Bucs Rally Late, Down Mets 13-5
BRISTOL, Va.-What began as a pitcher's duel Sunday night at Boyce Cox Field ended with the Pirates exploding for nine late runs to take down Kingsport 13-5 in Game 2 of the final road series of the season for the Mets. Kingsport (28-34) is now 6-2 against the Pirates (15-47)
BRISTOL, Va.-What began as a pitcher's duel Sunday night at Boyce Cox Field ended with the Pirates exploding for nine late runs to take down Kingsport 13-5 in Game 2 of the final road series of the season for the Mets.
Kingsport (28-34) is now 6-2 against the Pirates (15-47) on the season as Bristol snapped a five-game winning streak of the Mets in the series. The victory for Bristol was also the fifth of the season at home.
Both
Bristol scored first for the first time in the series when
The game remained tied until the bottom of the sixth when Bristol scraped across two runs off three hits to take a 3-1 lead. Consecutive RBI singles form
The fifth was the end of the line for James as the right-handed pitcher tossed five innings of three-run baseball with nine strikeouts and only one walk. The nine strikeouts tied a season-high for punch outs in a start for James as the hurler allowed only six hits in the outing.
Two outs into the top of the sixth inning, the day was called quits for Bristol's Kranick as the starter allowed only one runs off five hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Both starters did not counter into the decisions Sunday night.
Out of nowhere, the Mets retook the lead in the top of the seventh inning after plating four runs off a three-run triple from
Bristol put forth a rally of their own in the bottom of the frame to grab the lead back after plating five runs off two hits. Jason Day's RBI double and Diorio's three-run single sandwiched a bases-loaded walk from Johan DeJesus to credit the five runs.
In all, the seventh inning saw a combined nine runs off only five hits between the two squads.
Still feeding off the momentum in the inning prior, the Pirates brought in four more runs in the eighth thanks to another two-run double from Diorio, another bases-loaded walk from DeJesus and a sacrifice fly from Purefoy.
Bristol combined in innings seven and eight to plate nine runs off only four hits to go from trailing by a run to leading by eight heading to the top of the ninth inning.
Picking up the loss in relief for the Mets was
Both Diorio and Lantigua tallied three hits on the night for Bristol while the former drove in four runs on the night. DeJesus, Delay and Purefoy all drove in two runs during the Pirate victory as well. For Kingsport, Manzanarez tallied three hits with three RBIs on the night while Dirocie had a multi-hit day a part of a one-RBI and one-run scoring day at the office.
The series finale and the final road game of the season for Kingsport is set to begin Monday evening at 7 p.m.