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Morning glory: RailRiders get second schoolday walkoff vs. Mets

donnie collins, the times-tribune, scranton, pa.
·5 min read

MOOSIC — It’s their reputation, so maybe nothing that happened Wednesday afternoon should come as a surprise.

They trailed by five runs early. They fell behind by four more runs a half inning after tying it up. And when the bottom of the ninth inning started with a veteran right-hander on the mound for Syracuse, they trailed by two.

Almost felt as if the RailRiders were at their most comfortable, as if they had their longtime International League rival right where they wanted them.

Caleb Durbin hit a two-out, walk-off home run to cap a wild four-run ninth as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre dramatically avoided its first three-game losing streak of the season with a stirring 12-10 win in a school day slugfest at PNC Field.

“Even though that game got out of hand early, I don’t think anyone in the dugout thought we were out of it,” Durbin said. “To have that mindset is huge throughout the whole season. We know we’re still in every single game.”

Durbin’s blast came on a 1-1 changeup from right-hander Cole Sulser, who didn’t allow a run in any of his previous four outings. But for the RailRiders, the comeback was set up as much by little things done right as it was by the big swings that started and ended it.

Jeter Downs started the ninth with a preview of how it would end, turning on a Sulser change and launching it to left for a solo home run that made it 10-9. The ball sailed over the walkway in left, flirting with the signage that towers over the bullpens. But if not for what happened next, it would have served as little more than window dressing on a day where hitters from both sides dominated action.

With one out, though, Greg Allen hit a sharp grounder past shortstop and into left-center. Hustling out of the box, he beat the throw to second for a double.

Allen stole third base just before Sulser fanned Kevin Smith for the second out, and with Taylor Trammell up, the situation couldn’t be more clear for either team. The RailRiders had the tying run 90 feet away, but the Mets were within a measly out of wresting first place in the International League East Division away from them.

And the line between that out and that 90 feet turned out to be narrow.

Trammell beat a 1-0 change into the grass up the third base line, right at the slick fielding veteran Jose Iglesias at the hot corner. The former American League All-Star fielded the ball cleanly enough going to his left, but he spun and noticed Trammell hustling up the line. Iglesias’ rushed throw sailed high and wide, past first baseman Luke Ritter and toward the Mets dugout.

Trammell hustled for second, bringing Durbin up with the winning run in scoring position.

“We’re down by two going into the inning, and you get a leadoff home run; A one-run game is completely different than a two-run game, especially when there are no outs,” RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said. “Then you get Allen, who hustles out of the box to get to second, then took advantage with the pitch clock and stole third. And Trammell hits a little squibber down the line, but he didn’t take it easy. He was busting it and put pressure on the third baseman.

“It was a hot day today, 11 o’clock game. The early ones aren’t always easy. These guys, it seemed like every single person left everything they had out on the field.”

It’s what it took to win.

Syracuse scored twice on four hits in the first, then chased lefty Edgar Barclay with a four-run fourth driven by a three-run home run by catcher Joe Hudson, then a solo shot by Iglesias that made it 6-1.

The RailRiders battled back with five in the bottom of the inning to tie it, led by back-to-back RBI hits by Brandon Lockridge, Durbin and Oswald Peraza. But Syracuse snuffed even that bit of momentum out in the top of the fifth, plating four runs — Iglesias picked up two more RBIs with a double — against one of the RailRiders’ stalwart relievers, Cody Morris.

But, the RailRiders got dominant relief work after that from lefties Anthony Misiewicz and Oddanier Mosqueda, who combined for 4⅓ no-hit innings and settled down the red-hot Syracuse sticks and set up the RailRiders’ second walk-off win of the season.

Both came in the two school-day games at PNC Field.

“We’ve had a lot of games in the last 10 days where we’ve been down like this and we’ve battled back and not pulled it off in the end,” Duncan said. “That can sometimes be emotionally deflating. So when you do pull one off like this, I think it does give the guys in there the energy and the belief that we can do this anytime, and keep fighting, no matter what the score is.”

Thursday’s games

RailRiders (30-16) vs. Syracuse (28-17), 2, 5:05 p.m., PNC Field

Pitching probables: RailRiders LHP Tanner Tully (0-2, 6.75) and TBD vs. Mets RHP Blake Tidwell (0-0, 0.00) and RHP Mike Vasil (1-2, 8.49)

Off the rails

* The Yankees activated reliever Tommy Kahnle (shoulder inflammation) off the 15-day injured list. He struck out 11 in five perfect innings over five rehab outings at Single-A Tampa and Double-A Somerset this month.

* To clear a spot on the roster for Kahnle, the Yankees sent lefty reliever Clayton Andrews back to the RailRiders. He allowed a run in ⅓ of an inning Tuesday in his Yankees debut.

* Mets starter Blade Tidwell is slated to start the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader. It will be the Triple-A debut for the Mets’ No. 10 prospect according to MLB.