IL1 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

SWB Game Notes

Published on August 8, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News Release


CHARLOTTE KNIGHTS (61-53) @ SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (64-51)

LHP Justin Nicolino (5-5, 6.29) vs. RHP Brian Keller (Triple-A Debut)

| Game No. 116 | PNC Field | Moosic, PA | August 8, 2019 | First Pitch 7:05 p.m. |

MOOSIC, PA (August 7, 2019) -- The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders lost 12-2 to the Charlotte Knights on Wednesday evening at PNC Field. The Knights opened the scoring in the second and plated nine runs between the fifth and the eighth innings to clinch this three-game set with one game to go. New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, with the RailRiders on an Allied Integrated Health Systems rehab assignment, went 1-for-3 over seven innings.

Charlotte took a three-run lead in the top of the second off of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starting pitcher Daniel Camarena. Yermin Mercedes scored on a wild pitch and, with two outs and two on, Ramon Torres single in a pair to extend the lead. The RailRiders answered in the bottom of the fourth when Erik Kratz smacked a two-run single, plating Ryan McBroom and Trey Amburgey to cut the deficit to 3-2. Kratz now has eight runs batted in over his last two games.

The Knights added to their lead in the fifth on a Torres solo home run off of Camarena before plating another in the sixth on a fielder's choice. After tallying two runs in the seventh, Charlotte sent eight to the plate in the eighth inning, scoring five times on four hits, including a home run by Seby Zavala. Camarena (4-8) took the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in 6.0 innings, walking five and striking out four.Donn Roach (3-6) garnered the win with five innings of work, striking out a pair. Trey Amburgey had the lone multi-hit game for the RailRiders.

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).

NOT SO GLOVELY: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre enters Friday's series finale against the Charlotte Knights having committed just 74 errors on the season, which is the third fewest in the 14-team International League. Entering yesterday, the RailRiders were atop the league, but a four-error performance knocked the back a few pegs. The game matches the four-error performance from May 20th vs. the Pawtucket Red Sox for the most errors in a game by the RailRiders defense all season -- but the second time in the last 11 games the team has committed 3+ errors.

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. With his start Wednesday, Gary Sanchez became No. 67 and Thursday anticipated starting pitcher, RHP Brian Keller will be No. 68 for SWB this season. That brings the total to 33 position players and 35 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: Wednesday featured a loss by the RailRiders (64-51, .556) and a win by the team closest to them in the IL North standings, the Buffalo Bisons (59-56, .513). Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has 25 games to go in the regular season and holds a 5.0-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 13-12 (.520) the rest of the way, the Bisons would need to go 18-7 (.720) 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 25 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 252 and is averaging 2.19 moves/game this season and is on pace for 307 roster moves through the end of the year.

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