Lehigh Valley tops Syracuse 7-3, snaps Mets' four-game win streak
Lehigh Valley jumped on a bullpen day early, then pulled away late to hand Syracuse a 7-3 loss and end its four-game win streak.
Lehigh Valley made Syracuse pay for trying to piece together nine innings with a bullpen game, striking first, taking the lead right back, and never really letting the Mets settle in at Coca-Cola Park. The IronPigs’ 7-3 win on June 25 ended Syracuse’s four-game winning streak and cut into the momentum the club had built after opening the second half with a comeback.
Adbert Alzolay started the game for Syracuse in the bullpen-day arrangement and gave up two runs in the first inning. Dylan Moore opened the night with a single, stole second and scored when Felix Reyes lined an RBI single to center. Carter Kieboom followed with another RBI single to make it 2-0 before Syracuse had a chance to find its footing.
The Mets answered in the second. Ryan Clifford singled, Yonny Hernández reached on an error, and Grae Kessinger grounded out to drive in Syracuse’s first run. Ben Rortvedt then tied the game with an RBI single, but the response did not last long. Robert Moore doubled and Dylan Moore singled him home to put Lehigh Valley back on top 3-2, and the IronPigs kept stacking innings from there, adding one run in the third and another in the fourth to stretch the lead to 5-2.
From there, Syracuse kept putting runners on but never delivered the one swing that could have flipped the night. Cristian Pache cut the deficit to 5-3 with an RBI single in the seventh, but Lehigh Valley answered with two more runs in the eighth and turned a tight game into a comfortable finish. Syracuse’s relief chain ran through Ryan Lambert, Dan Hammer, Tanner Witt, Guillo Zuñiga, Nate Lavender and Dylan Ross after Alzolay’s brief opening stint, and the group was forced to cover the game after Lehigh Valley had already dictated the tempo.
The loss left Syracuse at 2-1 in the second half and 40-38 overall, while Lehigh Valley moved to 1-2 and 36-42. It came one night after Syracuse had beaten the IronPigs 9-6 in the second-half opener behind Tyrone Taylor, Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Lindor, but the fourth game of the six-game set showed how much harder life gets when Syracuse cannot lean on a traditional starter. Friday’s matchup paired Jonah Tong for Syracuse against Drake Fellows, with the series still in the balance.
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