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| Shintaro Fujinami struck out five batters in two perfect innings of relief for Syracuse on Saturday night (Kylie Richelle). |
By Michael Tricarico, Syracuse Mets Broadcaster
Rochester, NY – The Syracuse Mets' frustrating week continued in Rochester on Saturday night as the Red Wings won by a 9-1 final at Innovative Field. The Mets have lost each of the first five games to start the weeklong, six-game series at their longtime rivals.
Early on, Syracuse (64-53, 18-25) got off to a good start, taking the early lead as a pair of top Mets prospects combined to get the Mets on the board in the top of the third inning. Luisangel Acuña lined a sharp single into center field to start the inning, stole his way to second, and scored when Drew Gilbert singled to center field to hand Syracuse an early 1-0 lead. Acuña has hits in four of the first five games this week, while Gilbert has now driven in three runs in the last three games.
Mike Vasil had Rochester (65-52, 27-17) guessing in the first three innings, holding the Red Wings off the scoreboard while striking out four of the first eight batters that Vasil faced. In the fourth, it all went horribly wrong. The Red Wings chased Vasil from the game with an emphatic display of scoring, plating nine runs on seven hits while sending 13 men to the plate in the inning. The highlights of the scoring barrage were a go-ahead, three-run triple from Erick Mejia to start the scoring and then a grand slam from Carter Kieboom later in the inning that capped off the nine-run bonanza. Remarkably, it is the third different half inning so far this week in which Rochester has scored at least six runs against the Mets.
From there, it was cruise control for the Red Wings. Rochester didn't allow another run as the Red Wings coasted to a 9-1 lead over the Mets on this Saturday night. Unfortunately for the home team, their starting pitcher, Brad Lord, had to leave the game in the second inning with an apparent injury. Fortunately, their bullpen was up to the task. Ty Tice, Tim Cate, Carlos Romero, Zach Brzykcy, and Amos Willingham combined to work the final seven and one-third innings of the game in scoreless fashion, allowing just four hits while walking four and fanning seven batters.
The pitching staff for the Rochester Red Wings has done remarkable work all week long, holding the Mets to just eight runs in the first five games of the series.
To the Mets credit, their bullpen arms held down the fort as well. Justin Jarvis and Shintaro Fujinami allowed just two runs (both earned) in the final four and two-thirds innings on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Fujinami was the star of the night, dazzling in his two perfect innings of work. The right-hander struck out five batters in his scintillating outing, four of which were of the swinging variety. It was a season-high in strikeouts in an outing for the talented pitcher from Japan.
The Syracuse Mets wrap up their week on the road on Sunday afternoon, taking on the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, the Rochester Red Wings, one final time in the 2024 season. Game six of the six-game series is set for 1:05 p.m. first pitch. Tylor Megill is slated to start for the Mets, and Jackson Rutledge is scheduled to oppose him for the Red Wings.
"Drew Gilbert drives in Luisangel Acuña to give the Mets the lead."
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) August 17, 2024
How sweet does that sentence sound? pic.twitter.com/CDa1x4Zlum
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