Moosic, PA – The Syracuse Mets had a flair for the dramatic on a chilly Saturday afternoon turned evening outside of the Electric City. The Mets rallied back twice to stun the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and sweep a doubleheader at PNC Field. Syracuse now has taken three out of the first four games in the five-game, week-long series.
In game one of the doubleheader, an old problem from Friday night once again haunted Syracuse as walks allowed Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to grab an early lead. After Greg Allen doubled to start the inning off of Mets starter Joey Lucchesi, a walk to Caleb Durbin put two runners on base with nobody out. Carlos Narvaez struck out to give Lucchesi a brief respite, but then a double steal put runners on second and third with one out. Consecutive walks plated one run and a sacrifice fly allowed a second to score and give the RailRiders a 2-0 lead. Lucchesi issued three walks in the first inning – the Mets pitching staff combined to issue 15 free passes in Friday night’s loss.
Syracuse bounced right back and got a run of its own in the top of the second. Ben Gamel walked to reach base starting the inning, continuing the good news for him from Friday night, when he went 3-for-3 with a double and a home run. After a Rylan Bannon strikeout, Luke Ritter crushed a double off the top of the right-field wall to put runners on second and third with one out. Tomas Nido then brought home Gamel with an RBI groundout to slim the Syracuse deficit to 2-1.
From there, the starting pitchers began to take control in game one of the doubleheader. Joey Lucchesi battled his way into a solid (albeit shorter) outing, allowing two runs on three hits with five walks and four strikeouts. Lucchesi did a great job limiting potential landmines, leaving five RailRiders runners on base in his outing.
Will Warren was solid on the other side for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, allowing just two hits and one run in his first four innings of work with five swinging strikeouts on a wicked sweeping breaking ball. However, it unraveled a bit in the fifth for Warren and the RailRiders. Ritter reached on a two-base error and Nido singled to put runners on first and third base with nobody out, chasing Warren from the game in the process. Tanner Tully came in to try and put out the fire, but he promptly tossed a wild pitch on the second pitch he threw that allowed Ritter to sprint home and knot the game up, 2-2.
It remained tied at two into the top of the seventh inning, the last regulation frame as part of a Minor League doubleheader. In the top of the seventh, the Mets completed their rally from an early deficit to nab game one of the doubleheader. After Nido flied out to start the inning, Luisangel Acuña singled to put one on with one out. After a Drew Gilbert pop out, Mark Vientos sealed the deal with an opposite-field homer that drove in two and made it a 4-2 game in favor of the Syracuse Mets for good. It was the second big fly of the season for Vientos.
Yacksel Ríos earned the save in the bottom of the seventh, but it didn’t come without intrigue. Ríos walked the leadoff batter Lockridge and then walked Carlos Narvaez with two outs, bringing the potential winning run to the plate in the form of Everson Pereira. However, Ríos wouldn’t be denied, inducing a lazy flyout from Pereira to ensure that the Mets would win game one of the doubleheader. It was Ríos’ second save in the last three games.
Much like game one of the doubleheader, game two started curiously for Syracuse (4-3), who once again fell behind early. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (3-4) plated two runs quickly off of Mets spot starter Nate Lavender – a Brandon Lockridge walk and a Jose Rojas two-run homer surged the RailRiders to a 2-0 lead three batters into the game. Lavender wiggled out of the rest of the first and then recorded one more out in the second, finishing his short one and one-third inning start with one hit allowed, one earned run, three walks, and three strikeouts. Lavender, a normal reliever, also started a game in spot duty last season.
The second game of the doubleheader remained 2-0 all the way until the top of the seventh inning, the last scheduled inning in a doubleheader. From that point on, the game turned utterly wacky. First, in the top of the seventh, the Mets scored five runs on four hits, sending ten men to the plate. However, just one of the runs was earned, as the flurry of Syracuse runs began on a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre mistake. With a runner on first base and one out in a 2-0 game, Matt O’Neill chopped a grounder to shortstop that appeared destined to end the game. However, Caleb Durbin booted the ball that could have provided an inning-ending double play, keeping two Mets runners on base with one out. From there, Trayce Thompson had a two-run single to tie the game, Jimain Choi had a sacrifice fly to hand Syracuse the lead, Yolmer Sanchez provided another run on a double and Ben Gamel brought in the final Mets run of the seventh on a single to make it a 5-2 ballgame.
In the bottom of the seventh, it all unraveled for the Syracuse Mets, as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored three runs to tie the game. Kolton Ingram walked the first four batters he faced to push across a run, and the very next batter, Caleb Durbin, singled off the new Mets pitcher David Griffin to tie the game, 5-5. However, to Griffin’s credit, he retired the next three batters in order to send the game into extras.
In the eighth inning (the first extra inning in a doubleheader), the game somehow got stranger. The RailRiders ran out of pitchers, forcing position player Josh VanMeter to come in and pitch. He promptly allowed four more runs on three hits plus two errors as the Mets sent nine more men to the plate. The highlight of the inning, oddly enough, was a two-run sacrifice fly from Trayce Thompson that scored Luke Ritter from third base and Luisangel Acuña from second.
In the bottom of the eighth, David Griffin recorded the final three outs while allowing just one run to mercifully hand Syracuse a 9-6 win and a doubleheader sweep. Griffin had just joined the Syracuse squad earlier on Saturday. He has now spent part of the last three seasons with the Syracuse Mets.
Syracuse wraps up its week at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders with a Sunday afternoon matinee. The fifth and final game of the series is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. with right-hander Mike Vasil slated to start for Syracuse opposed by right-hander Cody Poteet for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.