Westbrook’s HR, 4 RBI Power WooSox Past Mets
SYRACUSE, NY – Led by Jamie Westbrook’s big night, and three more hits from a red-hot Chase Meidroth, the Worcester Red Sox (4-2, 39-42) took the opening game of a measuring- stick series against the Syracuse Mets (4-3, 50-31) 5-3 on Monday night at NBT Bank Stadium. Westbrook went 3-for-4
SYRACUSE, NY – Led by Jamie Westbrook’s big night, and three more hits from a red-hot Chase Meidroth, the Worcester Red Sox (4-2, 39-42) took the opening game of a measuring- stick series against the Syracuse Mets (4-3, 50-31) 5-3 on Monday night at NBT Bank Stadium.
Westbrook went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a two-run double, driving in four of Worcester’s five runs in an encouraging win over one of the International League’s top teams. In nine games since his option from Boston, the Massachusetts native is hitting .433 (13-for-30) with three homers and fourteen runs batted in.
Meidroth finished the night 3-for-5 with a double, and has now recorded multiple hits in four consecutive games. Including a career-high five-hit effort on Sunday, Meidroth has 12 hits in his last 19 at bats (.631), boosting his batting average from .287 to .313 over the last four games.
The game was tied 3-3 heading to the eighth when Nathan Hickey set the table with a one-out walk against Jordan Geber (L, 0-1), who was making his Triple-A debut for Syracuse. Westbrook was playing in his 405th Triple-A game, and he was ready for Gerber’s first-pitch fastball. He clubbed it 370 feet to left center, and it snuck beyond the fence below the video board to give the WooSox a 5-3 edge.
The lead held thanks to some phenomenal pitching, with starter Justin Hagenman holding a high- powered offense to three runs (two earned) on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Isaiah Campbell worked out of a jam in the sixth inning, thanks in part to a basket catch at shortstop from Meidroth that retired the side and saved a pair of runs.
Chase Shugart (W, 4-1) took over from there, continuing a dominant two-month stretch with two hitless innings and three strikeouts. Lucas Luetge (S, 6) needed just five pitches in a perfect ninth inning to seal the win.
Trailing 1-0 after two innings on the first of two Mike Brosseau homers, the WooSox rallied for three runs in the top of the third. Syracuse starter Mike Vasil loaded the bases with a hit batter, a walk, and a Meidroth single. Hickey tied the game at 1-1 with a sac fly to center, and Westbrook put Worcester in front 3-1 with a ringing two-run double to right center.
Syracuse tied the game with Brosseau’s second homer and an unearned run in the fifth inning, but the WooSox bullpen allowed nothing but a single and two walks from that point on.
The six-game set continues on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. in Syracuse, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:15 p.m. on 100 FM The Pike, 98.9 NASH Icon, and the rest of the WooSox Radio Network. The series shifts to Worcester on Thursday, July 4 for a weekend of freedom-fueled fun at Polar Park.