IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on June 7, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


SYRACUSE METS (29-30) @ SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (33-24)

RHP Chris Flexen (3-2, 3.68) vs. RHP Randall Delgado (0-1, 8.00)

| Game No. 58 | PNC Field | Moosic, PA | June 7, 2019 | First Pitch 6:35 p.m. |

BUFFALO, NY (June 6, 2019) -- The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders fell just short in a comeback bid Thursday night in the series finale at Sahlen Field, a last-ditch solo home run by Brad Miller in the 9th inning wasn't quite enough in a 3-2 loss at the hooves of the Buffalo Bisons.

The RailRiders got the scoring started in the 5th inning, after Drew Hutchison and Graham Spraker traded scoreless frames over the first few innings. Billy Burns came to bat with a pair of runners aboard and was able to deliver a fielder's choice ground out to plate Ryan Lavarnway. Buffalo shortstop, Richard Urena, fielded the grounder and fired home but it skipped in on catcher Reese McGuire who wasn't able to pick the baseball due to Lavarnway speeding to the plate and arriving simultaneously.

Hutchison made the lead hold into the bottom of the 6th inning, and recorded a pair of outs before running into some two-out difficulty. Back-to-back doubles by Anthony Alford (3-for-3, 2 2B, R, BB) and Socrates Brito tied the game 1-1. The ensuing batters in Patrick Kivlehan and Richard Urena also drove in runs and four consecutive two-out hits made it a 3-1 lead for the Bisons. The runs in the inning snapped a 24-inning scoreless streak by the RailRiders pitching staff which dated to the 3rd inning Tuesday night with Daniel Camarena on the mound.

Stephen Tarpley entered out of the bullpen for the RailRiders and kept things close, tossing a scoreless 7th and 8th innings while striking out a pair to keep it 3-1 entering the 9th inning. The left-hander's ERA lowered to 1.50 on the season in Triple-A. The 9th inning featured Miller's leadoff homer, but the next three RailRiders were retired in order by Justin Shafer to close out the ballgame.

ALL TOO FAMILIAR: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Syracuse last played one another two weekends ago, over Memorial Day Weekend. Sunday- the third game of that four-game series- Mike Ford homered off Arquimedes Caminero in the 7th inning and Caminero threw at the next batter, Breyvic Valera, and hit him in the back of his right shoulder. Benches cleared, and Caminero, INF Logan Morrison (SWB) and INF Danny Espinosa were all ejected. The following night, Ford led off the 9th inning against Caminero with a four-run deficit and the first pitch sailed over his head to the backstop and Caminero was ejected again. Benches cleared, but no shoving occurred. For the two days worth of incidents, Morrison and Espinosa received three-game suspensions and Caminero received a seven-game suspension. Two weeks later he has not been taken off the restricted list by the Mets.

EXTRA OFFENSE: SWB has had plenty of offensive success against the Syracuse Mets this season, using strong hitting to win 7 of the first 9 games of the year head-to-head. As they welcome their IL North Division rival to town for four games over three days, they look to keep those hot bats going. On the season, the RailRiders are leading the IL with a .276 AVG this season and is second in both OBP (.355) and SLG (.488). In 9G against Syracuse, the team is slashing .322/.396/.596 in a big uptick in performance over what they've done against other teams in the league.

WHAT A NIGHT: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders tossed a pair of shutouts Wednesday night, with Chance Adams, Nestor Cortes and J.P. Feyereisen facing just three batters over the minimum while recording 42 outs. It was the first time the RailRiders posted a full doubleheader of shutout baseball since 7/2/2011 @ Pawtucket. That day, DJ Mitchell tossed seven innings of one-hit ball to outduel Brandon Duckworth in Game 1, 7-0. In the second game, Pawtucket managed three hits off George Kontos, Logan Kensing and Randy Flores in a 3-0 loss. A year ago they were shutout in a pair of games by Lehigh Valley in which Enyel De Los Santos and Brandon Liebrandt shut down the RailRiders April 29.

DOUBLEDIPPING: By June 5th of last year, the RailRiders had played just two doubleheaders and finished the year playing two games on the same date eight times over the course of the entire season. Wednesday's doubleheader was the sixth time in the first 56 games of the year that the RailRiders would have played multiple games on the same day, with a seventh doubleheader set for Sunday vs Syracuse. There are three more doubleheaders on the schedule in the coming weeks, and the RailRiders are expecting to have played nine doubleheaders over the first 87 games of the year -- exceeding their total from all of 2018 just over halfway into the year.

ALL (GOOD?) THINGS COME TO AN END: The RailRiders hit the weekend with a series against the Mets wrapping up a gauntlet stretch of games. 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, they had a number postponed a few weeks. Following the day-off May 20th, the RailRiders began a stretch on the 21st against the Pawtucket Red Sox that featured 23 games over 20 days before their next scheduled off day with all 23 games having come against each of their five IL North Division rivals. They are currently 12-6 on this run of games, with one game against Rochester postponed until July 5th due to weather.

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International League Stories from June 7, 2019


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