Bat hits Pops, but not much else for SWB

Syracuse, N.Y. – Like Jon Weber’s pine tar, nothing worked right for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Thursday night.

Chase Lambin’s two-run home run off SWB starter Jason Hirsh capped a three-run first inning that catapulted the Chiefs to an 8-1 romp over the Yankees before an announced crowd of 3,318 at Alliance Bank Stadium.

The Yankees didn’t get a runner past first base after they left the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning. And while Hirsh settled down, the Chiefs pounced on reliever Kevin Whelan in the seventh inning to put the game away.

Weber’s pine tar malfunction occurred in the fourth inning, when he swung and missed at a Shairon Martis offering. His bat floated like a helicopter propeller and bounced off the Yankees’ dugout on the first-base line and into the stands. While fans scattered, the bat struck one of the Chiefs’ mascots – an elderly train engineer named “Pops” – in his baseball-shaped head.

It was a scene right out of the movie “Bull Durham,” when phenom pitcher Nuke LaLoosh decks the Bulls’ mascot with a warm-up pitch.

“It was hilarious,” Weber said. “They ought to put that on YouTube or something.”

Weber said he could laugh about it only because he knows the man in the Pops outfit, Nelson Lebron, was not seriously injured. Lebron stayed on the ground for about 10 seconds after getting hit, but he got on his feet and walked away holding his left shoulder.

The barrel of Weber’s bat hit Lebron’s shoulder, and the handle knocked him on the head. No word on whether Pops will have to go on the DL.

“I never, ever want to see anybody get hurt,” Weber said. “I was kind of like, ‘Oh, no,’ but when I saw him get up, I was like, ‘OK, whew.’ I was relieved.”

Chiefs manager Trent Jewett was asked if the Chiefs would buy a get well card for Pops.

“I think the other team’s in charge of passing that around,” Jewett said, smiling.

Jewett had plenty of reasons to smile Thursday as the first-place Chiefs (9-5) regained their two-game edge over the Yankees (7-7) in the International League’s North Division. Martis allowed one run in four innings before reaching his pitch limit (89), and reliever and winner Josh Wilkie (2-1) faced the minimum nine batters in his three innings.

Chris Duncan blasted a solo home run for Syracuse in the sixth off Hirsh (0-3), and Josh Whitesell’s two-run double in the seventh inning highlighted a three-run rally of Whelan in the seventh.

It was the complete opposite of Wednesday night, when the Yankees grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning and cruised to an easy 8-2 win.

“They have a good team, we have a good team, and that’s the way baseball goes,” Weber said.

The Yankees had failed to score while Hirsh was in the game in his first two starts this season. Scranton did score on Weber’s sacrifice fly in the second inning, but Kevin Russo flied out with the bases loaded to end that inning and Scranton’s last serious threat of the game.

“A couple of times he’s given up some early and then he seems to settle down,” Yankees manager Dave Miley said of Hirsh. “He keeps you in the game and competes. Early on we had a little bit of a chance but we just didn’t get the big hit.”

Miley said the big hits will eventually come, and the Yankees are hoping the bats will get hot during their eight-game homestand that starts tonight against Lehigh Valley.

“A couple of guys aren’t hitting right now,” Miley said. “Once those guys get going, we’ll be fine. We’ve just got to keep swinging away.”

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