IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on May 11, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


TOLEDO MUD HENS (13-19) @ SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (17-14)

LHP Matt Hall (2-0, 6.41) vs. RHP Raynel Espinal (0-3, 7.41)

| Game No. 32 | PNC Field | Moosic, PA | May 11, 2019 | First Pitch 4:05 p.m. |

MOOSIC, PA - On a night where MLB rehabber OF Aaron Hicks was in the lineup and leading off, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders fell to the Toledo Mud Hens 12-8 in the first game of the series Friday night at PNC Field.

Toledo established a lead in the top of the first with a sac fly and later getting a Mikie Mahtook homer to center field, making it 3-0 Mud Hens. The RailRiders scored seven times in the lengthy bottom of the second inning to take a 7-3 lead. After a run-scoring wild pitch, Mandy Alvarez doubled on a line drive to left field to plate a run, and then Zack Zehner produced an RBI ground out, evening the score 3-3. Scranton-Wilkes/Barre loaded the bases for the second time in the inning and took the lead with Tyler Wade reaching on a fielding error by first baseman Dustin Peterson for a 4-3 advantage. Another wild pitch added a run and then Ryan McBroom doubled home a pair to give SWB a 7-3 lead.

The Mud Hens answered with a triple from Castro, a sac fly from Josh Lester and another score by Castro to make it a two-run game again, but in the bottom of the third, Trey Amburgey homered to give the RailRiders more breathing room, 8-5. In the top of the fourth inning, Daz Cameron homered on a thundering line drive to center field (Estimated: 439 feet) for the Mud Hens, cutting into the RailRiders advantage and making it 8-6. The game became tied for the second time in the game with Castro singling on a soft line drive and two runs for Toledo - later adding a run, with Toledo reclaiming the lead for good, 9-8.

In the ninth inning, the Mud Hens scored three more times, all unearned runs, and with SWB going down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, the final the score was 12-8.

GETTING OFFENSIVE: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders allowed the Toledo Mud Hens to record a season-high 12 runs on 15 hits, in what was a down day for the pitching staff. The Mud Hens offense however, has been the best in the International League this season, leading the way with a .277 AVG and second best in the league with 5.75 runs per game (Charlotte: 6.36). They also rank 2nd in the league with 38 SB after swiping three bases Friday night (Syracuse: 41 SB) but are tied for last in the league with only 29 HR. In a 14-team league, the RailRiders are one of 7 teams batting over .270 to this point in the year (T-4th, .272 AVG), one season after only one team batted above .260 for the entire 2018 season.

SPOT-STARTER: RHP Raynel Espinal gets the ball Saturday for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders as he takes over the rotation spot normally occupied by LHP Nestor Cortes who is now up in the big leagues. It will mark the third time this season Espinal has started for SWB, with him spinning a gem last time out 5/5 @ Syracuse: 4.0 IP, 4 H, R/ER, 0 BB, 6 K.

RAILREHABBERS: OF Aaron Hicks was in the lineup for Manager Jay Bell Friday night and is expected to play all three games of a weekend series against the Toledo Mud Hens through Sunday. This is the first Major Leaguer set to rehab with the RailRiders this season, one year after SWB had 10 different Yankees play games with them: Greg Bird (INF), A.J. Cole (P), Brandon Drury (INF), Clint Frazier (OF), Aaron Hicks (OF), Tommy Kahnle (P), Billy McKinney (OF), Gary Sanchez (C), Masahiro Tanaka (P), Adam Warren (P). In his 2G with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season Hicks was 2-for-6 with a 2B and a BB.

A STRONG WEEK STREAK: With Wednesday's victory, the RailRiders had won seven straight games before falling in Thursday's series finale against the Indianapolis Indians, 4-2. A year ago, the team made the postseason and all the way to the Governor's Cup without ever recording better than a five-game win streak. The last time the RailRiders won more than six games in a row was 6/26/2016 - 7/4/2016 -- the first 8G of which were on the road.

EXPLODING FOR RUNS: The RailRiders put up 8 more runs in Friday's loss to the Toledo Mud Hens and have now recorded nine games over the first 31 games of the season in which they plated 8+ runs. It wasn't until Game No. 66 last season @ Syracuse that SWB had its ninth 8R-game of 2018.

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International League Stories from May 11, 2019


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