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Danny Farquhar returned to the mound Wednesday for a professional game for the first time in more than a year. It wasn’t the smoothest outing of the 32-year-old pitcher’s career, but it will go down as one of the most memorable.
Farquhar picked up five outs in relief for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in his first game since suffering a life-threatening brain hemorrhage last April, as the RailRiders held on for a 7-6 win in Norfolk, the team’s fifth in a row.
Signed to a minor-league contract by the New York Yankees in January, Farquhar went 1.2 innings for the RailRiders, allowing a three-run homer to the Tides’ Cedric Mullins in the bottom of the sixth. It was his only hit allowed. He walked one and struck out one.
That homer cut the RailRiders’ lead to 7-6, but Danny Coulombe took over to kept the Tides off the through the eighth before Joe Harvey closed things out with four outs — three by strikeout — to earn the save.
A Thairo Estrada RBI single and a two-run homer by Mike Ford — his 15th of the season — gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
But Norfolk answered with three RBI singles against RailRiders starter Randall Delgado to tie it up in the bottom of the third.
The RailRiders would put up the next four, starting with a two-run homer by Tyler Wade in the fourth and followed by an Estrada solo shot in the fifth and an RBI single from Billy Burns in the sixth.
Burns’ infield single came after a Trey Amburgey leadoff double for what proved to be the winning run.
Coulombe was awarded the win in relief, as Delgado only went four innings.
Estrada led the first-place RailRiders (38-25) with a 3-for-5 showing. Wade, Ford and Amburgey all had two hits apiece while Breyvic Valera added a triple.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will go for the series sweep with a 12:05 p.m. game today in Norfolk.