Game recap and Highlights: Sold-out Syracuse crowd sees Mets fall to RailRiders, 8-4, on Saturday Night at NBT Bank Stadium

 

Daniel Palka had two RBIs and a double on Saturday night (Herm Card).

 Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets had their second sellout of the season as an electric crowd of 10,815 was at NBT Bank Stadium, but the Mets fell to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 8-4, on a sunny Saturday evening. Daniel Palka had a two-run double in the game, extending his on-base streak to a season-high 13 consecutive games. (Box Score)

  

The game's first five innings were an old-fashioned pitchers' duel as Connor Grey for Syracuse (20-38) and Ken Waldichuk for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (23-36) nearly matched each other pitch for pitch. Each team scored one run in the first five innings. The RailRiders plated a run in the top of the first on an RBI double from Miguel Andujar, while the Mets tied the game in the bottom of the third on a two-out, RBI single from Johneshwy Fargas.

Each pitcher went about their early brilliance in different ways. Grey pitched to contact, holding Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to just four hits and one run in the game's first five innings with only one strikeout. Waldichuk had a basket full of strikeouts in the first five innings, racking up nine among the first 19 Mets batters he faced.  

It remained a 1-1 game into the top of the sixth when the RailRiders went in front for good. The road team plated five runs on three hits plus two costly Mets errors, sending nine batters to the plate in the process. A two-run single from Jake Bauers and an RBI double from Ronald Guzman were the biggest blows of the fateful inning for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take a 6-1 advantage. The RailRiders have scored their runs in bunches this week, with four separate frames with at least three runs scored in each of the last four games. 

Syracuse mounted its big charge in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs all with two outs. After Luke Ritter and Daniel Johnson both recorded outs to start the frame, the fun began when Cody Bohanek was hit by a pitch followed by Matt Rudick and Johneshwy Fargas walks to load the bases. Dominic Smith then singled into left field, scoring Bohanek and keeping the bases loaded as the Mets trimmed to deficit to four, 6-2. A two-run double from Palka into the right-field corner followed, plating Fargas and Rudick to make it just a 6-4 game. With runners on second and third, Travis Blankenhorn strode to the plate with a chance to dramatically change the game. He came up inches short of doing so, flying out to the warning track in left-center field for the final out of the frame.  

In the top of the eighth, the RailRiders tacked on the game's final two runs and made it 8-4. After Tommy Hunter struck out the first two batters, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre bounced right back via extra-base power. Estevan Florial doubled to reach base, followed by a two-run home run from Oswald Peraza, completing the game's scoring with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre up, 8-4. Peraza responded in a big way on Saturday night, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. He had gone a combined 0-for-16 in the series before Saturday night's game.  

Syracuse went down fighting, putting multiple runners on base in the eighth and ninth innings but stranding them all on the basepaths. It was a night of missed opportunities for the Mets. Syracuse left 11 runners on base and made four errors overall in the game.  

The Mets finish their stretch of seven games in five days against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m.  

 

 

 

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