IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

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


CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS (60-53) @ SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (64-50)

RHP Danny Roach (2-6, 8.30) vs. LHP Daniel Camarena (4-7, 6.20)

| Game No. 115 | PNC Field | Moosic, PA | August 7, 2019 | First Pitch 7:05 p.m. |

MOOSIC, PA (August 6, 2019) -- With a pair of runs in the top of the 10th inning, the Charlotte Knights wrestled a series opener in extra innings from he Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, by a 5-3 final.

The contest moved into extra innings and in the top of the tenth and Daniel Palka drove in pace-of-play runner Luis Robert with an RBI single to give Charlotte a 4-3 lead. Will Carter walked Yermin Mercedes with the bases loaded to force in another run that was the final tally of the night, making it 5-3. Charlotte got on the board first in the top of the third on an RBI single by Trey Michalczewski. After a 36-minute rain delay in the top of the third, the game continued and Clint Frazier lasered a homer off the foul pole down the left field line, and the game tied at 1-1.

Moving into the top of the fourth, Charlotte responded with a solo home run by Zack Collins, giving them a lead over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In the bottom of the inning, Trey Amburgey drove a ball to the right-center gap that just snuck over the wall, tying the game 2-2. This was his 20th of the season, making him the second RailRider to accumulate 20 on the season, joining Mike Ford (23_. In the bottom of the seventh, Wendell Rijo crushed a ball off the billboards in left field, the third homer of the night for SWB, giving the RailRiders a 3-2 lead. In the top of the eighth, Daniel Palka hit a solo homer for Charlotte, tying the game 3-3 and ultimately forcing extra innings. All told, the game featured five home runs; three for the RailRiders slamming and two for the Knights.

RAILREHABBERS: Yankees All-Star C Gary Sanchez is expected to rehab for the RailRiders and catch both Wednesday and Thursday against the Charlotte Knights, then join the Yankees on the road in Toronto. A season ago, Sanchez had a pair of rehab appearances for SWB in which he went 4-for-28 (.179 AVG) with his four hits being four solo HR. Jonathan Loaisiga started Sunday's game against the Lehigh Valley IronPIgs and was tagged for 3R/3ER on a home run by Deivy Grullon, ultimately lasting just 0.2 IP on 32 pitches. He joins OF Cameron Maybin, RHP Ben Heller, RHP Domingo German, OF Giancarlo Stanton, OF Aaron Judge, INF Didi Gregorius and OF Aaron Hicks on the list of 8 Yankees rehabbers for the RailRiders this season, with Sanchez expected to be No. 9. A year ago, 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).

A JUMP-START: C Francisco Arcia was signed by the New York Yankees after being released by the Chicago Cubs, and made his RailRiders debut July 27. Since that date, he and Erik Kratz have combined to go 16-for-51 (.314 AVG) with 13 RBI over a combined 14 games played with 7 BB (.397 OBP).

NOT TOO UNEXPECTED: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders scored 12 runs in a 12-5 victory over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs Sunday afternoon to take the three-game series from the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. It was the 13th time this season the RailRiders have scored 10+ runs in a game, improving to 13-0 in those games over the first 113G of the season. A season ago, the RailRiders were 6-0 in games in which they scored 10+ runs.

THE KRATZKEN: Sunday marked the 1,009th game of Erik Kratz Minor League career, and just the second such game in which he has logged 7 RBI. That day was June 28 for the Buffalo Bisons while playing at the Syracuse Chiefs in a game where he finished 4-for-5 with 2 2B and a HR in which all six runs were driven in off future Yankees pitcher, A.J. Cole. This 6-RBI game fell just short of Kyle HIgashioka's 7-RBI game @ Syracuse on May 5th in which he went 3-for-4 with 2 HR and 7 RBI in a 14-3 win.

LOOK AT HIM GO(SUKE): INF Gosuke Katoh was summoned from Double-A Trenton July 28th to add to the infield depth for the RailRiders, and has shown flashes of the person who batted .354 with 5 HR and 13 RBI over 19G in April to begin the season. He appeared in all three games against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs over the weekend and went 6-for-12 with a pair of homers and 6 RBI.

LOTS OF FACES: When RHP Janson Junk and RHP Daniel Bies both appeared in Friday's series-opener against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, they became the 65th and 66th players to play in a game for the RailRiders this season. That brings the total to 32 position players and 34 pitchers, which is still shy of the record of 75 players used in games by the 2015 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. By comparison, last year's team featured 69 players and 2017 featured 65.

A QUICK PROJECTION: Tuesday featured a loss by both the RailRiders (64-50, .561) and the team closest to them in the IL North standings, the Buffalo Bisons (58-56, .509). Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has 26 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 13-13 (.519) the rest of the way, the Bisons would need to go 19-7 (.731) 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.

MAKING MOVES: With 26 games remaining in the regular season, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are keeping up their torrid pace... of roster moves. As the calendar turns to August, SWB had made 232 total moves (April, 44 | May, 64 | June, 59 | July, 66) 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 has now made 246 and is averaging 2.16 moves/game this season and is on pace for 303 roster moves through the end of the year.

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International League Stories from August 7, 2019


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