Rainin' Homers: Florial goes deep twice in sixth straight win
MOOSIC, PA (July 2, 2022) –The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (35-42) defeated the Buffalo Bisons 4-3 in a rain-shortened game on Saturday evening for their sixth consecutive victory. Estevan Florial hit two solo home runs and has now gone yard four times in this series. After an 18-minute delay before first pitch,
MOOSIC, PA (July 2, 2022) –The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (35-42) defeated the Buffalo Bisons 4-3 in a rain-shortened game on Saturday evening for their sixth consecutive victory. Estevan Florial hit two solo home runs and has now gone yard four times in this series.
After an 18-minute delay before first pitch, Buffalo struck for three in the first against RailRiders’ starter Hayden Wesneski. Cullen Large and Nick Podkul combined to drive in the three runs for the Bisons as part of a four-baserunner inning.
The RailRiders responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the frame. Florial led off the inning with his eighth home run of the season. Tim Locastro followed that with a triple and was then brought home on a sacrifice fly from Greg Bird to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Scranton Wilkes-Barre jumped in front with two runs in the third. Florial launched his second big fly of the game to right to tie the game at three. Florial is 9-for-16 with eight extra-base hits this series.
Flo with an absolute bomb for his second homer of the game. pic.twitter.com/DAWsouEnyv
— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) July 2, 2022
Two batters later, Oswald Peraza hit his team-leading tenth home run of the campaign to make it 4-3 SWB.
Oswald Peraza with our third homer in three innings. pic.twitter.com/MJz09cZdRP
— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) July 2, 2022
The game went into a rain delay midway through the top of the fifth with two on and one out. Wesneski returned to the mound after the 15-minute stoppage and proceeded to retire the next two batters he faced to get through the inning. Wesneski allowed three runs over those five frames of work with a season-high nine strikeouts.
Shane Greene entered from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre bullpen and pitched a scoreless sixth before the rain started falling yet again. Following another half-hour delay, the game was ultimately called after six innings in the 4-3 final. Wesneski (3-7) earned the win for SWB. Shane Greene (2) picked up his second save of the week. Bowden Francis (5-7) suffered the loss for the Bisons.
The RailRiders will go for their first series sweep of the season on Sunday with first pitch at 1:05 PM. Jhony Brito (2-1, 2.48 ERA) takes the mound for SWB in his second start of the set. It’s Sunday Family FunDay, presented by Geisinger and Q92. Kids can play catch on the field from noon to 12:20 PM, get $2 Dippin’ Dots and Mamita’s Ices all game long and can run the bases after the final out. Tickets are available at swbrailriders.com.