Rochester walks off Syracuse with three-run homer in ninth

Abimelec Ortiz ended Syracuse’s night with one swing, launching a three-run homer to right-center field in the bottom of the ninth and turning a winnable Memorial Day game into an 8-5 Rochester win at Innovative Field.

The Syracuse Mets had clawed all the way back to take a 5-4 lead in the eighth, only to watch Rochester answer with two homers in the ninth and rip the game away. Trey Lipscomb opened the final frame by tying it with a leadoff blast, and after Robert Hassell III and Yohandy Morales reached, Ortiz finished the comeback in front of 10,565 fans on a sunny 70-degree afternoon. The first pitch came at 4:07 p.m., and the game lasted 2:57.

Rochester had set the tone early with a three-run third inning. Seaver King started the burst with a solo homer, Morales followed with an RBI single and Abimelec Ortiz added a run-scoring double for a 3-0 lead. Syracuse answered in the fourth when Eric Wagaman reached on an error and later scored on an RBI double from Andy Ibáñez, then kept pressing until Jihwan Bae and Wagaman helped tie it 3-3 in the sixth.

The Red Wings did not stay down for long. King drove in another run to put Rochester back in front 4-3, but Syracuse found one more push in the eighth. Bae worked a walk and stole second, Christian Arroyo doubled, Ryan Clifford tied the game with a sacrifice fly and Wagaman followed with an RBI single to put Syracuse ahead 5-4. It was the kind of inning that should have changed the game’s tone. Instead, it set up the ninth-inning punch Rochester was waiting to land.

Wagaman’s two-run homer in the sixth was his third of the season and second as a Met, one of the few power swings that let Syracuse stay within striking distance. But Jack Weisenburger’s solid start, three runs in five innings with six strikeouts, was undone when Ben Simon gave up the go-ahead run in the sixth and Dylan Ross allowed the decisive four-run ninth. Rochester finished with 10 hits and Syracuse with seven, and each club committed one error.

Ortiz finished 2-for-5 with four RBIs, while King drove in two for Rochester, which improved to 31-20. Syracuse fell to 27-24 and left Rochester with a lesson as sharp as the final pitch: one bad inning can erase nearly everything good that came before it. The Mets will try to reset Wednesday at 11:05 a.m., when Zach Thornton is scheduled to start against Riley Cornelio.