Mike Montgomery, Photo by James Farrance
On a night when it took the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders until the sixth inning to get their first hit, they made the hits they got after count as they came back from a 3-0 eighth inning deficit to stun the Syracuse Mets, 5-3.
The bullpen meltdown spoiled what was a sparkling Mets minors debut for 32-year-old veteran starter Mike Montgomery who pitched four near perfect innings with the only baserunner coming off of a Patrick Mazeika error. Mazeika moved behind the plate to play first in this game.
Montgomery did have some help from left field Carlos Cortes, who in the third inning made a running catch down the left field line and then threw a perfect strike to second base to nail the running trying to tag up from first for a sensational double play:
Let's pause to appreciate this third-inning double play by Carlos Cortes pic.twitter.com/jYx54q1fEo
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) April 6, 2022
Syracuse reliever Andrew Mitchell followed up Montgomery’s great start with two scoreless innings of his own while also striking out three.
Mark Vientos would get Syracuse on the board for the first time this season when he laced an RBI single in the sixth. In the next inning, Nick Meyer delivered the Syracuse Mets first home run of the season and his first ever in Triple-A with a two-run shot over the left field wall to score Carlos Rincon.
Rincon also had a night of firsts. He tallied his first hit in Triple-A and logged an impressive night at the plate overall going 3-for-4 with a run scored.
In the eighth inning however, the RailRiders offense came alive. Anthony Vizcaya was tagged for two solo home runs by Rob Brantly and Estevan Florial which cut the Mets lead to one.
In the ninth inning, Yoan López couldn’t find the strike zone and walked the first two batters he saw. R.J. Alvarez came in to try and salvage the win but faced similar control problems as he walked three batters in the inning while giving up a go-ahead double to Ryan LaMarre which put Scranton up for good 5-3.The loss sent Syracuse to an 0-2 start to begin the 2022 season.
On Opening Day, the Mets were shutout and, on Wednesday night, a similar pattern seemed to emerge as the Yankees No. 8 prospect via MLB Pipeline, Hayden Wesneski held the Mets hitless through his first four innings of work.
Syracuse’s offense did perk up once it got into the RailRiders bullpen and they did outhit Scranton 8-5 respectively and despite the bullpen mishaps it’s very encouraging early on to see Mike Montgomery looking so sharp tonight.
On Thursday at 6:35 p.m., Syracuse looks to get in the win column for the first time in 2022 as they send Cole Gordon to the mound who will be making his Triple-A debut.
