Syracuse Salt Potatoes win Duel of the Dishes with 8-4 victory over Rochester Plates on Sunday

Rochester, NY – The Syracuse Mets became the Syracuse Salt Potatoes on Sunday afternoon and beat the Rochester Plates, 8-4. Syracuse and Rochester played three times this season as the Salt Potatoes and Plates as part of the “Duel of the Dishes.” Syracuse won two of the three games to win the eight-foot Golden Fork trophy. Syracuse starting pitcher Tylor Megill set a career high with seven and two-thirds innings pitched and tied a career high with 11 strikeouts.

Syracuse (65-53, 19-25) got to Rochester (65-53, 27-18) in the top of the second, getting two runs across Jackson Rutledge to take an early 2-0. First, the Salt Potatoes loaded up the bases with one out on a pair of singles from Drew Gilbert and Pablo Reyes plus a walk to Mike Brosseau. That was followed by a sacrifice fly from Jackie Bradley, Jr. to score Gilbert for a 1-0 lead. Then, a wild pitch with Logan Porter at the plate allowed Reyes to dash home and make it a 2-0 game. It was a welcome sign as Syracuse had not scored against Rutledge in the first five and two-thirds innings that he had worked so far in the week.

Rochester got a run back in the bottom of the second, as their own sacrifice fly from Jake Alu plated Joey Gallo to make it a 2-1 game. Gallo had walked to start the inning, moved to third on a one-out single from Trey Lipscomb, and then scored when Alu lofted a fly ball to the right-field warning track.

The Salt Potatoes answered right back in a big way in the top of the third. Luisangel Acuña walked to start the frame. Brett Baty then blasted a two-run shot over the right-field fence to make it a 4-1 game. Baty hit three home runs this past week in Rochester, all of which sailed more than 400 feet in the air on their way over the fence.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Red Wings nearly tied up the game. With runners on first and second against Megill and two outs in the inning, Lipscomb grounded a double down the right-field line to score one run and put runners on second and third. With still two outs in the inning and now a 4-2 game, Alu came back to the plate with a chance to do more damage. However, Megill got Alu to ground out, escaping a potential crisis and keeping the Salt Potatoes in front entering the second half of the ballgame.

Insurance came for Syracuse in the sixth and seventh innings on a pair of pivotal extra-base hits. Eddie Rosario drove in Bradley, Jr. with a two-out RBI triple in the sixth for his first hit in the Mets organization, while an RBI double from Reyes brought Baty home in the seventh.

From there, it was Megill’s time to shine. While runs were charged against him in the sixth and eighth innings, that could not dim the brilliance of Megill’s outing. Megill struck out 11 batters in a season-high seven and two-thirds innings of work, surrendering the four earned runs on eight hits with two walks. 66 of the 97 pitches that Megill threw in the outing were strikes. After Megill exited the game in the bottom of the eighth with a runner on base and two outs in a 6-4 game, Tyler Zuber came on to get the final out of the frame and keep the Salt Potatoes in front by two runs entering the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, Syracuse added a pair of insurance runs. Consecutive RBI doubles with two outs from Bradley Jr. and Logan Porter boosted the lead to 8-4 before Grant Hartwig pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth.

The best part of the day? The resurgence of the Syracuse offense. In the first five games of the series, the Salt Potatoes scored just a combined eight runs. In Sunday’s win, Syracuse scored eight runs on 12 hits as each member of the starting lineup reached base at least once. In fact, seven of the nine batters in the starting nine had at least one hit in the satisfying win.

Syracuse is back home next week to take on the Durham Bulls for the first and only time in the 2024 season. Game one of the series against the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays is set for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday.