Mets offense freezes in 19-0 loss to RailRiders on Saturday night

Syracuse, NY - The Syracuse Mets ran into a machine on Saturday night as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders beat the Mets, 19-0, at NBT Bank Stadium.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (78-57, 35-26) opened the game's scoring in the top of the first inning. Jon Berti walked, Caleb Durbin flied out, and Jasson Dominguez walked to put runners at first and second base. Ben Rice followed with a three-run home run over the right-field wall for a 3-0 lead. Two batters later, JC Escarra homered onto the Salt City Deck in right field to make it a 4-0 ballgame. Escarra now has five homers in the four games he has played this week.

The RailRiders added to their lead in the second. With two outs, Berti and Durbin hit back-to-back solo homers to take a 6-0 advantage.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre extended the edge in the fifth. Berti doubled and moved to third on a Durbin sacrifice bunt. Dominguez then reached on an infield single, and Rice walked to load the bases. Oswald Peraza followed with a two-run double to make it an 8-0 game. Escarra added a sacrifice fly out to right field for a 9-0 lead, and Carlos Narvaez added an RBI double to push the lead to 10-0.

The RailRiders put the exclamation point on the night in the ninth. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored nine runs on eight hits to take a 19-0 advantage. It's the most runs the Mets have allowed in a game this season.

Meanwhile Syracuse (72-63, 26-35) struggled on offense all night. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starting pitcher Thomas Pannone pitched seven shutout innings with four hits allowed, no walks, and six strikeouts.

The Mets did get a perfect performance from reliever Tyler Zuber who struck out four batters while retiring all six batters he faced.

Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre wrap up their six-game series on Sunday afternoon. Right-hander Brandon Sproat is scheduled to start on the mound for the Mets opposite RailRiders left-hander Edgar Barclay. First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m.