Mets fall to hot-hitting RailRiders, 12-4, on Thursday 

Syracuse, NY –The Syracuse Mets ran into a buzzsaw on Thursday night, as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders thumped out 12 runs on 14 hits en route to a 12-4 win over the Mets on a sunny night at NBT Bank Stadium. Syracuse has still won two of the first three games in the seven-game series.

Syracuse (20-35) scored the game’s first run, plating one tally in the bottom of the first. Matt Rudick doubled to lead off the frame. Three batters later, with two outs, Daniel Palka ensured Rudick wouldn’t stay stuck at second, scoring him on a two-out single into left field for a 1-0 Mets lead. Palka has had an excellent start to this week’s series, hitting a three-run home run in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader.

After that, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (20-36) roared in front for good. The RailRiders scored six runs on six hits in the second inning, sending ten batters to the plate in the process. Five extra-base hits highlighted the frame for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, including four doubles followed by a two-run home run for Miguel Andujar. Three of the two-baggers drove in runs – Derek Dietrich, Jose Peraza and Estevan Florial all brought home teammates with their doubles as the RailRiders took a 6-1 advantage.

The scoring remained consistent for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre throughout the night as they would tack on one run in the third, two runs in the fourth, another run in the sixth, and two final tallies in the seventh for their 12 total runs of the night. Some highlights for the RailRiders: Florial finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, a home run, two runs scored, and five runs driven in. Greg Bird hit an opposite-field, two-run home run in the fourth. Philip Evans went 2-for-5 with a double and a home run. Most impressively, all but one of their starters reached base at least once, and eight different players scored runs.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Syracuse on this night, however. Cody Bohanek finished the game 2-for-4 with a double, his fifth multi-hit game of the season. Rudick also had two hits plus a double in his first-career Triple-A start. JT Riddle had the biggest blow of the game for the Mets, curling a two-run homer around the right-field foul pole in the bottom of the sixth that made it a 10-3 game at the time. It was the first homer for Riddle in nine games with Syracuse this season. Riddle began the season with Louisville, the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

Down 12-3 in the eighth, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs, and Travis Blankenhorn worked a bases-loaded walk to trim the deficit to eight, 12-4. A strikeout followed as Syracuse stranded the bases loaded.

Syracuse continues its jam-packed stretch of seven games in five days against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, on Friday afternoon. The Mets will play their second doubleheader in three days, with first pitch of the first game of the doubleheader set for 4:05 p.m. Nate Fisher is scheduled to make the start in game one for the Mets, opposed by Jhony Brito for the RailRiders. Game two will start approximately 40 minutes after the first game. Jose Rodriguez is slated to start the second game of the doubleheader for Syracuse.