RailRiders fall in 11 innings, lose chance at series victory

Brendan Beck gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre exactly the kind of start that should have been enough. Instead, the RailRiders watched a game they had chances to finish slip away in the late innings, falling 4-2 to Buffalo in 11 innings Saturday at PNC Field and missing a chance to clinch the series.

Beck, the Yankees’ No. 21 prospect, worked a season-high seven innings and allowed two runs on one walk. It was his second quality start of the season and a sharp answer from a pitcher who had entered the day 2-2 with a 5.70 ERA over 30.0 innings. He kept Buffalo from ever fully taking control, even as the Bisons stacked up traffic and leaned on a staff that used seven pitchers and struck out 14.

The RailRiders struck first on Yanquiel Fernández’s solo homer in the bottom of the third after Ismael Munguia had singled home Rafael Lantigua for a 1-0 Buffalo lead. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre then nudged ahead in the fifth when George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones singled with two outs before Fernández pushed across another run with an RBI single to right. For a lineup that had already won a 10-inning game against Buffalo on April 30 and split a doubleheader Friday, the path to another victory was there.

But Buffalo kept answering. Lantigua doubled and Josh Kasevich singled in the sixth to tie the game at 2-2, and from there both bullpens turned the night into a test of execution. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre came closest in the ninth, when the go-ahead run reached third base, only to be stranded 90 feet from home.

The 10th inning brought another opening, and another miss. Lombard Jr. began on second, moved to third on a forceout, and the RailRiders loaded the bases after intentional and unintentional walks, but Ali Sánchez was retired and the threat ended. Buffalo made the home club pay in the 11th, starting with Kasevich’s leadoff single before RJ Schreck delivered a pinch-hit sacrifice fly and Willie MacIver added an RBI single. Tanner Andrews finished it off in the bottom half for the save.

De Los Santos took the loss after allowing two runs over the final two innings. In a game that lasted 3 hours and 22 minutes before 3,727 at PNC Field, Beck’s outing deserved a better finish, but the RailRiders could not turn repeated late chances into the series-clinching run.