IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on May 26, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (25-19) @ SYRACUSE METS (24-23)

RHP Drew Hutchison (3-3, 5.72) vs. RHP Corey Oswalt (4-1, 3.14)

| Game No. 45 | NBT Bank Stadium | Syracuse, NY | May 26, 2019 | First Pitch 6:35 p.m. |

SYRACUSE, NY (May 25, 2019) -- The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and Syracuse Mets played through driving rains and a 99-minute delay, but completed all nine innings into the early Sunday morning hours with SWB claiming a 17-12 victory.

The game began with a bang, as the RailRiders had their first five men reached, with four of them scoring as part of a four-run frame. Syracuse went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 1st inning and the RailRiders bats got back to work quickly in the 2nd inning. They sent nine men to the plate again in the 2nd and scored five times- including a two-run homer by Mike Ford- to build a 9-0 lead.

Syracuse went to work against RailRiders pitching in the 2nd inning, as RHP Shawn Semple worked through his first Triple-A start. He was summoned from High-A Tampa prior to the game, and allowed a pair of runs in his second inning of work, a run in the 3rd inning and then was lifted before completing the 4th inning. Entering that 4th inning, Syracuse had fallen behind 13-3. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre used its bats to grow its lead with a solo home run from Breyvic Valera in the 3rd inning, plus a solo homer from Kyle Higashioka and two-run homer from Brad Miller in the 4th inning. Despite that, Syracuse whittled away the lead with five runs in the frame- all charged to Semple. Over 3.1 innings he was tagged for eight earned runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out a pair. As the game moved into the bottom of the 5th inning with the RailRiders holding a 13-8 lead, the RailRiders were three outs away from making it an official game with five complete innings. Instead the Mets sent six men to plate, scored four runs, had five men reach and forced a pitching change while drawing 24 total pitches to extend the game before the game went into a delay.

Coming out of the delay, the RailRiders turned to J.P. Feyereisen to set the tone in shutting down the Mets. He struck out seven in a row at one point and lowered his season ERA to 2.31 with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. In that time the RailRiders were able to add two more runs on Miller's second two-run homer of the game (2-for-4, 2 HR, 3 R, 5 RBI) plus single runs in the 8th and 9th innings for the win.

With the win, the RailRiders are now a season-best six games above .500 at 25-19 (.568) and they maintain a 0.5 game lead over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs for first place in the IL North Division standings.

HISTORIC EXPLOSION: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders won 17-12 Saturday over Syracuse in a nine-inning game. They scored 17 runs on 19 hits, which fell a hit shy of the 20 they had in a game last season against Syracuse. You have to go back quite a ways further to find the last time the RailRiders scored at least 17 runs in a nine-inning game. Back on 4/25/2009 as SWB was getting out to a 14-1 start to the season, they knocked off the Rochester Red Wings, 17-13 in a game that was tied 11-11 heading into extra innings. The last time that SWB scored 17+ runs in nine innings was 4/6/2007 against the Ottawa Lynx. In a 20-11 victory, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre knocked around a 24-year old starting pitcher named JA Happ for 7R in 0.2 IP on 50 pitches.

TRAILED AFTER 7: The RailRiders entered the 8th inning Friday night trailing 4-1. The inning featured a leadoff home run by Ryan McBroom and then Billy Burns and Trey Amburgey singled before a walk to Mike Ford. Trailing 4-2, Breyvic Valera put SWB ahead with a grand slam, giving the RailRiders their first win of the season when trailing after 7 innings (Previously: 0-18).

TIM TEBO'FER: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitching has been strong against the Syracuse Mets this season, before allowing 12 runs Saturday night. In winning 6-of-7 games, they've held them to 4.5 runs per game (4.00 ERA) and a .236 BAA while striking out 95 batters in 63.0 IP (13.6 K/9). Of this group, OF Tim Tebow - the former Heisman Trophy winner- has had the toughest time entering the Memorial Day Weekend series. He had played 3G in the head-to-head matchup and was 0-for-12 with 7 K with a GIDP. In Friday's series opener however, Tebow was 1-for-3, BB and followed that up with another 1-for-3, BB, HBP Saturday.

ON-BASE STREAKS, BENCHED: On Wednesday, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had three players entering play with on-base streaks of 10-or-more games, and all three got the night off. INF Brad Miller (15G streak), INF Mike Ford (12G streak), and C Ryan Lavarnway (11G streak) all found themselves out of the lineup, but the RailRiders were still able to prevail 8-6 over Pawtucket. All three players were in the lineup Thursday and Friday and have successfully extended their on-base streaks. Miller's 18-game on-base streak is the longest by an SWB player this season and the third-longest by a Yankees minor leaguer in 2019 (Diego Castillo, TAM -- 20G). It is currently the sixth-longest active streak in the International League (Travis Demeritte, GWI -- 26G).

WHAT A STRETCH: Early in the season, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had their schedule broken up by a handful of postponements and suspensions due to weather -- seven over the first five weeks of the season. Though many of the games were made up the following day, it's getting time to pay the piper over the next few weeks. Following Monday's day-off, the RailRiders began a stretch Tuesday night against the Pawtucket Red Sox that features 23 games over 20 days before their next scheduled off day. All 23 games come against each of their five IL North Division rivals. They are currently 4-1 on this stretch.

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International League Stories from May 26, 2019


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