Triple-A Yankees Earn Playoff Berth With Monster Comeback and Biggest Mets Choke You'll Ever See
By Adam Weinrib
Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to inform you that there ain't no party like a Scranton run-scoring party, because a Scranton run-scoring party don't stop.
Playing a tiebreaker game with more at stake than your average Triple-A contest, the Syracuse Mets and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders took to the field on Tuesday to decide a division. They were also, in the process, deciding where a few very important Yankees Triple-A rehabs were to take place; if Scranton won, Luis Severino would remain with the team, and Dellin Betances would soon join. If not? It was off to scrounge for innings in Trenton for two of the Yankees' biggest assets.
Scranton went down 7-1 in this game. Then...the eighth inning broke baseball.
Yes, those fightin' lil' savages came back from six down to cut the deficit to just a single run, only to watch it balloon back up to a SEVEN-RUN GAME.
Never fear! After a monster rally, sparked for the second time in as many innings by a Kyle Higashioka solo jack, the RailRiders rallied, taking the lead on an Erik Kratz crack of the bat.
Suddenly, the kids were working with a lead, and handed the ball to Ben Heller, a reliever who's worked his way back to prominence, and will probably join the big league Yankees when this playoff run is over.
Perfection.
On the flip side, the Syracuse Mets have to hope this remains the biggest public flop of their careers, because it doesn't get much worse than this two-part gag job. Big league veteran Ervin Santana started, destroyed, and maintained order, and it didn't even come CLOSE to mattering. LOVE those juiced balls!
ALSO, some respect on the name of Deivi Garcia, who stemmed the tide with three scoreless innings of relief before the comeback began.
Plenty of joy for Yankee fans to put in their back pocket. Mets folks may need to ready the big old paper bags a few weeks early this year.