John From Albany - Brooklyn gets blasted by Aberdeen 12-3, now tied for wild card, one back of first. Lowrie homers, Syracuse wins 2-0, tied for first.

A Cyclones loss (box).

Believe it or not, this game started out great for Brooklyn.  Yoel Romero walked.  Jake Mangum grounded to the shortstop who made an errant throw and Brooklyn had 1^st and 3^rd, no outs with the team MVP, Wilmer Reyes, up.   Reyes promptly singled scoring Romero with Mangum taking 3^rd.  Then with Reyes stealing 2^nd, Mangum stole home.  Brooklyn up 2-0 on one base hit.  That in a nutshell is what Brooklyn baseball has been all year, aggressive base running, and exciting.  It has been a fun team to watch and the pennant race has been great to follow.

But on Thursday it was not to be.  Mets 2019 fifth round pick, Nathan Jones had the roughest night of his professional career.  In just 2/3^rd of an inning, Nathan gave up 4 hits, two walks, and a wild pitch.  He left the game with two men on base and 4 runs in.  RHP Corey Gaconi did not fare better in relief as he allowed two of the runners he inherited from Nathan score and gave up two of his own.  At the end of one inning it was 8-2 Iron Birds.  Final score 12-3. 

With Hudson Valley winning, Brooklyn dropped back to a game out of first, tied with Aberdeen for the wild card.  Brooklyn sends Matt Cleveland (3-3 3.57 ERA) to the mound Friday in what could very well be the deciding game of the wild card race.  Should Aberdeen and Brooklyn end the season tied for the wild card, their head to head play will determine the winner.  After Thursday’s game, the season series is tied. 

Syracuse’s 2-0 win (box). 

Jed Lowrie and Rymer Liriano homered and Ervin Santanna went six scoreless innings as the Syracuse Mets got back to a first place tie with the Yankee’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Rail Riders who split a pair with Pawtucket.  Nick Rumbelow, Stephen Nogosek and Tyler Bashlor all added an inning in relief.

That is now 22 games with 30 scoreless innings for Nogosek.  Impressive at any level. 

Syracuse now heads to Rochester for the final four games of the year.  Manager Tony DeFrancesco told Syracuse.com that Lowrie will now get the night off but that Brandon Nimmo will be back in the lineup on Friday.