Syracuse drops the 2023 season finale to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 7-3, on Sunday afternoon

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets capped off the 2023 season in unfortunate fashion, dropping their last game of the year to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 7-3, on Sunday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium. Despite the loss, the Mets split the final six-game series of the season.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (73-75, 39-35) got on the board first via a familiar face. With two outs and nobody on base in the top of the first, Andrés Chaparro slugged his 25th and final home run of the 2023 season to jolt the RailRiders out to a 1-0 lead. Six of those homers for Chaparro came against the Mets.

The RailRiders tacked on another two-out run in the top of the second inning to make it 2-0. Aaron Palensky walked with one out, moved up to second on a wild pitch, stole second with two outs, and scored on an RBI single from Nelson Medina for a 2-0 lead. Medina, who was called up from Single-A Tampa last week, finished the season in Triple-A strong, going 7-for-26 this week with two multi-hit games.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre put the game out of reach with four runs in the top of the fifth, all of which once again came with two outs. After the first two batters went down in order, things went downhill quickly for the Mets. Jamie Westbrook kept the inning alive with a single, Carlos Narvaez was hit by a pitch, Chaparro walked, and then Jake Lamb was hit by a pitch to plate one run. The very next batter, Jesús Bastidas, was also hit by a pitch that scored another run and made it 4-0. Then, Aaron Palensky slashed a single into center field to score another pair of runs, make it a 6-0, and make the comeback road that much longer for the Mets. The RailRiders sent nine men to the plate in the fateful, four-run fifth inning.

From there, it was the Clayton Beeter show on the mound for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The starter for the RailRiders completely kept Syracuse (61-85, 28-44) off balance all afternoon long, tossing five scoreless innings with just one hit allowed, four walks, and seven strikeouts. In fact, the Mets didn’t have a hit until the bottom of the fifth when Wyatt Young singled with two outs. All seven of Beeter’s strikeouts were swinging strikeouts.

The RailRiders added on and made it a 7-0 game in the top of the seventh when an RBI groundout from Wilmer Dido plated Jake Lamb, who had singled to start the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Mets crawled back in the game with three runs scored slightly unconventionally. The first run came home without Syracuse recording a hit. Jaylen Palmer was hit by a pitch to start the inning, followed by a Joe Suozzi walk, Jose Peroza being beaned by a pitch, and then Matt O’Neill drawing a bases-loaded walk to plate one run. That was followed by a Wyatt Young single and a Danny Mendick RBI groundout that made it a 7-3 game and added a little intrigue to the last couple innings of the season.

It remained a 7-3 game into the bottom of the ninth with the Syracuse Mets looking for one last dose of magic in the 2023 season. The Mets had won 14 prior games on walk-off plate appearances during this season. However, there would be no pixie dust in the final inning of the 2023 season. Syracuse went down scoreless as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre wrapped up its 73rd and final win this season.

Syracuse finishes the 2023 season with a 61-85 record but as one of the most entertaining teams in all of baseball. The Mets won multiple games in comeback fashion and lost multiple games losing late leads, but it always made games interesting no matter the score in late innings. Syracuse had 14 walk-off wins, ten walk-off loses, played 21 extra-inning games, and more than 43% of Syracuse’s games in 2023 were decided by two runs or less.

The Syracuse Mets begin the 2024 season on Friday, March 29th at NBT Bank Stadium against the Rochester Red Wings. Fans interested in 2024 season tickets email Will Commisso any time at [email protected] to get on the waiting list or call the ticket office at 315.474-7833. Flex Plans will go on sale Black Friday, November 24, 2023. Single game tickets for the 2023 season will go on sale Saturday, March 2, 2024 during the Syracuse Mets annual Open House at NBT Bank Stadium. More information about tickets and promotions for the 2024 season will be available on syracusemets.com.