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| Carlos Cortes had five hits on Thursday for Syracuse, including a home run (Herm Card - herm4444@gmail.com). |
Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets and Worcester Red Sox played one of the wildest games of baseball you’ll see on Thursday night. The two teams combined for 26 runs, 31 hits, and 12 home runs in a 17-9 win for Worcester. The WooSox finished the game with seven home runs.
The scoring bonanza started innocuously enough in the bottom of the second, when Brandon McIlwain smacked a solo home run for Syracuse (43-60, 10-19) to put the Mets in front, 1-0. McIlwain was called up from Double-A Binghamton earlier this week and has hits in each of his first two games in Triple-A. The homer for McIlwain on Thursday night was his first at the Triple-A level.
In the top of the third, the game began to go off the rails. Worcester (56-58, 17-12) scored seven runs on seven hits to roar out to a 7-1 lead, smacking four separate home runs in the mammoth frame. David Hamilton hit a three-run blast, followed by solo homers for Ceddanne Rafaela, Ronaldo Hernández, and Ryan Fitzgerald later on in the inning. Rafaela’s homer only continued his reign of terror against the Syracuse Mets so far this season. The 22-year-old, widely considered one of the top prospects in the sport, has hit six of his nine home runs so far at the Triple-A level against the Mets. Rafaela has also homered in the first three games of this week’s series.
The Mets wouldn’t stay down for long. Syracuse got two home runs of their own in the bottom of the third to slim the deficit. After the first two batters recorded outs, Carlos Cortes reached on an infield single to keep the inning alive. Then, Tomas Nido hit a two-run homer to make it 7-3, and José Peraza immediately followed with a solo shot of his own to make it 7-4. Nido has now reached base in nine consecutive games while Peraza finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, a home run, and two runs scored.
The WooSox offensive onslaught only continued in the next two innings. Worcester scored five more times on another pair of home runs. Bradley Zimmer smacked a two-run shot in the fourth, followed by a three-run blast in the fifth from Stephen Scott. Zimmer is fresh off a return from the Injured List, coming back to the Worcester lineup on Wednesday afternoon. Scott had doubled and homered in Wednesday’s game as well.
Worcester, powered by their six home runs in the first five innings of the game, seemingly took an insurmountable lead at 12-4 into the bottom of the sixth. True to form, Syracuse would not go quietly into the warm night. The Mets scored the next five runs in the ballgame, slimming the deficit down to 12-9 entering the ninth inning. First, Syracuse got a run back sixth when Peraza doubled leading off the inning and then scored on a one-out single from Jose Suozzi. It was the first Triple-A hit for Suozzi, who played collegiately at Boston College.
The Mets got another pair of runs back in the seven via that familiar friend, the long ball. After Abraham Almonte walked to lead off the inning, Carlos Cortes crushed a two-run homer over the right-field fence to make it a 12-7 game. The big fly for Cortes put a capper on an incredible night at the plate. The former South Carolina Gamecock finished the game 5-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs driven in. Cortes’ five-hit game marked the 47th time in Syracuse baseball history that a Syracuse ballplayer has collected at least five hits.
In the eighth, Syracuse scored two runs yet again via yet another home run. McIlwain singled to start the inning, immediately followed by a Suozzi two-run shot that turned it into a 12-9 game. It was the first Triple-A home run for Suozzi, who finished the game 2-for-3 with three runs driven in. Suozzi and McIlwain were both called up from Double-A Binghamton earlier this week and have made their Triple-A debuts at NBT Bank Stadium this week.
In the top of the ninth, the WooSox put it away with yet another furious flurry of runs. The Red Sox scored five more runs to make it a 17-9 game, capped off by a second different three-run home run in the game from Stephen Scott. Scott finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, two home runs, three runs scored, and six runs driven in. Scott was one of six different Red Sox players to finish the game with at least two runs scored.
Syracuse recorded two more hits in the ninth but could not score again, ending the game right there at a 17-9 final in favor of Worcester. The game was truly an offensive explosion on both ends of the spectrum. 16 players in the game had a hit and nine players had at least two hits. 15 players scored at least one run and nine players scored at least twice. The most remarkable stat is that Worcester did not leave a single runner on base in the win. By contrast, the Mets left eight runners on base. Syracuse has left at least eight runners on base in each of the first three games of the series.
Syracuse is home all this week for six games against the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, the Worcester Red Sox. The fourth game of the series is slated for a 6:35 p.m. start time on Friday evening. Right-hander José Butto is scheduled to start for the Mets against right-hander Brandon Walter for the WooSox.
Congratulations to Brandon McIlwain on his first AAA home run! This puts us up 1-0 in the second 🙌 pic.twitter.com/mndbtAUr8z
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 3, 2023
Always love to see life-long @Mets fans shine here… and Joe Suozzi is one! Here’s his first AAA home run 🧡💙💪 pic.twitter.com/s2wqK1nuWh
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 4, 2023
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