IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on August 3, 2018 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


BUFFALO BISONS (48-59) vs. SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (57-51)

LHP Matt Tracy (0-0, 2.20) vs. LHP Nestor Cortes (4-5, 3.89)

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| Game No. 109 | Friday August 3, 2018 | PNC Field | Moosic, PA |

| First Pitch 7:05 p.m. | Pregame Show 6:35 p.m. |

LAST TIME OUT: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Rochester Red Wings with a 6-2 win Thursday afternoon at Frontier Field.

Mike Ford was the fourth batter of the game in the top of the 1st inning for the RailRiders. He had Ronald Torreyes aboard after he had walked with one out, and Ford crushed a home run off the luxury suites in right-centerfield for a 2-0 lead. Torreyes finished 2-for-4 with a walk, run scored and an RBI as one of four RailRiders with a multi-hit game (Abiatal Avelino, Devyn Bolasky and Francisco Diaz).

Even though Rochester responded with a run in the bottom of the first inning they never drew closer than 2-1. In the 4th inning SWB added three more runs to open up a 5-1 lead en route to the 6-2 win.

Justus Sheffield earns the win for SWB and improves to 5-3 on the season. He twirls 5.2 innings and scatters three hits with one run allowed while striking out seven Red Wings batters. It was the fifth straight start where the southpaw allowed one earned run or less dating back to June 22. Since then, his season ERA has dropped from 3.26 to 2.37.

RHP David Sosebee made his Triple-A debut in back of Sheffield, and was immediately thrust into a jam. With the bases loaded he recorded the final out, and then proceeded to go an additional two innings allowing just a solo home run with two outs in the 8th.

SHUFFLING THE DECK: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders continue to have a flurry of roster moves as the calendar moves past the trade deadline. The RailRiders have announced 34 overall between Wednesday morning and the start of Thursday's game, largely a result of a quintet of trades. Overall, it was 76 moves made in the month of July and a total of 211 roster moves announced over the first 108 games of the season.

WADE WELCOMED BACK: Tyler Wade was recalled to the big leagues July 27 following Game Two of a suspended doubleheader against the Charlotte Knights. He is a welcome addition back to the lineup for the RailRiders once he reports, as Wade had been hitting the ball well before bouncing back-and-forth to the Yankees. Over his most recent 32G with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Wade is batting .308 (40-for-130) with 10 2B, 3B, 2 HR and 22 R. He joins a roster that is currently without a true CF and could take over some of the responsibilities there with Shane Robinson having been added to the Yankees roster July 27 as well.

DOING THE MATH: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders enter Friday's game against the Buffalo Bisons in 2nd place in the I.L. North, 10.0 games behind the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The RailRiders have 30 games left in their season, and if they were to go 23-7 (.774) down the stretch to reach 80 wins, they'd need Lehigh Valley to play no better than 12-18 (.400) in order to win the division title. Lehigh Valley is 68-42 entering Friday and has a .618 win percentage on the season. Lehigh Valley hasn't had a 30-game stretch this season where they have won fewer than 16 games, going 16-14 (.533) over the first 30G of the season. If Lehigh Valley matches that mark, they would finish with 84 wins and SWB would need to finish 27-3 in order to win the division.

GETTING IN POSITION: The RailRiders were 7-5 on April 17, marking the last day they would be on the inside of the playoff cut in the International League for quite a while. It wasn't until July 18 in Toledo that SWB found itself back in the playoff picture (Game No. 94), spanning 82 games and being as many as 6 games under .500 along the way (27-33). Coming into Thursday, the RailRiders are 1.0 game out of a Wild Card spot behind the Norfolk Tides.

Check out the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Statistics

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International League Stories from August 3, 2018


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