IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on July 31, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (62-46) @ ROCHESTER RED WINGS (53-55)

RHP Deivi Garcia (1-1, 5.14) vs. RHP Adam Bray (1-0, 4.00)

| Game No. 109 | Frontier Field | Rochester, NY | July 31, 2019 | First Pitch 7:05 p.m. |

MOOSIC, PA -- The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders polished off a two-game sweep over the Syracuse Mets Tuesday afternoon in the final game of the I-81 Interstate series, 6-3, at PNC Field. The RailRiders drilled back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning by Trey Amburgey and Francisco Arcia that broke a 3-3 tie and secured the win.

In the decisive eighth inning, Amburgey slammed a two-run home run against Syracuse pitcher Tim Peterson and then Arcia hit the very next pitch for a solo home run to give the RailRiders the final tally in the 6-3 win.

The contest began in the top of the first when RailRiders executed a double-steal with Thairo Estrada swiping home to give the club a 1-0 lead. The double-steal was part of an inning in which the RailRiders totaled five stolen bases, en route to swiping six in the contest, noting a new season high. Over the first 107 games of the season, only once had the RailRiders stolen even four bags in a game before the five-SB first inning.

The Mets plated a run in the top of the fourth, tying the game 1-1 on a sacrifice fly from Travis Taijeron. Mike Ford homered in the bottom of the frame, bringing home two runs with the blast and put the RailRiders on top 3-1. The home run was Ford's team-leading 23rdof the season and extended his career-high.

OUT OF NOWHERE: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders entered Tuesday's game against the Syracuse Mets having gone 6-for-13 in stolen bases over the first 26G in the month of July. With strong-armed C Rene Rivera getting the afternoon off after starting Monday night, the RailRiders ran hog-wild on C Colton Plaia. SWB stole five bases against him in the first inning after having stolen just four bases in an entire game just once over the first 107G of the season. The RailRiders set a new season-high with 6 SB, going 6-for-7 in the win: Breyvic Valera, 3-for-3 // Thairo Estrada, 2-for-2 // Gosuke Katoh: 1-for-2

WALK-OFF WINNER: The RailRiders surrendered the tying run in the top of the 9th inning Monday night to the Syracuse Mets, only to see INF Wendell Rijo connect for a walk-off home run in the bottom of the frame. It is the ninth walk-off win for the RailRiders this season, and third walk-off homer: 4/27 INF Cliff Pennington vs. Syracuse (10th inning); 5/1 INF/OF Ryan McBroom vs. Rochester (10th inning)

THE MIDAS TOUCH: For whatever reason, the Louisville Bats turned into Murderer's Row in six games against RailRiders pitching this season. In those games, the Bats have scored 38 runs (6.2/G) and connected for 19 HR (3.17 HR/G) in 52.0 IP by the RailRiders, slugging .612. In the season series, 28-of-38 (74%) runs scored by the Louisville Bats were accounted for by homers. In their 100 other games this season, the Bats have hit 118 HR (1.18 HR/G) and slugged .435. Meanwhile, the RailRiders pitching staff has been one of the best in the International League at resisting home runs, giving up just 111 HR in 840.1 IP (HE every 7.2 IP) against non-Louisville hitting, but a HR every 2.2 IP against Louisville. The RailRiders surrendered just one homer Monday /Tuesday over 18.0 IP against the Syracuse Mets.

MAKING MOVES: With 32 games remaining in the regular season, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are keeping up their torrid pace... of roster moves. As the calendar gets ready to turn to August, SWB had made 228 total moves (April, 44 | May, 64 | June, 59 | July, 62) which is far ahead of last season's pace in which the RailRiders had made 207 total moves through July (April, 36 | May, 53 | June, 43 | July, 76) in a year in which they made 275 roster moves (1.99 moves/game) during the regular season. SWB is averaging 2.11 moves/game this season.

RECORD SETTERS: When Mike Ford blasted a two-run home run clear out of Huntington Park in the sixth inning Thursday afternoon, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders set the franchise record with 165 HR in the first 103 games of the season (1.60 HR/G), which far exceeds the rate for the 132 HR they hit all of last season (0.96 HR/G) and eclipsed the previous franchise record of 164 HR (1.15 HR/G) over 142 games set by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons in 1998.

A QUICK PROJECTION: Tuesday featured a win by both the RailRiders (62-46, .574) and the team closest to them in the IL North standings, the Buffalo Bisons (56-52, .519). Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has 32 games to go in the regular season and holds a 6.0-game lead on the Bisons for first place (the largest lead this season was +8.0 GB June 20 following Game No. 70). That means if the RailRiders were to go 16-16 (.500) the rest of the way, the Bisons would need to go 22-10 (.688) to catch them in the division. However, these two teams play four games over four days at PNC Field to wrap-up the regular season leading into Labor Day.

Check out the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Statistics

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International League Stories from July 31, 2019


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