Bulls Fall 5-3 In Syracuse; Drop Series To Mets

Syracuse, NY --- Dilson Herrera homered twice to lead the Syracuse Mets past the Durham Bulls 5-3 on Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium.
Durham's Emilio Bonifácio homered in the third inning to give Josh Fleming a 1-0 lead in his Triple-A debut, but the Mets (61-61) clubbed three homers in a two inning span. After permitting just one hit over his first three innings, Fleming surrendered two homers in a three-batter span in the fourth as the Mets took a 3-1 lead. Herrera tied the game with a home run to left-center, with René Rivera walking ahead of a two-run shot from Danny Espinosa to give Syracuse a two-run lead.
In the fifth, Herrera homered again, this time with two outs against Fleming (L, 0-1).
Durham (68-54) scored twice in the sixth inning to close to within 5-3. Jason Coats singled home Kean Wong, who had walked to start the inning. Nate Lowe later scored on a groundout to first base by Bonifacio, but Durham stranded two baserunners.
The Bulls manufactured major threats in the eighth and ninth, but left the bases loaded in both innings as the Mets won the series 2-1.
With Durham's loss, coupled with Charlotte's win over Scranton, the Bulls' lead in the wild card race shrank to 1/2 game. First place Gwinnett was swept by Columbus, allowing Durham to close to within 2 1/2, with Charlotte 3 games back.
Durham's road trip swings to Buffalo on Friday night at 7:05 PM ET.