Syracuse storms back past RailRiders with four-run 10th inning

Syracuse spent nine innings searching for the opening, then turned the 10th into a rout.

The Mets beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-2 on Saturday night at PNC Field in Moosic, Pennsylvania, pulling away with four runs in the top of the 10th after a game that stayed tense far longer than the RailRiders wanted. The crowd of 7,814 watched first pitch at 6:06 p.m. under cloudy skies, 75-degree weather and a 12 mph wind, and they got a 2-hour, 53-minute game that flipped in a hurry once Syracuse finally broke through in extras.

That late surge carried Syracuse to 23-20 and dropped Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to 22-20, but the bigger number may be 3-0. Syracuse is perfect in extra-inning games this season, and this was its second walk-off-style pressure test in the same week. Four days earlier, the Mets beat the RailRiders 7-4 in 13 innings in a four-hour, 11-minute game, Syracuse’s longest by time since becoming the Mets affiliate in 2019 and its first 13-inning game since July 30, 2018.

Saturday’s game started with the kind of name that forces attention. Gerrit Cole, on a rehab assignment for the Yankees, gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 5.1 innings and allowed one run on six hits with six strikeouts and one walk, while touching 99.6 mph on his fastball. The RailRiders backed him early, as Ernesto Martinez Jr. singled and Ali Sánchez followed with a two-run homer to left in the second inning for a 2-0 lead.

Syracuse answered in the third when Jackson Cluff and Kevin Parada singled and Ji Hwan Bae lined an RBI single to first base to cut the deficit to 2-1. The game then settled into a grind, with Xzavion Curry holding Syracuse to two runs over five innings while striking out three and the late relievers taking over.

The tie finally arrived in the eighth. Bae walked, stole second and came home on Christian Arroyo’s RBI single to left, leaving both clubs locked at 2-2 heading into extras.

From there, Syracuse took control with a burst that made the RailRiders’ bullpen pay. Matt Rudick started the 10th on second, Nick Morabito singled him home, and after Bae’s groundout advanced Morabito, Arroyo doubled to left to make it 4-2. A wild pitch during Eric Wagaman’s at-bat brought in Ryan Clifford, and Yonny Hernández capped the inning with an RBI single for a 6-2 lead. Jonathan Pintaro, Nate Lavender and Dylan Ross finished the job, with Ross throwing two scoreless innings and striking out three to close out a win that looked much different once Syracuse got to the 10th.