0 ER, 1 SO, 0 BB).

After scoring twice more on four hits in the second to take a 3-0 lead, the Blue team added another run in the third. Facing Connecticut Tigers Xavier Javier, Jimenez struck out for the second time in the game. However, Wilmer Reyes was then walked. He moved to third base on a Davis single to center field. Davis had a good night at the plate, (2-2, both singles, 1 RBI). Reyes would cross home plate on a sac fly to center field that at the time gave the Blue team a 4-0 lead. They would go on to win the game by a final count of 7-4. The Spinners jump back into Penn League action on Thursday night. They head to Burlington, VT. to take on the Lake Monsters in a three-game division series.

First pitch Thursday is set for 7 pm.