S.I. Yanks 6 – Cyclones 1
The scene, atmosphere and quality were far different, but the result was similar. For one night, at least, the Ferry Series looked a lot like the Subway Series.
Sparked by a strong pitching performance from John Blankenship and a four-run outburst in the seventh inning, the Staten Island Yankees pounded the Brooklyn Cyclones, 6-1, last night in front of a disappointing crowd of 5,019 at Richmond County Ballpark in the first game of the New York-Penn League divisional playoffs.
The winner of the three-game series will face the champion of the Pinckney Division. This series continues tonight at Brooklyn’s KeySpan Park.
“I just pitched my game,” said Blankenship, who spent much of the season at Greensboro before coming down to Staten Island on Aug. 3, where he went 4-0. “My experience helps a little, but you still have to go out and pitch.”
That’s especially true against a team like the Cyclones, who practically owned the Yankees during the regular season. The Yankees finished in second place behind Brooklyn in the McNamara Division and had dropped six of the teams’ eight meetings.
But Blankenship kept the Cyclones in check, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced. He lasted eight innings, giving up just four hits and surrendering only one run, in the sixth.
“He did a great job,” said Cyclones manager Edgar Alfonzo. “He was smart.”
He was smart enough to outlast Brooklyn’s Luz Portobanco, since the Yankees finally got to their nemesis.
Portobanco entered last night’s game with astounding success versus the Baby Bombers. He had a 3-0 record with a 0.53 ERA, and the Yankees had hit just .089 against him.
“Everything was fine for me,” Portobanco, who gave up just two earned runs in six innings. “[Blankenship] was just better.”
Portobanco was hardly hammered. Jason Turner drove in Juan Camacho in the second and a John-Ford Griffin groundout in the fifth knocked in Bernie Castro.
Far more damaging than that, however, was the Cyclones’ abysmal fielding. They made four errors and had three other miscues, mostly by shortstop Robert McIntyre.
“We weren’t tight,” Alfonzo said. “They just tried to do too much. We swung at bad pitches, we wanted to win so badly.”
The Yankees failed to put Brooklyn away despite scoring chances throughout the early innings, leaving the bases loaded in the third.
That changed in the seventh, when Castro led off with a single and stole second. With two out, Chris Martin singled to third, beating the throw by third baseman Joe Jiannatti. The throw went wild, allowing Castro to score. Turner clinched the game with a two-run triple to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead.
“This was a playoff game, everything else happened in the past,” Yankees manager Dave Jorn said. “It’s not important. It’s true we haven’t had much success against them in the regular season, but the games were close.”
Now the Cyclones, riding high throughout the season face elimintation.
“We have some pressure now,” Alfonzo said. “We have to win [tonight].”