Syracuse Mets split doubleheader, erupt for 13 runs in nightcap

Kodai Senga gave Syracuse the kind of headline inning-to-inning tension Triple-A was built for, but the Mets still dropped the opener 6-3 before flattening Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 13-2 in the nightcap at NBT Bank Stadium. That split told the whole story of the evening: one game exposed how thin a lineup can look against quality arms, and the next showed how fast a club can turn a makeup date into a route when the middle of the order starts landing cleanly.

Game one belonged to the RailRiders’ third inning. Duke Ellis singled, George Lombard Jr. was hit by a pitch, and then Spencer Jones, Oswaldo Cabrera and Seth Brown kept the pressure on long enough to put up three runs and force Syracuse to chase the game. Senga, making his second rehab outing for the Mets, worked 5.0 innings and allowed 6 hits and 3 runs with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. The line was sturdy enough for a starter shaking off rust, but Syracuse did not give him much margin. Through six innings, the Mets managed only three hits and struck out 12 times, which made the early hole feel deeper than the final score. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre added more punch in the seventh when Tyler Hardman and Brown went back-to-back, and even with Ben Rortvedt’s two-run homer, his third of the season, plus Matt Rudick’s RBI single, Syracuse never fully closed the gap.

The second game flipped the script with the sort of inning that can change a series mood in 10 minutes. Syracuse scored first after Nick Morabito singled, stole third and came around on a throwing error by catcher Edinson Duran, then kept stacking pressure with five runs in the third and seven more in the sixth. Christian Arroyo was the tone-setter, driving in four runs and finishing with three hits and a double, while Kevin Parada delivered the knockout blow with a bases-clearing three-run double. Andy Ibáñez added a sacrifice fly, Rudick chipped in another RBI single, and the Mets kept running, stealing bases and forcing mistakes instead of waiting for one big swing.

That is the volatility of Triple-A depth in one night. The RailRiders, who entered 30-28, got major-league-adjacent production from names like Jones, Cabrera, Hardman and Brown in game one, while Syracuse, sitting at 28-26 after the opener, answered with a lineup avalanche in the makeup game that turned a postponed April 19 date into a statement. By the time the clubs met again June 4 and Rudick walked it off 3-2, the series had already become exactly what Syracuse baseball often is in June: unstable, loud and one inning away from changing shape completely.