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Greg Weissert had surrendered just four home runs all of last season for the RailRiders. So when the award-winning reliever got taken deep to open Tuesday’s ninth inning, it was an interesting spot to see how he would respond.
Nine pitches later, Scranton/Wilkes Barre had another win and Weissert had another save.
Weissert regrouped to retire the next three batters he faced to end an eventful night at PNC Field with a 9-7 RailRiders win over Syracuse.
It was already the fourth save of the year for Weissert, who struck out the last two batters on three pitches each to seal the win.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre trailed 2-0 in the second inning before getting a pair of home runs from Andres Chaparro and Estevan Florial, who quickly swung the game with seven straight runs on their four deep shots.
But the Mets wouldn’t go away, even after Oswald Peraza answered a Mark Vientos homer in the sixth with a two-run single in the home half to put the RailRiders up 9-3.
Syracuse responded with three runs in the eighth after loading the bases, with Nick Meyer’s two-run double doing the most damage.
That brought out Weissert in the ninth, who settled down after Brett Baty homered to center on a full count to make it 9-7.
Florial, recently sent down from New York, finished with four RBI while Chaparro had three. Elijah Dunham went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Starter Sean Boyle went five innings for the win, striking out nine without a walk while giving up two runs on six hits.