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IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

April 16, 2015 - International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


LAST TIME OUT: The RailRiders jumped out to an early lead, but the Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota Twins) scored nine of the game's final 10 runs to pull out an 11-6 victory on Wednesday afternoon at PNC Field. The Red Wings (5-1) swept the three-game set.

FULL BLOOM: One of the silver linings from the loss was the play of outfielder Ramon Flores. His southpaw swing generated a pair of home runs to give him a team-best three on the young year. Flores had been in a 1-for-18 funk since he hit for the cycle against Syracuse on Opening Night until his first blast yesterday. He had a pair of games with two homers in 2014. The most recent occasion before Wednesday came on Aug. 24, also against the Red Wings. Coincidentally enough, his second home run that day at Frontier Field also came against reliever Stephen Pryor.

...BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Flores also notched his second outfield assist of the year when he cut James Beresford down at the plate on Eric Fryer's single to end the top of the eighth. His dime kept the game tied, 6-6. Flores notched eight assists in 56 games as an outfielder with last year's RailRiders. Despite the low number of games played, his assist total ranked among the top 10 in the 14-team International League. His 13 dimes with Double-A Trenton in 2013 ranked him fourth in the Eastern League.

WHAT GOES UP: Tyler Austin hit third in the order for the first time with SWB, but he endured a rare bad day. Austin went 0-for-4 with a walk and wore the golden sombrero for the first time in his now 356-game pro career with four strikeouts. He co-leads the team in hits (8) and outright paces the club in RBIs (7). Usual three-hole hitter Rob Refsnyder got his first day off of the season. Austin has hit fifth most often through the RailRiders' first week of play, a spot he saw more than any other with Double-A Trenton last year (46 times in 105 games played). He was the regular three-hole stick for the Thunder in 2013 (76 times in 83 games played).

ROCKY START: SWB has not started seasons particularly well since adopting the nickname RailRiders. In 2013 the record stood at 1-6 through seven games en route to a fifth-place finish and a 68-76 mark. In 2014, the club was 3-4 through seven contests and again finished in fifth place at 68-76. But bad beginnings don't always lead to rough finishes. The 2012 SWB Yankees began the year 2-5 and rebounded to win the division at 84-60.

LET'S GET SERIESOUS: The RailRiders' first sweep of 2015 came in their second set, a PNC Field-based three-gamer at the hands of the Red Wings. SWB's first sweep setback a season ago also came in its second series of the year when the Red Wings took three in a row at Rochester. The RailRiders have lost 17 of 22 to the Red Wings going back to 2013.

OUT OF BALANCE: For the first time in the RailRiders era, SWB plays an unbalanced schedule. The IL docket had seen the club face its divisional brothers 16 times (eight home/eight road) and its non-divisional foes eight times (four home/four road). This year proves uneven in an effort to aid travel. The RailRiders and Red Wings will collide 20 times in 2015 with the meetings split evenly by location. That makes Rochester SWB's most frequent 2015 foe. Here is the breakdown for the RailRiders' schedule this season against their divisional opponents: Rochester (20); Pawtucket (19); Lehigh Valley (18); Buffalo (17); Syracuse (16).

OFF THE RAILS: The RailRiders' four home runs this season have all been solo shots...With three dingers in seven team games, Flores finds himself on pace to club 62 home runs this season...He has hit more home runs than six IL teams and stands tied with Charlotte and Lehigh Valley...SWB pitching has struck out 67 men in 63 innings, good for the third-most strikeouts in the league.

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