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IL1 Syracuse Mets

Martinson Nudges Chiefs Past Clippers

May 1, 2015 - International League (IL1)
Syracuse Mets News Release


Syracuse, NY (May 1, 2015) - The Syracuse Chiefs, Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, defeated the Columbus Clippers, 3-2, on Friday evening at NBT Bank Stadium. Jason Martinson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Chiefs a lead they would not surrender.

Syracuse (8-14) scored first in the first in its return home to NBT Bank Stadium after a seven-game road trip. Shortstop Emmanuel Burriss led off the inning with a single. After a Burriss steal and a Tony Gwynn Jr. walk, Mark Minicozzi chopped a ground ball to shortstop. The first out was recorded at second, but Michael Martinez airmailed the throw to Jesus Aguilar into the first-base dugout to allow Burriss to score and Mincozzi to move to second. The throwing error gave the Chiefs an early 1-0 lead.

The Chiefs added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning against Mike Roth. After recording the first two outs in the frame, Roth surrendered a triple to deep right field to Gwynn. Minicozzi followed with a tapper up the third-base line. He reached on an infield single as Aguilar failed to keep his foot on the base on the throw from Giovanny Urshela, which allowed Gwynn to score the second Syracuse run.

Columbus (11-11) answered with two runs against Syracuse starter Bruce Billings to chase him from the game in the sixth inning. Aguilar led off the frame with a double to left-center field and advanced to third base on a Zach Walters groundout to second. James Ramsey plated the first Clipper run with a sacrifice fly to center field. Adam Moore evened the score with a two-out RBI double to tie the game at two.

With Roth tiring in the sixth inning, Syracuse took advantage of the Columbus starter. Martinson, who had hit two homers in the previous homestand, parked his fourth home run of the season over the right-field fence. The opposite-field shot gave Syracuse a 3-2 lead over Columbus at the end of six innings.

The Chiefs' bullpen was dominant in relief of Billings. Three relievers combined for three and one-third innings of shutout ball. Rich Hill, who came into Friday with 17 strikeouts in 10 innings out of the bullpen, added two more strikeouts to his tally in his one inning of relief. Eric Fornataro added one and one-third innings of scoreless baseball, lowering his season ERA down to 3.60.

Evan Meek closed the door as he upped his consecutive-scoreless-innings streak to 20 and one-third with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Meek fanned two Clippers in the top of the ninth to nail down his third save of the season.

Syracuse plays game two of a three-game set with Columbus tomorrow at 1:05 pm. Right-hander Taylor Jordan is set to throw for Syracuse against Clippers left-handed veteran Bruce Chen.

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