Unforced errors doom Mets in 6-4 loss to IronPigs on Thursday night

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets were haunted by mistakes on Thursday night, walking 13 batters and committing three errors in the midst of a 6-4 loss to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Triple-A Philadelphia Phillies) on Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium. The Mets have now lost four games in a row and the first two games in the six-game series.

Syracuse (14-15) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when DJ Stewart smacked a no-doubt solo home run that sailed over the Salt City deck and beyond the right-field fence with ease. Lehigh Valley (14-14) would tie it right back up in the top of the third, manufacturing a run when Jim Haley singled to start the inning, stole his way to second, advanced to third on another single, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Dustin Peterson, knotting the game, 1-1.

The IronPigs jumped in front in the next two innings, scoring once in the fourth and two times in the fifth. In the fourth, Jhailyn Ortiz doubled to start the inning and scored later in the frame on an RBI single from Aramis Garcia to make it a 2-1 game.

In the fifth, John Hicks walked to start the inning and then scored when the next batter, Weston Wilson, hit a two-run home run over the left-field fence for a 4-1 advantage. Those four runs would be all the runs that Syracuse’s starter, David Peterson, would allow in his first Triple-A start of the season. The former Oregon Duck allowed six hits in his five innings of work, walking five and striking out four total batters. Peterson had made his first six starts of the season up with the New York Mets.

The Mets would not lay down on this night, scoring once in the fifth and once in the sixth to get within a run and make it a 4-3 ballgame. In the fifth, Tim Locastro (in his first game of an MLB rehab assignment with Syracuse) singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a balk, and scored on Ronny Mauricio’s sacrifice fly. In the sixth, Stewart went deep again, over solo blast over the right-field fence for his second home run of the night.

In the seventh and eighth, the IronPigs took advantage of sloppy Syracuse play and took the lead for good with another pair of runs to make it a 6-3 game. In the seventh, Wilson and Ortiz walked to start the frame and put two runners on base with nobody out. After Scott Kingery dropped down on a sacrifice bunt to move each runner up 90 feet, Garcia hit a ground ball to shortstop that looked destined to create an out. Wilson was running on contact from third base to home plate, and Jonathan Araúz threw home to try and nab Wilson and save a run. However, his throw was low and skittered to the backstop, allowing Wilson to score on the throwing error to make it a 5-3 ballgame.

In the eighth, Jake Cave walked with one out, prompting T.J. McFarland to come out of the bullpen to try and put out the fire. The left-handed reliever promptly caught Cave leaning off first base, throwing to first base as Cave took off for second. Mark Vientos promptly threw to second to try and complete the pickoff, but Araúz and Mauricio collided trying to both make the catch, leading to another error and Cave taking second. Later in the frame, Ortiz grounded a single into left field to score Cave and push the Lehigh Valley lead to three, 6-3.

Syracuse kept the comeback hopes alive late with a two-out, RBI double from Jaylin Davis in the eighth that scored Danny Mendick, trimming the deficit to two, 6-4. Davis has three extra-base hits and five runs driven in during the first two games of this week’s series.

However, in the ninth, the Mets went down in order to end the game quietly and compete the 6-4 loss. On the night, Syracuse made three errors, walked 13 batters, and left six runners on base in a frustrating defeat.

Syracuse continues its six-game series against Lehigh Valley with the third game of the series on Friday at 6:35 p.m.