Syracuse falters on freezing Friday night in Scranton, falling 8-4

Moosic, PA – The Syracuse Mets fell short on a frigid early April night in Northeastern Pennsylvania, dropping a Friday night game to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 8-4. First pitch temperature was 39 degrees, dipping down near freezing by the end of the game. The five-game series is now tied at a game apiece.

Fresh off Christian Scott’s Triple-A debut on Thursday night, another top Mets pitching prospect made his Syracuse (2-3) debut on Friday night. Dom Hamel toed the slab for the Mets, but his initial outing got off to an inauspicious beginning. Consecutive one-out walks put two runners on base, and after a strikeout put Hamel on the verge of getting out of the inning unscathed, José Rojas roughed him up. Rojas took a hanging breaking ball from Hamel and hit it well beyond the right-field wall, a three-run shot to put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (3-2) up 3-0 in a flash.

Yoendrys Gomez, a highly-touted Yankees prospect in his own right, pitched a clean first inning for the RailRiders, but the second inning was not his friend. The Mets scored twice in a two-batter span – Yolmer Sánchez started the inning with a walk, followed by a Ben Gamel line-drive homer that sailed over the right-field wall in the blink of an eye. The two-run shot made it a 3-2 game and gave Gamel his first home run of the 2024 regular season.

In the bottom of the second, the RailRiders struck again to increase the lead. A single and four walks pushed across two runs and made it a 5-2 game as command issues haunted Hamel. A pair of bases-loaded walks scored the pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning. Those command issues would be what eventually caused Hamel to be pulled from the game early. The 25-year-old issues seven walks in two and two-third innings, allowing five earned runs. The seven walks allowed is a career high. On the positive side, Hamel had three swinging strikeouts and allowed just two hits.

In the top of the fourth, the Mets slimmed the deficit from 5-2 to 5-4 on yet another two-run home run. This time, Austin Allen went deep on a two-out, two-strike pitch to drive in Gamel and make it a just a one-run deficit for the Mets. Gamel had doubled earlier in the inning, finishing the night 3-for-3 with a double, a home run, a single, a walk, two runs scored, and two runs driven in.

From there, the game became a battle of the bullpens, with the RailRiders’ relievers winning the war. Phil Bickford, Cody Morris, Josh Maciejewski, and Ron Marinaccio tossed the final six innings, allowing just two runs on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. The Mets did have their chances to creep back in the ballgame but stranded five runners on base in the last five innings. The Mets also outhit the RailRiders eight to four in the game.

On the other side, the news didn’t get much better with the Syracuse bullpen on this freezing Friday night. Josh Walker, Shintaro Fujinami, Eric Orze, and Jon Duplantier allowed three earned runs in five and one-third innings. While they only allowed two hits and struck out eight, they also combined to issue eight walks. The Mets pitching staff as a whole issued 15 walks in the game, which proved to be a franchise record for the RailRiders in terms of walks drawn by their batters in a game.

The hitting highlight of the night for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was once again Caleb Durbin, who slugged a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 7-4 game and effectively put it out of reach. Durbin has had a remarkable start to the series – he had four hits in the opener on Thursday night and continued his success on Friday night, when he went 2-for-2 with a home run, three walks, three runs driven in, two stolen bases, and three runs scored.

Syracuse continues its week at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders with a Saturday afternoon twin bill. The first game of the doubleheader is scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m. with left-hander Joey Lucchesi slated to start for Syracuse opposed by right-hander Will Warren for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.