Toledo Mud Hens Ride Five-Run First Inning to Season-Opening Win

Five runs before the Mets could breathe. Toledo's Mud Hens opened the first inning Tuesday at Syracuse like a team with something to prove, working through a chaotic sequence of walks, singles and productive contact to build a lead they never relinquished in a rain-shortened 5-1 victory.

The rally had a patience-first feel. Wenceel Pérez drew a leadoff walk, Max Clark followed with a single, and Jace Jung worked another free pass to load the bases. T. Cruz did the damage with a sharp ground ball that scored two runs and staked Toledo to a 2-0 lead. Max Anderson kept it going with an RBI single that plated Jung to make it 3-0. Corey Julks reached on a forceout and Cruz scored the fourth run, then Gage Workman capped the inning with a double that drove in Julks and pushed the advantage to 5-0.

Home plate never saw another Toledo run. It didn't need to.

Drew Sommers handled the first two frames on the mound, allowing just one hit while striking out two and keeping Syracuse off the board entirely. When Sommers departed, the bullpen trio of Ricky Vanasco, Burch Smith and Konnor Pilkington was nearly as stingy: the Mets' only run came on a solo home run in the fourth inning, a lone blemish on an otherwise dominant afternoon. Rain ended things after seven innings with the score locked at 5-1.

The victory was Toledo's first of the 2026 season, a needed reset after the Mud Hens dropped an extra-inning decision earlier in the opening series. The five-run first arrived through plate discipline, contact hitting and opportunistic baserunning: no home runs, no big swings, just a lineup stringing plate appearances together. That kind of manufacturing matters at the Triple-A level, where a team's ability to grind through a single inning often defines the final line.

Toledo was set to return to the field the following day, with the club looking to turn one win into its first series momentum as April began to take shape.