IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on July 13, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (53-38) @ SYRACUSE BUTTER SCULPTURES (43-48)

RHP Chance Adams (4-2, 4.01) vs. RHP Walker Lockett (1-2, 4.28)

| Game No. 92 | NBT Bank Stadium | Syracuse, NY | July 13, 2019 | First Pitch 7:05 p.m. |

SYRACUSE, NY (July 12, 2019) -- The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders rallied past the Syracuse Mets 4-3 at NBT Bank Stadium on Friday night. Trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Tyler Wade's bases loaded single gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a lead they would not relinquish.

For the second straight night, the RailRiders took a 1-0 lead on a home run in the top of the second. Kyle Higashioka hammered the first pitch he saw from Mets starting pitcher Anthony Kay over the wall in left. Of Higashioka's 14 home run this season, five have come off of Mets pitching. Exactly as Thursday's game played out, Syracuse took a 2-1 lead on a home run in the bottom half of the inning to answer. Dilson Herrera hit an 0-2 offering from Randall Delgado out to left with Danny Espinosa on to push the Mets in front.

That advantage held despite multiple opportunities for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to tie the game in the third, fifth and sixth innings. In the seventh, reliever Paul Sewald allowed a single to Ryan McBroom, saw Zack Zehner reach on an error and gave up a single to Billy Burns to load the bases with no one out. Ryan O'Rourke took over and induced a pop out from Mike Ford and a lineout by Thairo Estrada. Wade singled to right, plating McBroom and Zehner to give the RailRiders a 3-2 lead. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre added a RBI single by Zehner in the eighth to extend the lead to 4-2 before allowing a solo HR in the 9th inning.

A QUICK PROJECTION: Friday night featured a win by the RailRiders (53-38, .582) and a doubleheader split by the team closest to them in the IL North stadings, the Buffalo Bisons (48-43, .527). Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has 49 games to go in the regular season and has a 5.0-game lead on the Bisons for first place. That means, if the RailRiders were to go 25-24 (.510) the rest of the way, the Bisons would need to go 30-19 (.612) to catch them in the division.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: The quartet had travel snafus on the way back from El Paso and as a result, LHP Daniel Camarena had to pitch and hit for the RailRiders. It was the first time since 7/28/2006 when Brian Mazone went 1-for-2, 2B against the Richmond Braves that a pitcher logged multiple at-bats in a game for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Last season with the Sacramento RiverCats Camarena was 3-for-20 (.150 AVG), for a guy who had been an Under Armour All-American in high school as a position player.

REGROUPED: Play for the entire International League ramps back up Thursday night, with the RailRiders sitting with a 52-37 (.584) record as the third best record in the league behind Columbus (55-33, .625) and Durham (53-37, .589). Last season, when the RailRiders made it to Game 5 of the Governor's Cup before losing to Durham, they had a record of 46-41 (.529) at the All-Star Break. The year prior the RailRiders had a 55-34 record (.618) as they went on to win the IL North by 6.5 games over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and Rochester Red Wings.

RECORD WATCH: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders did not hit a home run Friday night and had homered in just one of their last five games before homering four times in Sunday's doubleheader. With two more homers Thursday night and another one Friday, the RailRiders have already well eclipsed their season total from a year ago with 142 HR in 91G (1.56 HR/G), which far exceeds the rate for the 132 HR they hit all of last season (0.96 HR/G). The franchise record of the 164 HR (1.15 HR/G) was set by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons in 1998 over a 142-game season. With the new baseball in Triple-A, a number of records will be under assault as the calendar turns to August, including Slugging Percentage which is at .492 entering Friday, well ahead of the .449 mark put up in 1998.

MAKING MOVES: With 50 games remaining in the regular season, the five teams looking up at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are looking to make moves in the standings. The RailRiders simply keep looking to make (roster) moves. As the calendar turned to July, SWB had made 167 total moves (April, 44 | May, 64 | June, 59) which is far ahead of last season's pace in which the RailRiders had made 131 total moves through June (April, 36 | May, 53 | June, 43) in a year in which they made 275 roster moves (1.99 moves/game) during the regular season. With 29 more moves over the first two weeks of July to bring the total to 196, SWB is averaging 2.15 moves/game this season.

HEY NOW...: Four players for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders received "you're an All-Star" notices from the league a few weeks ago and got to participate in the Triple-A All-Star Game Wednesday night. C Kyle Higashioka (0-for-1, BB) INF Mike Ford (0-for-2) and DH Ryan McBroom (0-for-2, K) all started the game for the International League in their 9-3 loss to the Pacific Coast League. In the bottom of the 8th inning, J.P. Feyereisen appeared out of the bullpen and tossed a scoreless 1-2-3 inning while striking out Isan Diaz (INF, New Orleans Baby Cakes | Florida Marlins).

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International League Stories from July 13, 2019


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