Senger homers twice as Syracuse outslugs RailRiders, 8-6

Hayden Senger's two-homer night did more than win a game. It gave Syracuse a clean answer to the question that matters most in the International League right now: which bats are making the Mets look twice?

At NBT Bank Stadium, Syracuse beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 8-6, on April 14 behind four home runs and enough extra-base damage to survive a RailRiders comeback. Senger, a 29-year-old catcher who entered the game with three homers and seven RBI in 27 at-bats, drove the offense with a pair of blasts. MJ Melendez set the table early with a triple that led to the first run, Nick Morabito added a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and José Rojas delivered the swing that tilted the game back in Syracuse’s favor with a two-run homer in the sixth after Christian Arroyo doubled to open the frame.

That is the part that should catch the Mets’ eye. Senger is not a headline prospect, but a catcher producing this kind of power changes his organizational weight in a hurry. Melendez brings a familiar big-league name and more offensive upside than Syracuse has gotten from the position group. Rojas, a former RailRider, punished his old club at the exact moment the game hung in the balance. If the Mets are looking for bats that can move from useful Triple-A pieces to emergency help, this was the kind of night that puts names on the board.

Syracuse also got a loud start from Jonah Tong, who struck out 10 over 4.2 innings in his fourth start of the season. Tong, the Mets’ No. 2 prospect, has now stacked another dominant outing on top of his 4-0 win over Indianapolis on April 8, and the early Triple-A trend is hard to miss: the stuff is translating, and the strikeouts are piling up. Brandon Waddell earned the win in his first appearance of the season, and Anderson Severino finished it for his second save.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre nearly turned the night into a theft. Brendan Beck allowed eight runs, six earned, in 5.1 innings, and the RailRiders erased a 6-1 deficit with a two-run homer from Ernesto Martinez Jr. and a solo shot from Payton Henry. Martinez’s blast was tracked at 116.4 mph, the highest recorded exit velocity in franchise history since 2021, but Syracuse answered the punch. That is the distinction in a game like this: one club flashed raw power, the other kept finding the next answer.

The win moved Syracuse to 8-8 and kept its home series alive. The bigger takeaway was simpler: with Senger, Melendez and Rojas all driving damage, the Mets have real Triple-A bats forcing their way into the conversation.