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Syracuse Drops Wild Series Opener at Worcester, 9-8, in Ten Innings

May 31, 2022 - International League (IL)
Syracuse Mets News Release


Worcester, MA - The Syracuse Mets fell in their series opener at the Worcester Red Sox on Tuesday night, losing a hotly contested, back-and-forth game, 9-8, in ten innings at Polar Park. The weeklong, six-game series is the Mets first trip to the home of the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate this season. Syracuse is now 0-8 on Tuesday nights during the 2022 campaign.

Syracuse (15-32) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second when three straight singles from Mark Vientos, JT Riddle, and Nick Dini brought home the game's initial run.

Worcester (24-25) bounced right back and tied the game with a run themselves in the bottom of the second as Ronaldo Hernandez plated Rob Refsnyder via a sacrifice fly. Refsnyder had started the inning with a single, moved to second on a Christin Stewart single, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on the sacrifice fly.

Both teams scored again in the third inning. In the top half of the frame, Khalil Lee launched a booming home run over the 22-foot-high right-field wall at Polar Park, surging Syracuse to a 2-1 lead.

Worcester promptly scored twice in the bottom half of the third to take its first lead at 3-2. Ryan Fitzgerald and Stewart each had RBI singles in the inning.

The roller-coaster of early runs kept right on rolling in the top of the fourth as the Mets brought three more runs across the home plate to take another lead, this time at 5-3. All nine Syracuse batters came to the plate in a top of the fourth that featured three hits and three walks. One of the walks was with the bases loaded by Vientos, scoring Daniel Johnson and completing the inning's scoring. Dini and Gosuke Katoh had raced home earlier in the inning on RBI singles by Johnson and Jake Mangum respectively.

This teeter-totter of a baseball game leveled off once again in the fifth when Stewart crushed a two-run home run that knotted the contest back up, 5-5. Stewart, a former first-round pick by the Detroit Tigers, had an excellent evening at the plate. The former Tennessee Volunteer went 3-for-5 with three runs driven in.

The WooSox seemed to surge ahead for good when they scored three more times and took an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Jarren Duran singled home a run and later scored in the pivotal sixth inning for the Red Sox. The Californian finished the game 2-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored. Duran is 7-for-19 in five games against Syracuse this season, including at least one hit in each of the games.

On this night, a win for the WooSox wouldn't be that easy. Syracuse tied the game right back up in the top of the eighth, plating three runs all with two outs. First, the Mets loaded up the bags with two outs via a Katoh walk, a Mangum single, and a Lee walk. Carlos Rincon then stepped to the plate and chopped a high hopper to shortstop, but with Jeter Downs throwing poorly to first base, Katoh and Mangum dashed home and made it 8-7. Daniel Palka was the next batter due up, and he made it count, slicing a single into shallow right field to score Lee and tie the game up again, 8-8.

The game remained tied at eight all until the bottom of the tenth, when Worcester finally ended the competitive and slightly wacky game. As custom, Yolmer Sánchez started the frame at second base with nobody out. An intentional walk to Duran made it runners on first and second base with nobody out, and then Connor Wong ended the evening. The former Houston Cougar sliced a double down the left-field line, plating Sánchez and handing Worcester a 9-8 win. It was just the second win for the Red Sox in seven tries against the Mets so far this season.

To summarize: the game featured four ties, three lead changes, and 27 combined hits. The Mets and WooSox combined to use 11 pitchers and left a total of 22 runners on base. The game took more than three and a half hours, clocking in officially at three hours and 32 minutes. Syracuse played just one game that took longer than three hours last week against Rochester, a three hour and three-minute affair in a 9-7 loss on Thursday night.

Syracuse has a very quick turnaround, playing game two of the six-game series against the Worcester Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon with first pitch set for 12:15 p.m. Thomas Szapucki is scheduled to start for the Mets, opposed by Thomas Pannone for the WooSox.

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International League Stories from May 31, 2022


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