Syracuse drops sunny Sunday series finale at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7-2

Moosic, PA – The Syracuse Mets lost the series finale Sunday against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Triple-A affiliate, New York Yankees), falling, 7-2, on a sunny and mid-50s afternoon outside of the Electric City. Despite the defeat, the Mets still won the series, as they took three of the five games played.

It was a sleepy Sunday early on as neither team had a hit in the first three and a half innings. In the bottom of the fourth, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (4-4) awoke from its slumber, plating three runs on three hits plus a walk to nab a 3-0 lead. It all started with a Luis Torrens double, followed by a Kevin Smith bunt single that put runners on first and third with nobody out. After a flyout by Jeter Downs to shallow center field that kept the runners at their bases, Luis Gonzalez walked to load up the bases. Then, Jordan Groshans sliced a single into right field that scored Torrens and Smith plus moved Gonzalez to third. Gonzalez then scored on a sacrifice fly from Caleb Durbin to complete the three-run flurry for the RailRiders in the bottom of the fourth, 3-0.

In the top of the fifth, Syracuse (4-4) bounced right back with a powerful flurry of its own. Ben Gamel and Luke Ritter hit back-to-back solo home runs, making it a 3-2 game in the blink of an eye. It was the first homer of the season for Ritter and the second of the season of Gamel, both of which have come this week. Gamel had hits in each of the four games he played in during the series, going 6-for-13 at the plate with a double, two home runs, four runs driven in, and four runs scored.

Unfortunately for the Mets, they wouldn’t score again as the RailRiders’ pitching staff shut the door from there. Syracuse did not score in the final four innings despite four hits and three runners left on base. The highlight for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre bullpen was Alex Mauricio who wowed the crowd in his Triple-A debut. The 27-year-old right-hander tossed two and one-third scoreless innings on just three hits, striking out five and not walking a single Mets batter.

The RailRiders put the game away with one run in the seventh and three more runs in the eighth with a familiar face in the middle of all of that scoring. Durbin doubled leading off the seventh, stole his way to third, and scored on a wild pitch. In the eighth, with the bases loaded and one out, Durbin smoked another double down the left-field line, scoring all three runners to make it a 7-2 game. Durbin stuffed the scorebook all week long, finishing the series 9-for-16 at the plate with two doubles, a triple, a home run, four walks, ten runs driven in, five runs scored, and five stolen bases.

After its week in Scranton, the Mets now return home for a six-game series against the Worcester Red Sox at NBT Bank Stadium all next week. In conjunction with the solar eclipse on Monday, Syracuse will play a special Monday late afternoon game with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 p.m. The Mets’ scheduled off day now shifts to Tuesday, with the series slated to resume on Wednesday.