Mother nature helped the Staten Island Yankees get back on track. In a rain shortened game, the Baby Bombers (20-16) shutout the Valley Cats 2-0 in six abbreviated innings to start their three-game series upstate on the right foot.

The win allowed them to pickup a game on the McNamara Division leading Cyclones, who fell in 10 innings but still lead the S.I. Yanks by five games.

The Baby Bombers got on the board in the opening frame thanks to a two out RBI single off the bat of right fielder David Williams which plated Taylor Holiday.

From there, they got a strong outing from starter Zach McAllister as the 19 year-old righty went on to toss five scoreless allowing five hits while walking two and striking out six in improving to 3-2 on the season.

Staten Island pushed across an insurance run on a sixth inning Braedyn Pruitt sacrifice fly which scored leadoff man Justin Snyder who singled to start it.

Nick Chigges came on to toss a 1-2-3 sixth, getting the final batter Catlin Everett to groundout to short for his first save.

Notes: Snyder and Holiday paved the way with multi-hit nights with the top two hitters in the Staten Island lineup combining to go 4-for-5 with a double and two runs scored. … Losing Tri-City starter Jeff Icenogle went all six and was credited with a complete game despite falling to 1-3. In defeat, he gave up two runs (1 ER) on six hits while fanning five. … The first six innings took an hour and 38 minutes to play before a 68-minute delay. … Bombers aim for their second straight and will attempt to avoid alternating wins and losses for the 10th consecutive game. They haven’t won two in a row since July16-17.

Karstens tosses six scoreless in Triple-A rehab start: Rehabbing Yankee pitcher Jeff Karstens took another step forward to making a return to the Bronx with a solid start in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Friday night. He went the first six innings against Louisville without allowing a run while giving up only two hits. Karstens did walk four and strikeout four, getting 51 of his 90 pitches over for strikes. The 24 year-old righty could be back next week in place of recently demoted SP Kei Igawa. In the mean time, the Yanks recalled infielder Chris Basak from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to fill the roster.