Syracuse Loses Series Opener to Durham Bulls
It takes extra innings, but the Durham Bulls took game one of the series from Syracuse Tuesday night.
The Mets seemed poised from the jump to continue their strong stretch of play and doing so with the lumber. Hector Perez and Tony Dibrell were the two starters and after Dibrell’s scoreless first the Mets’ bats struck. Mark Vientos turned a double into 2 runs with Lorenzo Cedrola and Danny Mendick crossing the plate while Jaylin Davis made sure Vientos made it home safe and sound with a 2-run blast to center.
Perez didn’t continue after the 1st, but the Bulls did get one back from Tristan Gray would got the best of the right field wall for a solo shot. Jonathan Arauz got that one run back in the bottom half of the 2nd with an RBI single to make it 5-1.
It would be the 3rd inning that brought Durham back into the game. 3 consecutive hits to start the inning capped with an RBI double by Kyle Manzardo cut the lead to 3. Ben Gamel walked and then with one down Gray picked up another 2 RBIs with a single to right before Kameron Misner tied it up at 5. Dibrell’s night ended there, finishing with 3 innings, 8 hits and 5 earned before he was replaced by Eric Orze.
Curtis Mead would hit a leadoff double off Orze before back to back walks to load the bases. Ben Gamel then picked up his 2nd walk to bring in Mead and Ruben Cardenas hit a sac fly to left to make it 7-5. Mark Vientos rose to the occasion to bring those two runs back to lock the game back up at 7 with his 6th homer of the season and in the 5th, Michael Perez got the lead back with an RBI single.
Unfortunately for the Mets a trio of Burdi, Heller and LaSorsa would keep them from scoring the rest of the way. In the 7th it would be one mistake for Justin Courtney who gave up the game tying homer to Ruben Cardenas. That was the only hit he gave up in his 2 innings of work. It would be in the top of the 10th when Jonathan Aranda made the difference with an RBI double to left for the game winning run.
After the 9-8 loss the Mets return to action against Luis Patino who has a 1-2 record with a 5.25 ERA coming into the contest.