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Game Recap and Highlights: Vientos Homers, Syracuse wins third straight 7-6, in ten innings

Mark Vientos follows through on a home-run swing on Thursday night for Syracuse and has now homered in back-to-back games (Herm Card - herm4444@gmail.com).

 Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets continued their red-hot play on Thursday night, rallying back from a late five-run deficit to take down the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 7-6, (Box Score) in ten innings on a warm and sunny late June night at NBT Bank Stadium in front of an electric crowd of 7,241. The Mets have now won each of their last three games and 11 out of their last 16 games overall. Syracuse finishes June with a 16-11 record. 

Syracuse (31-43) trailed, 6-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Mets continued their comeback ways, mounting a late charge. First, Syracuse scored a run in the seventh when Nick Meyer blooped a shallow single into right field and scored Johneshwy Fargas from second with two outs to make it a 6-2 ballgame. Fargas was pinch-running for Daniel Palka, who had singled to lead off the inning. Fargas promptly stole second to put himself in scoring position before he scored on the Meyer single.   

In the bottom of the eighth, the Mets pulled out the pixie dust again. It looked like an innocuous inning early on, as Nick Plummer stood on first base with two outs. Then, Syracuse took advantage of unforced errors by Lehigh Valley. Vientos walked and Fargas was hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Travis Blankenhorn was then plunked by another pitch to score Plummer and make it 6-3. Kramer Robertson followed with another walk, scoring Vientos and make it 6-4. Meyer then stepped to the plate and brought the crowd to its feet, smacking a ground-rule double that one-hopped over the wall in left-center field, scoring Fargas and Blankenhorn to tie the game up, 6-6. Gosuke Katoh grounded out to end the inning, but the damage was certainly done. Meyer has been a revelation at the plate this week, going 4-for-6 in two games with six RBIs  

The game remained tied at six heading into the bottom of the tenth when the Mets walked off as winners. By rule, Khalil Lee started the frame as Syracuse's free runner at second base. After a Vientos strikeout, Lee moved up to third on a balk by Lehigh Valley reliever Nick Duron. With the runner on third and one out, the IronPigs elected to intentionally walk Fargas and Blankenhorn to load up the bases with one out and set up a force play at any base. Robertson stepped up to the plate with the game on the line and never had to take the bat off of his shoulder. Robertson walked on four straight pitches, scoring Lee and handing the Mets a 7-6 win and three straight victories to start the homestand.  

Lehigh Valley (40-35) got out to its early lead right away in the top of the first inning. Dalton Guthrie led off with a walk, and Will Toffey slugged a two-run home run to make it 2-0 IronPigs. Toffey has had an excellent start to the series, going a combined 4-for-11 in the first three games with two doubles, a home run, and four RBIs.    

In the bottom of the first, Syracuse got a run back when Mark Vientos lined a solo shot over the left-field fence to make it 2-1 in a flash. Vientos now has 27 RBIs and 12 home runs in 33 games since May 2nd, including home runs in back-to-back games.    

From there, the Mets offense was rendered mostly silent by truly outstanding starting pitching from the IronPigs. Kent Emanuel had a scintillating start, allowing just two hits and one run in six innings with no walks and three strikeouts. The left-hander retired 16 of the last 17 Mets batters he faced in order.   

While Emanuel was setting down batter after Syracuse batter, his offense gave him plenty of run support. Lehigh Valley scored two more times in the third and tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The long ball continued to be a big part of the IronPigs' attack. Lehigh Valley smacked three more home runs as Jorge Bonifacio hit a two-run shot in the third, followed by solo shots from Edgar Cabral in the fourth and Daniel Robertson in the fifth. After all the homers, it was a 6-1 Lehigh Valley lead after five innings.   

The underlying story of all the home runs was the fact that a pair of them came with two outs. Both Bonifacio and Robertson hit their dingers with two outs in the inning. In fact, of the 16 combined runs that Lehigh Valley has scored in the first three games of this week's series, 11 of them have come with two outs in the inning.   

Despite the hot start for Lehigh Valley, Syracuse made its third consecutive comeback of the week against the IronPigs bullpen while the Mets bullpen was on point.  

Not to be lost amidst all the late offense, the Syracuse bullpen was once again excellent. Alex Claudio, Colin Holderman, Jose Rodriguez, Joe Zanghi, and Eric Orze combined to toss six and one-third innings of one-run ball on just two hits with ten strikeouts. Combined over the last two games, Syracuse's bullpen has allowed two runs, but only one earned, in ten and two-thirds innings with two walks and 15 strikeouts.    

Syracuse is back home at NBT Bank Stadium on Friday to continue its six-game series against the Leigh Valley IronPigs. First pitch is slated for 6:35 p.m.   

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