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| Jose Butto - 2024 Syracuse Mets Team Set |
Syracuse, NY – Fresh off a baseball game that featured 26 runs, 31 hits, and 12 home runs on Thursday night, the Syracuse Mets and Worcester Red Sox played a much calmer baseball game on Friday night. The Red Sox scored three pivotal runs in the top of the eighth to pull away late and claim a 5-1 win over the Mets on a comfortable early August night at NBT Bank Stadium. The WooSox have now won three out of the first four games in the weeklong, six-game series.
After two scoreless innings to start the game, Worcester (57-48, 18-12) got on the board with a pair of runs in the top of the third. After a strikeout to start the inning, Narciso Crook hit a solo home run over the left-field fence to give the WooSox a 1-0 lead. Friday night marked the first time that Crook had started a game this week. Later on in the inning, the pure speed of David Hamilton manufactured another run. Hamilton walked with one out, sprinted to third on a single from Trevor Story, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Ceddanne Rafaela to make it a 2-0 game.
However, from there, it was José Butto's time to shine on the mound. The Syracuse (43-61, 10-20) starter allowed just two runs on four hits in five innings, walking two batters and striking out four. Butto retired each of the final seven batters he faced. Friday night's outing was a bit of sweet justice for Butto, who had struggled mightily in his last outing. The right-hander last pitched last Wednesday at Lehigh Valley when he allowed eight earned runs in two and two-thirds innings of work.
The Mets got on the board in the bottom of the third via a pair of fresh call-ups from Double-A. Brandon McIlwain walked to start the inning, stole his way to second and scored on a Joe Suozzi RBI single. Both McIlwain and Suozzi have provided highlights the last two nights. McIlwain hit his first Triple-A homer on Thursday night and Suozzi has driven in four runs over the last two nights at NBT Bank Stadium.
It remained a 2-1 ballgame all the way until the top of the eighth when Worcester pulled away with three fateful runs. A Trevor Story single put a runner on base with one out, followed by yet another Rafaela home run that made it a 4-1 game just like that. Rafaela has now homered in each of the first four games in this week's six-game series. He has also hit seven of his ten Triple-A homers this season against the Syracuse Mets.
The very next batter, Bobby Dalbec, slugged a solo shot of his own to make it a 5-1 game in a flash for the WooSox. The homer for Dalbec helped to turn around what has been a quiet week Entering that at-bat, Dalbec was a combined 0-for-11 on the week with six strikeouts.
From there, the Red Sox held the Mets off the board in the eighth and ninth innings to seal the deal on a 5-1 victory. Worcester's four-pronged pitching attack of Kyle Barraclough (six-inning start), Ryan Fernandez, Justin Garza, and Brendan Nail (one inning of relief each) held Syracuse to just one run on four hits in the dominant combined pitching performance. The Mets had scored 20 combined runs on 39 combined hits in the first three games of the series. Syracuse had racked up at least nine hits in every game so far in this series prior to Friday night.
Syracuse is home all this week for six games against the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, the Worcester Red Sox. The fifth game of the series is slated for a 6:35 p.m. start time on Saturday evening. Right-hander Denyi Reyes is scheduled to start for the Mets against right-hander Brian Van Belle for the WooSox.
Brandon McIlwain/Joe Suozzi: making things happen
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 4, 2023
We’d call them the Dynamic Duo, but… that’s DC pic.twitter.com/a2DD9aIjVu
Uh, maybe don’t run on Joe Suozzi pic.twitter.com/LK5CZ9zlUg
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 4, 2023
Ceddanne Rafaela takes flight AGAIN for the @WooSox!
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 5, 2023
The second-ranked @RedSox prospect has homered in FOUR consecutive games: pic.twitter.com/E5JaMSWscJ
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