COLUMBUS CLIPPERS (56-36) @ SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE RAILRIDERS (53-40)

LHP Tanner Tully (1-0, 2.25) vs. RHP Deivi Garcia (Triple-A Debut) 

|  Game No. 94  |  PNC Field  |  Moosic, PA  |  July 15, 2019  |  First Pitch 7:05 p.m.  |

SYRACUSE, NY (July 14, 2019) -- For the second straight game, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders surrendered four runs in the bottom of the eighth, falling 5-3 to the Syracuse Mets at NBT Bank Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The RailRiders opened the scoring in the first. Thairo Estrada doubled to the right field corner and Tyler Wade matched the hit, doubling to right off of Mets starter Ervin Santana to plate Estrada for a 1-0 edge. Ben Heller made an Allied Integrated Health Systems rehab appearance for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, striking out the first two batters in the bottom of the first and needing only nine pitches, eight strikes, to dispatch Syracuse in a three-batter first.
Brody Koerner relieved Heller in the second and retired the first five men he faced. The Mets tied the game in the bottom of the fifth when Travis Taijeron doubled, advanced to third on a Colton Plaia single and scored on an infield groundout by Rajai Davis. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre answered quickly and with some help in the top of the sixth. With two outs and a 3-1 count on Erik Kratz, Santana was charged with a ball for a pitch clock violation, putting the RailRiders DH on first. Zack Zehner hit the next pitch over the left field wall to give Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a 3-1 lead. Koerner made the lead stick through the sixth and seventh, but the Syracuse scored four times in the eighth off of David Sosebee -- including Rene Rivera’s 15th home run of the season to give the Mets a 5-3 lead. The Mets scored four times in the eighth on Saturday to top the RailRiders 6-2.
LAST TIME: The last time that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and Columbus Clippers went head-to-head at PNC Field was April 25 last season, with the RailRiders taking the series with an 8-5 win. That day, a familiar face to Yankee fans was in the lineup going against the RailRiders in INF Giovanny Urshela. He was on rehab from the Cleveland Indians and went 2-for-4 that day, part of a 3-for-8, 2 2B, R, 2 RBI performance in 2G that series. He played 11G for Columbus last season, as well as 24G with the Buffalo Bisons (in which he didn’t face SWB) before finishing the final 27G of the regular season and the playoffs with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
LEADING AFTER 6: Saturday and Sunday featured a pair of losses by the RailRiders that were atypical for how the team has performed this season. They dropped a pair of games in which they were leading into the 7th inning, allowing four runs in the 8th inning on consecutive days. The team had been 43-1 this season when leading after six innings, and prior to Sunday’s game, they had been 43-0 when leading after seven innings.
A QUICK PROJECTION: Sunday afternoon featured a loss by the RailRiders (53-40, .570) and a win by the team closest to them in the IL North stadings, the Buffalo Bisons (49-44, .527). Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has 47 games to go in the regular season and now has only a 4.0-game lead on the Bisons for first place after hitting the All-Star break with a 5.5-game lead. That means, if the RailRiders were to go 24-23 (.511) the rest of the way, the Bisons would need to go 28-19 (.596) to catch them in the division. 
RECORD WATCH: The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders did not hit a home run Friday night and had homered in just one of their last five games before homering four times in Sunday’s doubleheader. With two more homers Thursday night and another one Friday, the RailRiders have already well eclipsed their season total from a year ago with 142 HR in 92G (1.54 HR/G), which far exceeds the rate for the 132 HR they hit all of last season (0.96 HR/G). The franchise record of the 164 HR (1.15 HR/G) was set by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons in 1998 over a 142-game season. With the new baseball in Triple-A, a number of records will be under assault as the calendar turns to August, including Slugging Percentage which is at .491 entering Monday, well ahead of the .449 mark put up in 1998.
HEY NOW...: Four players for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders received “you’re an All-Star” notices from the league a few weeks ago and got to participate in the Triple-A All-Star Game Wednesday night. C Kyle Higashioka (0-for-1, BB) INF Mike Ford (0-for-2) and DH Ryan McBroom (0-for-2, K) all started the game for the International League in their 9-3 loss to the Pacific Coast League. In the bottom of the 8th inning, J.P. Feyereisen appeared out of the bullpen and tossed a scoreless 1-2-3 inning while striking out Isan Diaz (INF, New Orleans Baby Cakes | Florida Marlins).