Walk It Off: Brantly's blast beats Mets

MOOSIC, Pa. (June 16, 2021) – Rob Brantly cracked a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning on Wednesday night at PNC Field as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders came from behind to defeat the Syracuse Mets. It was the first walk-off win of the season for the RailRiders.

Yankees No. 5 prospect Luis Gil made his Triple-A debut, facing a Syracuse lineup featuring three MLB rehabbers in Michael Conforto, Albert Almora Jr., and Jeff McNeil. The right-hander allowed two runs in the top of the first, but settled in after that.

Meanwhile, the RailRiders struck for two runs of their own in the bottom of the first against Thomas Szapucki. Greg Allen walked and scored on a wild pitch, and Estevan Florial singled and scored on an RBI base hit from Robinson Chirinos to tie the game at 2-2.

The Mets struck for three runs in the top of the fifth on two home runs against Gil. Travis Blankenhorn connected for a two-run homer, and Orlando Calixte followed with a solo shot. Gil finished day having allowed five runs on seven hits in 5.0 innings of work, striking out four and walking three.

He left in line for the win as the RailRiders struck for four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. An RBI single for Thomas Milone and a two-run, two-base error by Mets first baseman Drew Jackson off an Andrew Velazquez groundball supplied the fireworks in the stanza.

The lead was short-lived as Syracuse rallied for two runs off Brooks Kriske in the top of the sixth to take a 7-6 advantage. The RailRiders threatened in their next at-bats, but finally broke through in the bottom of the ninth against Yennsy Diaz. Hoy Park brought in Milone with an RBI single to tie the game at 7-7.

Nick Goody (4-1) pitched a scoreless top of the 10th to set the stage for Brantly’s heroics in the bottom of the frame. Automatic runner Estevan Florial began the inning at second base, and Trey Amburgey drew a leadoff walk. Following a sacrifice bunt from Max McDowell, Brantly unloaded on a 1-1 pitch and deposited it over the right field wall.

WALK IT OFF! pic.twitter.com/6xaUDO3qvi

— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) June 17, 2021

POSTGAME NOTES: It was the second extra-inning game of the season for the RailRiders, both coming in the last four contests. SWB is 2-0 in those games… The game took four hours and one minute to play, the fourth-longest contest of the season and the third time the RailRiders and Mets have had a game last longer than four hours this year… Amburgey finished the game 1-for-5 with a walk and two runs scored to extend his on-base streak to 28 games.

The RailRiders continue their series with the Mets on Thursday night at PNC Field. RHP Brody Koerner (1-3, 4.45) for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, while Syracuse counters with RHP Cory Oswalt (1-0, 2.79). For tickets and more information, call (570) 969-BALL or slide to www.swbrailriders.com/tickets.