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Syracuse Game recap: Carlos Cortes homers twice as Syracuse beats Buffalo, 8-5, in ten innings on Saturday night

Carlos Cortes homered twice on Saturday for Syracuse (Kylie Richelle).

Box Score

By Michael Tricarico, Syracuse Mets Broadcaster

Buffalo, NY – The Syracuse Mets would not be denied on Saturday night at Sahlen Field, surviving multiple Buffalo Bisons comeback attempts in an 8-5, ten-inning win over the Bisons. The Mets have had quite the time in Western New York this week. Syracuse has already captured the series, winning four out of the first five contests in the six-game series.
 
It took literally one pitch for Syracuse (50-29, 4-1) to jump in front, as Luisangel Acuña's pounced on the game's first pitch and crushed it over the left-field fence for a 1-0 lead just like that. It was Acuña's fifth home run of the season and traveled an estimated 418 feet over the wall.
 
The Mets added on in the top of the fourth when Carlos Cortes slugged a solo shot over the left-field fence, continuing his strong week in Western New York as the Mets took a 2-0 advantage.
 
From there, the focus turned to Joey Lucchesi, and the Mets starter kept Buffalo (38-41, 1-4) befuddled for much of the night. Lucchesi took a one-hitter into the seventh inning, racking up seven swinging strikeouts in those six brilliant innings to start the ballgame.
 
In the seventh, the script flipped, as the Bisons finally put some runs on the board. After a Rafael Lantigua strikeout to start the inning, Riley Tirotta walked and Damiano Palmegiani singled to put two runners on base with one out. That prompted a call to the bullpen, as Lucchesi was relieved for Eric Orze. The first batter Orze faced was Gabriel Cancel, who changed the game with one mighty blow. Cancel smacked a go-ahead, three-run shot over the fence in right-center field that made it a 3-2 game in the blink of an eye.
 
The Mets got out of that seventh inning without further damage, trailing still by just the one run entering the eighth inning. In that eighth inning, Syracuse showed remarkable resilience to grab the lead right back. After the first two batters of the inning went down in order, Mike Brosseau worked a two-out walk to keep the frame alive. Then, on a 3-2 pitch after being down in the count 1-2 earlier in the at-bat, Pablo Reyes smoked a two-run blast over the wall in  left-center field to blast the Mets back in front, 4-3. It was the third home run of the night for Syracuse, accounting for all of their runs up until that point.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, down to their last licks, the Bisons rallied back yet again. Leading off the frame, Riley Tirotta hit a game-tying homer over the left-field fence to make it a 4-4 game. Now, the question became could Buffalo push the across the one more run to win the game in regulation. The Bisons did not, although Buffalo put two runners on base with one out, Max Kranick bore down to strike out consecutive batters and send the game into extra innings.
 
In the top of the tenth, the Mets showed their resilience once again, plating multiple two-out runs to grab the lead for good. Acuña was the free runner on second base with nobody out and advanced to third on a groundout from Brett Baty. Acuña stayed stuck at third on a Rylan Bannon strikeout. Then, Mike Brosseau bore down. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Brosseau laced a single into left field to make it a 5-4 advantage for the Syracuse Mets. The Mets weren't done there. Reyes slapped a single to put two runners on base with two outs, followed by another Cortes home run to completely blow the game open in the tenth. Cortes's three-run shot turned it into an 8-4 game and finally put it out of reach for Buffalo. It was a two-homer night for Cortes and his fifth and sixth home runs of the season.
 
The Bisons mustered up just one run in the bottom of the tenth, not nearly enough as the Mets outlasted Buffalo by an 8-5 final in ten innings on Saturday night. The game took three hours and seven minutes, just the ninth game this season that lasted more than three hours for Syracuse. The game was marked by mood swings and late offense. 11 of the final 13 runs in the game combined between the two teams came from the seventh inning onward. The Mets were also astoundingly good in late-inning situations down the stretch. Six of Syracuse's final eight runs came on two-strike pitches with two outs in an inning.
 
The Syracuse Mets are wrapping up their week on the road at the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, the Buffalo Bisons. Game six of the six-game series at the Bisons is set for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch on Sunday. Right-hander Blade Tidwell is slated to start for the Mets against right-hander Aaron Sanchez for the Bisons.


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