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| Mike Vasil struck out eight batters in seven innings on Tuesday night while allowing just one run (Kylie Richelle). |
Columbus, OH – The Syracuse Mets played a complete game on Tuesday night, kicking off a weeklong, six-game series at the Columbus Clippers with a 7-1 win in front of 10,637 fans at Huntington Park. It was a strong bounce-back win for the Mets, who had lost five out of six games last week at the Buffalo Bisons. The Clippers enter the week 2.5 games ahead of Syracuse at the top of the International League standings in the second half of the season.
Each team traded a pair of runs in the first. Syracuse (62-40, 16-12) got on the board via a Mike Brosseau sacrifice fly that plated Luisangel Acuña, while a George Valera solo home run in the bottom of the first for Columbus (49-52, 17-10) knotted the game up, 1-1.
In the top of the second, poor defense from the Clippers handed the Mets another run. A Yolmer Sánchez single into left field leading off the inning was promptly misplayed by Valera, allowing Sánchez to advance up to second base with nobody out. Then, JT Schwartz hit a slow roller to second base that skittered underneath Raynel Delgado's glove into the outfield, yet another error that this time scored Sánchez from second base to push the Mets back in front at a 2-1 margin.
In the top of the fourth, Syracuse pushed the lead out to 3-1 with Sánchez in the thick of the action yet again. Sánchez doubled to start the inning, moved up to third on a Schwartz groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Acuña for the 3-1 edge.
In the top of fifth, Luke Ritter got in on the fun, crushing a 445-foot homer over the left-field fence to boost the lead up to three runs at 4-1. It was Ritter's 20th homer and his 70th RBI of the season. Literally on the next pitch, Brosseau smashed a solo blast just fair down the left-field line to make it a 5-1 game in the blink of an eye. The power display was a welcome change of pace for the Mets, who had only hit two home runs in the prior three games. Later in the fifth, the lead grew to 7-1 when Matt O'Neill slugged a two-out RBI double and Drew Gilbert followed it up with an RBI single.
In the fifth inning alone, seven of the nine Mets batters that came to the plate had hits. It was a remarkable night for the Syracuse offense overall – all nine starters had hits, seven different players reached base at least twice, and four different players had multi-hit games. Luke Ritter reached base five different times himself in the game, going 3-for-3 with a double, a home run, and two walks.
While the offense was excellent, the true shining star of the night was the starting pitcher for Syracuse. Mike Vasil put together maybe his best start of the season, allowing just one run on four hits in seven innings with two walks and eight strikeouts. Vasil allowed a home run to George Valera in the first inning, the second batter he faced in the game. After that, just six men reached against Vasil with just three further hits. Vasil finished with a flourish, retiring six of the final seven men that he faced.
The bullpen sealed the deal from there as Trey McLoughlin pitched a clean eighth, and Eric Orze finished the game off with a scoreless ninth. It was a successful Triple-A debut for McLoughlin who had a 2.08 ERA in 25 relief appearances with Double-A Binghamton prior to his call-up to Syracuse earlier this week. Orze, who has made multiple appearances with the New York Mets this season, now has racked up 6- strikeouts in 43 and one-third innings at the Triple-A level this season.
The Syracuse Mets are in the midst of a two-week road trip that continues with six games at the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, the Columbus Clippers, this entire week. The series continues on Wednesday with a 12:05 p.m. scheduled first pitch. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi is expected to start on the mound for the Mets.
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