Syracuse drops first two games to start final road trip of season in Worcester

Worcester, MA – The Syracuse Mets began their final road trip of the season with a thud, losing a pair of games at the Worcester Red on a sunny Tuesday night at Polar Park. The Mets lost the finish of a suspended game from August 11th by an 11-4 final and then dropped the official start of the weeklong, six-game road series by an 8-4 decision. The Mets have now lost four games in a row and seven out of their last eight games overall.

Game one of the pseudo-doubleheader continued with the Mets acting as the home team up, 4-2, in the top of the fifth with Worcester having runners on first and second with nobody out. The WooSox tied the game later in the frame as Kristian Campbell looped a two-out, two-run single into shallow right field to plate the two tying runs and make it a 4-4 game. Campbell was one of several players on both teams that came into the suspended game after not being on either roster when the game originally began on August 11th.

Worcester grabbed the lead for good in the seventh, with one of their highly-ranked prospects right in the thick of the action. In the seventh, an RBI groundout from Roman Anthony handed the WooSox the lead at 5-4. Anthony is currently considered the top prospect in all of baseball according to Baseball America.

In the top of the ninth, the Red Sox put the game away with a trio of two-run hits, as doubles from Tyler Heineman and Tyler McDonough, plus a single from Jamie Westbrook plated six runs and ballooned the lead all the way out to 11-4. The WooSox ended up winning the game by that margin, as they scored the final 11 runs in the game to win the suspended contest.

Syracuse (72-66, 26-38) got off to a good start in game two of the pseudo-doubleheader (a seven-inning game), plating a run off of Worcester (73-66, 38-26) on some fortunate circumstances in the top of the first. Luisangel Acuña reached on an infield single and then stole his way to second with one out. Luke Ritter came to the plate and hit a groundball up the middle that was stopped by Kristian Campbell on a nice spinning play, yet the threw the ball away down the first-base line. That throwing error allowed Acuña to score the game’s first run for a 1-0 Mets lead.

The WooSox didn’t even trail for a half of an inning, as Worcester roared right back and grabbed the lead in the bottom of the first inning. First, the Red Sox loaded up the bases on a Roman Anthony single plus walks to Chase Meidroth and Kyle Teel. Vaughn Grissom then brought Anthony and Meidroth home on a two-run single to make it 2-1 Worcester. The Red Sox weren’t done scoring in the inning. With two runners still on base and two outs, Dalton Guthrie lofted a fly ball to left field that was dropped by José Azocar, allowing two more runs to score on the error and boost the WooSox lead up to three runs at 4-1.

The Mets fought back with a weird run in the top of the second to make it a 4-2 game. A dropped third strike with two outs on JT Schwartz was immediately followed by a Hayden Senger single and an Acuña walk to load up the bases, and then Drew Gilbert reached first on a catcher’s interference to drive in the second run of game for the Mets. Syracuse would leave the bases loaded, however, squashing a golden chance to get back in the game even further.

The WooSox only grew the lead from there. Two runs in the third and fourth innings made it an eight-run flurry on the evening for the home team, highlighted by a two-run single from Tyler McDonough in the third and a two-run homer from Kyle Teel in the fourth. Teel is yet another top prospect in the Red Sox organization playing for Worcester at the moment. The New Jersey native is considered by some outlets to be the best catching prospect in all of baseball.

The Mets could only muster up single runs in the fourth and fifth, dropping the game by an 8-4 decision. Carlos Cortes would swat the Mets’ only homer of the day in the fifth, but his solo shot was far too little, far too late. The final seven Syracuse batters went down as the Mets dropped both games at Polar Park on Tuesday night. In fact, 12 of the final 13 batters in the ballgame for Syracuse came to the plate without reaching base.

The Syracuse Mets are in the midst of their last road trip of the season, playing at the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, the Worcester Red Sox. The series continues Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. Right-hander Mike Vasil is expected to start for the Mets against right-hander Jason Alexander for the WooSox.