Williams and Gilbert shine, but Mets lose to Knights, 9-8, in ten innings on Wednesday 

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets late-season offensive surge rolled on in Wednesday night’s game, but a late rally from the Charlotte Knights allowed the Knights to come back and win, 9-8, in ten innings at NBT Bank Stadium. The eight more runs from the Mets in Wednesday night’s game now makes 56 runs in Syracuse’s last five games, of which the Mets have won three.

Charlotte (67-76, 34-35) got on the board first in the top of the second when Danny Mendick hit a solo home run to put them in front 1-0. Mendick, the former Syracuse Met, has now hit six home runs this season in six total games against in former team.

In the top of the third, the Knights added to the lead when Mark Payton singled with one out, moved to second on a Corey Julks single, got to third on a balk, and then scored on an RBI groundout from Tim Elko to make it a 2-0 ballgame.

From there, it was Syracuse (75-70, 29-42) that got the bats going yet again. In the bottom of the third, a little late-inning magic helped to tie the game up at two. First, José Azocar doubled to start the inning and later came around to score on consecutive groundouts to turn it into a 2-1 game. A two-out walk from Jett Williams extended the frame, and then Williams raced all the way home on an RBI double from Drew Gilbert, knotting the game up, 2-2. Both Williams and Gilbert are considered consensus top-five prospects in the New York Mets minor-league system.

The lead continued to grow in the innings that followed. In the fourth, a solo homer from Carlos Cortes put the Mets in front for good at 3-2.

In the sixth, two runs came across home plate when Azocar hit a two-run shot over the fence in left-center field for a 5-2 lead. It was the second homer in as many games for Azocar, who joined the team less than two weeks ago.

In the seventh, a familiar formula got the Mets their sixth run of the evening. Back-to-back doubles to start the seventh from Williams and Gilbert made it a 6-2 lead for Syracuse in the blink of an eye. The pair of highly-touted prospects finished the game a combined 4-for-8 at the plate with three doubles, two runs scored, and two runs driven in.

That put the game in the hands of the Mets bullpen, and it started getting interesting in the top of the eighth. Shintaro Fujinami came back out after a scoreless seventh, but he was pulled after a walk and single allowed to start the frame. Matt Gage was summoned out of the bullpen, but the first man he faced, Colson Montgomery, slugged a three-run homer over the center-field fence to suddenly make it a 6-5 game.

Gage got out of the inning from there, and after Syracuse added an insurance run on an RBI double from Wyatt Young in the bottom of the eighth to make it 7-5, Grant Hartwig came out of the bullpen hoping to earn the save for Syracuse in the top of the ninth.

Unfortunately, Hartwig didn’t get the job done. The Knights started the inning by loading up the bases with nobody out on a pair of singles and a walk. After a strikeout briefly allowed Hartwig to breath, Hartwig walked back-to-back batters to allow Charlotte to score twice and tie the game, 7-7. To Hartwig’s credit, he then got the next two batters in order to make sure the game stayed tied at seven going into the bottom of the ninth.

It remained tied at seven into extra innings, when Charlotte put two runs on the board to take a 9-7 lead into the bottom of the tenth. With Rafael Ortega as the placed runner on second base to start the tenth, Adam Hackenburg lined a one-out single into center field to plate the speedy Ortega to score and hand the Knights an 8-7 lead. Later in the inning, an RBI single from Tim Elko got another run across to boost the lead up to a pivotal two runs, 9-7.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Mets did their best to keep the night going. Cortes started the frame as the placed runner at second base with nobody out and he scored quickly, moving to third on an Austin Allen single and scoring on a sacrifice fly from Azocar to make it a 9-8 game. JT Schwartz then stepped to the plate with the chance to play hero, but he grounded into a game-ending double play to hand Charlotte its first win in the last series of the season.

The Syracuse Mets are at NBT Bank Stadium all 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 continues at 6:35 p.m. on Thursday.