Syracuse Mets take lead against Railriders, lose 8th game in a row
Moosic, Pa. – The Syracuse Mets couldn’t end their long losing streak, falling 12-6 to the Scranton / Wilkes Barre RailRiders after relinquishing a five-point lead Tuesday night at PNC Field. Travis Blankenhorn scored for Syracuse and got four RBIs for the Mets in the loss.
The Mets have lost eight straight games.
Syracuse (11-26) saw his offense explode early in the first set, scoring five points on the RailRiders. Jeff McNeil, who was playing Game 1 of his MLB rehab assignment, started the round with a single down center field. Then Albert Almora Jr., who is also on a rehabilitation mission, traced a march. With two asses and no outs, Khalil Lee struck out. Blankenhorn followed and hit a three-run homerun off the right-field wall in his first at-bat with Syracuse to give the Mets a 5-0 lead.
The RailRiders (24-11) managed to climb the board late in the first period when Estevan Florial started off with a solo homerun and scored 5-1 with the Mets still ahead.
In the second, the Mets quickly regained their five-point lead. Almora started the round with a single. Lee followed and found himself in the choice of a defensive player where Almora was absent at second base, but Lee was safe early on. Lee then stole the second base and advanced to third on a catch error by wide receiver Robinson Chirinos. Next, Blankenhorn scored his fourth point of the game with a sacrificial volley to center field to score Lee and increase the Mets’ lead to 6-1.
The game saw no other inning until the fifth inning where Florial hit a two-out double to right field. Hoy Park then delivered an RBI single to bring Scranton / Wilkes-Barre down to four, 6-2. It turned out to be the last round for Mets starter Akeem Bostick, who had a solid outing. The right-hander finished with five innings pitched, allowing two runs on five hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
The RailRiders offensive came to life in the seventh. With Armando Alvarez in third and Florial in first, Park had a two-run treble to score Alvarez and Florial and bring the RailRiders down to two, 6-4. Trey Amburgey then hit a sacrificial volley to right field to bring Park home and reduce the deficit to one, 6-5.
In the eighth, Chirinos led the RailRiders with a brace and was replaced in second by pinch runner Greg Allen. Then Derek Dietrich walked. Rob Brantly then scored for Allen and tied the game, 6-6, as Dietrich moved up to third. Alvarez called and hit a sacrificial volley through the deep center to score Dietrich and give Scranton / Wilkes-Barre their first lead, 7-6. With one out, Velazquez doubled down in right field and Brantly advanced to third. Florial then continued their stellar night, snatching a brace down the center to score Brantly and Velazquez and increase the RailRiders’ lead to three, 9-6. Amburgey hit a sacrifice fly to score Florial and bring the score to 10-6. That wasn’t all, however, for Scranton / Wilkes Barre in the eighth. Allen and Dietrich joined in with RBI singles to give the RailRiders a 12-6 lead and complete what was an eighth inning of seven runs.
The Mets now have to wait until Wednesday night for another chance to end the losing streak. The second game of the series between Syracuse and Scranton / Wilkes-Barre will take place at 7:05 pm from PNC Field.