RailRiders come back to beat Chiefs

The Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate for the Washington Nationals, lost to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 6-4, on Tuesday. Syracuse scored four runs in the third inning, but Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tallied the final six runs of the game.

Syracuse (24-34) got on the board first in the third inning. With one out, Brian Jeroloman singled into center field. He advanced to second on a bunt single by Eury Perez. The next batter, Chris Rahl, hit a three-run home run over the right-field wall and the Chiefs led 3-0. The next two hitters reached and, following an out, Mike Costanzo singled to center field to score another run and put Syracuse up 4-0.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (26-31) came right back in the bottom of the inning. After Chiefs starter Jeff Mandel got the first two batters out, he gave up back-to-back singles to Thomas Neal and Zoilo Almonte. That brought up Ronnier Mustelier, who singled to center field to score the RailRiders' first run of the game. The next batter, Dan Johnson, singled in Almonte and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre cut the deficit to 4-2.

The RailRiders continued their rally in the fourth. Melky Mesa and Addison Maruszak started the inning with back-to-back home runs, each on the first pitch. The long balls tied the game at four.

In the sixth, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre took the lead. Mesa led off with a single and stole second base. Maruszak then tripled to center field to score Mesa and give the RailRiders their first lead of the game. Following a groundout, Alberto Gonzalez singled to left field to score Maruszak and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre took a 6-4 lead.

Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre wrap up their brief series in northeast Pennsylvania on Wednesday at 7:05.