Rochester roars ahead, then hangs on late in 9-7 win over Syracuse on Thursday

Syracuse, NY –The Syracuse Salt Potatoes fell victim to hot late-game hitting from the Rochester Plates on Thursday night in the Duel of the Dishes, as the Plates scored eight of the game’s final ten runs on their way to a 9-7 win over the Salt Potatoes on a warm and sunny night at NBT Bank Stadium. Rochester has now won two of the first three games in the six-game series.

Early on, Syracuse (15-28) got off to an excellent start. After a scoreless top of the first, Jake Mangum doubled leading off the bottom of the first. Khalil Lee promptly came to the plate and left the yard, smacking an opposite-field home run over the wall in left-center field for a 2-0 Syracuse advantage. Lee is a combined four-for-seven in the past two games with a double, a home run, and three RBIs. The outfielder has also reached base a combined six times in nine plate appearances in the past two games.

Rochester (28-17) got its first run of the evening across home plate in the top of the second via a solo home run by Andrew Young. It was one of just three hits that Syracuse starter Tim Adleman would give up in a solid short start. The right-hander surrendered just the one run in three innings of work with no walks and two strikeouts.

Syracuse maintained its 2-1 lead until the bottom of the sixth, when the Salt Potatoes took advantage of clutch hitting and spotty Rochester defense to score three times and extend their lead up to 5-1 after six innings. Early in the frame, it looked like the Salt Potatoes wouldn’t mount much offense as Mark Vientos stood on first base with two outs. Then, the fun began. Nick Dini and Gosuke Katoh hit back-to-back doubles to drive home Vientos and eventually Dini. The inning wouldn’t end there – with Katoh on second two outs, Cody Bohanek chopped a ground ball to Rochester shortstop Luis Garcia who promptly threw the ball away down the first-base line, allowing Katoh to prance home and complete the scoring in the frame with Syracuse in front, 5-1.

After that, Rochester made what would prove to be its winning charge. The Plates scored the game’s next eight runs, plating three runs in the seventh and five more tallies in the eighth to roar ahead 9-5. Highlights from the late-scoring barrage for Rochester: Joey Meneses hit a solo home run in the seventh and a go-ahead, three-run shot in the eighth. Meneses has now hit five home runs this season against Syracuse, including three so far in this series. Tres Barrera plated three runs in the two innings, with an RBI single in the seventh and a two-run double in the eighth. Six different Plates players scored at least one run in the seventh and eighth innings. 16 batters came to the plate combined between the two potent innings.

In the ninth, the Salt Potatoes went down swinging. Jake Mangum began the inning with a single, putting a capper on what was another brilliant night at the plate. The former Mississippi State Bulldog finished the game 4-for-5 with two doubles and two runs scored. In his first three Triple-A games, Mangum has a combined eight hits. After a pop out, Carlos Rincon doubled to left field and advanced Mangum to third, who then sprinted home and scored on a wild pitch with Vientos at the plate. Vientos then laced a ball off the base of the right-field wall that scored Rincon, but Vientos was thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double. That effectively took the wind out of Syracuse’s comeback sails. Travis Blankenhorn was the next batter, and he popped out to end the game with Syracuse falling, 9-7.

Syracuse continues its six-game series against Rochester on Friday night, with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. at NBT Bank Stadium. Félix Peña is scheduled to start for the Mets, opposed by Jackson Tetreault for the Red Wings.