Cuse Game Notes - Syracuse drops second game of series at Rochester in 13-6 Red Wings win

 

Rochester, NY – The Syracuse Mets fell victim to an avalanche of runs by the Rochester Red Wings on a sunny, Thursday afternoon. The Red Wings scored nine unanswered runs at one point on their way to a 13-6 win in Rochester.

 

Syracuse (6-13) jumped on the board first for the second consecutive game in the top of the first inning. Carlos Rincon pounded a two-run home run over the left-field wall to stoke Syracuse to a 2-0 lead. Rincon has had an excellent start to the series, slugging two homers and two doubles.

 

Rochester (11-9) promptly responded though. In the bottom of the first. A two-run blast from Luis Garcia knotted the game right back up, 2-2. Garcia has been a man possessed at the plate so far in the series, going a combined 5-for-6 with three home runs, six RBIs, and six runs scored.  

 

The two teams traded runs again in the second inning, as this time the Mets and Red Wings each scored a lone run in the frame. Syracuse got its run on an RBI double from Wyatt Young, while Rochester manufactured its tally via an RBI groundout from Richard Ureña. Donovan Casey reached to start the inning on a single, moved to second on a groundout, up to third on a wild pitch, and finally scored on Urena’s chopper to shortstop with the infield playing back as the game became tied again, 3-3.

 

After that, it was all Rochester, as the home scored the next eight runs to go ahead for good. The Red Wings did their scoring in bunches – two runs in the fourth, four runs in the fifth, followed by two more runs in the sixth.  

 

In the fourth, Josh Palacios bunted for a single to start the inning and moved to second base on a throwing error after his bunt. Palacios moved up to third on a single by Donovan Casey and scored on another single by Nick Banks to take a 4-3 Rochester lead. Later in the frame, Casey crossed home plated on Ureña’s RBI groundout as the Red Wings went up, 5-3.

 

Four more runs crossed home plate in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run double from Palacios and a two-run single from Urena to give Rochester a 9-3 edge

 

The power was on display again in the sixth when Joey Menses slugged a two-run homer over the left-field wall and into the Syracuse bullpen to push Rochester to its largest lead of the game, 11-3.

 

Starting pitching for both teams helped to define the game. On one side, Jefry Rodriguez settled into quite the groove after a slow start for Rochester. The right-hander struck out nine batters in his four and one-third innings of work, not allowing a hit among the last 10 batters he faced. The nine strikeouts for Rodriguez were tied for the second-most in his career. Rodriguez struck out a career-high 11 batters in a game as a member of the Syracuse Chiefs in 2018.

 

On the other side, David Peterson struggled for Syracuse. Making his first-ever start in Triple-A, the former Oregon Duck surrendered nine runs, including seven earned, on nine hits in five and two-thirds innings. Peterson did fan five batters during his time on the mound. The left-hander had made his first three appearances of the season up in the Majors with the New York Mets. Peterson had spent the 2020-22 seasons primarily up in the Big Leagues.  

 

Syracuse didn’t go away quietly, scoring three times in the top of the eighth on just one hit. Four walks plus a costly error allowed Daniel Palka, Rincon, and Blankenhorn to come home and make it an 11-6 game, but the Mets left the bases loaded in the frame.

 

Any hope of a furious late Mets rally was snuffed out when Rochester scored two more times in the bottom of the eighth to make it 13-6 and complete the day’s scoring.  

 

The Red Wings pitching made sure no comeback would happen on this day. Six pitchers (Rodriguez, Reed Garrett, Alberto Baldonaldo Tyler Clippard, Carl Edwards Jr. and Ben Braymer) combined to strike out 15 Mets batters in the Rochester win. The 15 strikeouts set a new season-high for strikeouts by Syracuse batters in a game.  

 

Syracuse continues its six-game series at the Rochester Red Wings on Friday night. Right-hander Connor Grey is slated to start for the Mets against another right-hander, Jackson Tetreault, for the Red Wings. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.