Vientos homers, but Syracuse falls to Columbus, 7-5, on Friday night

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets rallied back twice but never quite finished the deal on Friday night, dropping a 7-5 final to the Columbus Clippers on a sunny start to the weekend in the Salt City. The six-game series is now tied at two games apiece.

Mike Vasil entered Friday night’s start for Syracuse (12-11) in dire need of a solid outing with an ERA more than 11 in his first four outings during the 2024 season. It didn’t start ideally, as Columbus (10-14) plated a run in the first. Myles Straw singled to begin the top of the first inning and promptly moved to second with nobody out when Vasil committed a throwing error on a poor pickoff attempt to first base. From there, the Clippers showcased strong situational baseball, as Juan Brito grounded out to second base to move Straw to third, and then Straw scored on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Manzardo for a 1-0 lead.

In the second, the issues continued for Vasil. José Tena doubled to lead off the inning, promptly swiping his way to third base after his leadoff double. Dom Nuñez flied out to produce one out, but then two walks plus a strikeout loaded up the bases with two outs. Manzardo then came back to the plate and drew a bases-loaded walk, plating Tena and making it a 2-0 game.

Vasil did get the final out of the second on the next batter, but he was forced to be pulled from the game early due to a quickly rising pitch count. In two innings of work, Vasil threw 70 pitches, only 35 of which were strikes. Vasil walked four, allowed three hits, and struck out two. Vasil has now allowed 19 earned runs in 15 and two-thirds innings of work this season.

Tyler Jay came out of the bullpen for the Mets and surrendered another run in the third. Tena was in the thick of the action again – his one-out double plated Daniel Schneemann and turned it into a 3-0 game.

Syracuse wouldn’t take that lying down, as the Mets tied it right back up in the bottom of the third. With one out, Luisangel Acuña lined a drive into the right-field corner and got on his horse, sprinting all the way to third to earn a one-out triple. After a Ben Gamel walk put two on base with one out, Mark Vientos came to the plate and did damage. Vientos got a 3-2 pitch to his liking and crushed it, smoking a no-doubt, game-tying three-run homer over the left-field fence, knotting the game up, 3-3. It was Vientos’ fifth home run of the season.

In the top of the fifth, the Clippers regained the lead. With one out, Schneemann doubled and then scored when the next batter, Tena, brought him home with a groundball single into left field to make it a 4-3 game.

Columbus tacked on with another run in the sixth. Brito walked with one out, moved to second on a two-out balk, and scored on a two-out RBI double from Johnathan Rodriguez that advanced the lead back up to two runs, 5-3.

Yet again, the Mets rallied right back to tie the game up via the big fly. It was a pair of solo shots in the bottom of the seventh that turned it into a 5-5 game. With one out, Ben Gamel crushed a drive over the right-field fence at 103 miles per hour off his bat to make it a 5-4 game. Then, two batters later, Rylan Bannon launched one over the left-field wall at 106 miles per hour off his bat to make it a 5-5 game in the blink of an eye. It was the fifth home run of the season for Gamel and the fourth homer of the campaign for Bannon.

In the top of the eighth, the Clippers took the lead right back via yet another long ball. This one came off Jhonkensy Noel’s bat for a go-ahead, two-run homer that propelled Columbus to a 7-5 advantage. It was the third homer run of the season for Noel, who is known for his power. Noel hit 27 home runs with the Clippers during the 2023 season.

The Columbus bullpen sealed the deal from there as Franco Aleman pitched a scoreless eighth and Peter Strzelecki worked a 1-2-3 ninth to ensure the Clippers would win yet again. Their relievers have been excellent the last two nights. Eight pitchers have combined to allow just two earned runs in eight and two-thirds innings on four hits with 15 strikeouts.

Syracuse is home all week against the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, the Columbus Clippers. Game five of the six-game series is scheduled for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch on Saturday with right-hander Max Kranick scheduled to start for the Mets in his Triple-A debut in the New York Mets organization.