Syracuse concludes 2024 road slate with Sunday loss at in Worcester

Worcester, MA – The Syracuse Mets finished off the 2024 road slate in frustrating fashion, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Worcester Red Sox on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon at Polar Park. The Mets had won the prior two games of the weeklong, six-game series at the WooSox. Syracuse ended up losing the final road series of the season by a four games to two count.

For the third straight game, it was Syracuse (74-69, 28-41) that opened the scoring. This time, the Mets jumped on top via a two-run homer from Carlos Cortes in the top of the fourth to make it a 2-0 game. Syracuse scored the game’s initial run in four of the six games this past week.

The Mets upped the lead in the sixth when Austin Allen slammed a home run that made it a 3-0 game. The Mets, for all their scoring in Friday and Saturday’s wins (they had combined to scored 30 runs), had only hit one homer in those games. It took Syracuse six innings in Sunday’s game to pass that amount of big flies.

On the other side, Worcester (76-68, 41-28) was befuddled most of the game by excellent Mets pitching. Syracuse’s starter, Blade Tidwell, tossed five scoreless innings with three hits, two walks, and four strikeouts to begin the game.

From there, Grant Hartwig and Joey Lucchesi combined to work three clean relief innings with no hits allowed. The big right-hander from Michigan went first, as Hartwig worked one and one-third inning. The tall left-hander from California went after that, as Lucchesi went one and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball.

It remained a 3-0 lead for the Mets entering the bottom of the ninth, with Shintaro Fujinami entering the game out of the bullpen hoping to lock down the save. However, it all went wrong from there. First, the WooSox loaded up the bases with one out via singles from Vaughn Grissom and Jamie Westbrook plus a walk to Tyler McDonough. Then, a bases-loaded walk to Reese McGuire scored Grissom and forced the Mets to go back to the bullpen in an effort to save the game.

Max Kranick entered the roaring fire and couldn’t put out the flames. Singles from Corey Rosier and Roman Anthony tied up the game, immediately followed by a game-winning, bases-loaded walk from Chase Meidroth that handed Worcester a stunning, comeback, 4-3 win. The Mets had been outscoring Worcester 33-3 on the weekend prior to the disastrous ninth inning.

The Syracuse Mets now return to NBT Bank Stadium next week for their last series of the 2024 season. The six-game series is against the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, the Charlotte Knights, and it is scheduled to begin at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday.