5/7/21

Maxwell shines as Mets fall to RailRiders, 17-11


 Offense was plentiful on Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium, but the Syracuse Mets fell to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 17-11. Bruce Maxwell was a triple shy of the cycle tonight for the Mets, collecting five RBIs in the game.


Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (2-1) struck first in the top of the first inning. A Miguel Andujar single scored Greg Allen from second base for a 1-0 lead.

The RailRiders scored again in the top of the second. With the bases loaded, Andrew Velazquez grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Derek Dietrich from third base to make it 2-0. More runs would’ve have scored that frame if not for a diving catch made by Mets shortstop Jake Hager on the very next ball that was hit.

Syracuse (1-2) responded in the bottom of the second. With two outs and a runner at first, Maxwell crushed a ball over the right-center-field wall for a two-run home run, knotting the game, 2-2.

The Mets took the lead in the fourth. Maxwell came up with the bases loaded and singled home a run for a 3-2 advantage. Then, back-to-back bases-loaded walks scored two more runs in the inning to give Syracuse a 5-2 lead.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre came right back in the top of the fifth. A two-out single by Trey Amburgey and a two-run double by Armando Alvarez re-tied the game at five.

Syracuse continued the offensive outburst, though, in the bottom of the fifth. Once again, Maxwell put the Mets ahead, this time with a two-run double with the bases loaded. Andrew Ferguson followed with his first hit of the season, a two-run double, giving the Mets a 9-5 advantage.

The game unraveled for Syracuse in the sixth with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre breaking out with the biggest inning of the game. The RailRiders scored eight runs on seven hits in the inning to take a commanding 13-9 lead. All nine batters reached base before an out was recorded in the inning. 

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre added to its edge in the seventh with an Andujar two-run homer to make it 15-9.

Syracuse got two runs back in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a Jake Hager two-run home run, but two separate solo homers in the ninth by Andujar and Amburgey put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre up by the final score of 17-11.

The Mets and RailRiders meet again on Friday. LHP Thomas Szapucki will pitch for Syracuse opposite RHP Nick Green for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Syracuse starting 8 looks like a miserable group. I remember seeing the Brooklyn Cyclones a few years back, thinking it was the worst group I'd seen, ever. This team is a product of those years, with some changes, of course.

In the minors, there are always a few guys worth noting. For this team, that number is "very few."

I believe this is mostly true for Binghamton as well.

Sandy never built a solid farm system in his first 7+ years as GM. He failed, pretty spectacularly. Let's hope that things get better with an owner who can spend and a different management group.

Jimmy





John From Albany said...

Great points Jimmy.

Here's another thing about Sandy...he fires Chilli Davis at midnight...on the road...and the players find out via social media...a very Wilponian move.

His hand picked General Manager lasts a month, if that?

His new farm director...is now the assist. hitting coach...assit. farm director now the farm director.

One of the reasons Sandy was hired was to bring stability to the organization?

Anonymous said...

Yes, John. He's done a terrible job re-organizing the organization.

But he gave his son a big job!

My take is that Cohen made a mistake going with Sandy in this architect role. But rather than fire him, the right move is to slowly reduce Sandy's responsibilities -- make him a consultant, which he'd be good at -- and bring in a Theo type for oversee the rebuild that Sandy was supposed to accomplish.

Jimmy

Mack Ade said...

Let's not forget that the members of the taxi squad are prevented from playing for this team, thus, the team losses some of their best players like Mazeika Fargas and Mallex Smith