IronPigs rally from five-run deficit to beat Mets 9-6

Lehigh Valley did not try to erase six runs in one swing. It worked counts, drew walks and stacked patient at-bats until Syracuse’s early lead slipped away, turning a 6-1 hole into a 9-6 IronPigs win Saturday at NBT Bank Stadium.

Otto Kemp opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first, but Syracuse answered with three runs in the bottom half and kept building from there. Ryan Clifford and Christian Arroyo delivered RBI singles, Eric Wagaman added a sacrifice fly and an RBI single, and Jackson Cluff chipped in a groundout RBI in the fifth as the Mets stretched the margin to 6-1. Jonah Tong had been sharp through the front half, allowing just one run over six innings and retiring 16 straight hitters at one point.

The game flipped once Tong left. Lehigh Valley loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, then Sergio Alcántara drove in two with a single and Christian Cairo followed with an RBI knock to cut the deficit to 6-4. In the eighth, Bryan De La Cruz reached on an error, advanced on two wild pitches and scored on Robert Moore’s sacrifice fly, trimming Syracuse’s lead again and keeping the comeback alive.

The IronPigs finished the job in the ninth with the same kind of patience that had fueled the rally. Two walks and a single loaded the bases, Kemp added another sacrifice fly, two more walks forced in a run and back-to-back hit-by-pitches brought home the final two Lehigh Valley runs. Seth Johnson closed it out for his third save of the season, working around a two-out hit and striking out one.

The win moved Lehigh Valley to 17-15 and snapped a four-game skid. Syracuse fell to 17-14 after seeing a four-game winning streak disappear. The clubs had already played through a postponed April 29 game that became a doubleheader on April 30, when Syracuse swept 7-0 and 4-3 in extras. The Mets also won a rain-shortened five-inning game 6-3 on May 1 before the IronPigs finally broke through, a reversal that came one patient inning at a time. The teams were scheduled to meet again Sunday at 1:05 p.m. EDT, with Syracuse’s home date set as ALS Awareness Day at NBT Bank Stadium.