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The week began with three wins in four games against the top team in the IL West. The weekend began with a particularly nauseating loss to the worst team in the IL West.
A bullpen meltdown saw Scranton/Wilkes-Barre go from six runs up in the ninth to suffering a demoralizing 8-6 loss to Louisville in 10 innings on Friday at PNC Field. The Bats hit four home runs in the ninth to tie it.
Reliever Dan Jennings was rocked for three of them for five runs. And even All-Star J.P. Feyereisen couldn’t stop the bleeding, giving up a game-tying blast to send it to extras before being tagged for two more runs in the 10th.
The decisive hit was a two-out, two-run single by Blake Trahan that made it eight unanswered runs for the Bats in just two innings. It would have been nine, but Trey Amburgey threw out a runner at the plate on the play to end the inning.
In the home half, Clint Frazier was hit by a pitch to put the tying run on base, but Kyle Higashioka hit into a game-ending double play. It was the first loss of the season for Feyereisen and just his second blown save.
A comfortable 6-0 lead in the top of the ninth began to turn sour with the first pitch of the frame from Jennings, which Aristides Aquino hit out for a home run to right.
With one out, Alex Blandino hit a solo shot of his own. Still no problem at 6-2.
But Sherman Johnson doubled and Trahan singled to bring up pinch-hitter Chadwick Tromp, who also took Jennings’ first offering deep and out to suddenly cut the deficit to 6-5.
Feyereisen then came on to try and put out the fire, only to have Narciso Crook tie it up with yet another homer.
The whole sequence spoiled a big night on the mound for Brody Koerner and a clutch grand slam off the bat of Zack Zehner.
Koerner pitched 7.2 scoreless innings, allowing just five hits and a walk while striking out eight. And for much of the night, it looked like the RailRiders (56-42) would need every bit of the right-hander’s stellar work.
A home run by Amburgey in the bottom of the second produced the game’s only run through six innings. But the RailRiders pulled four runs out of thin air in the bottom of the seventh.
With two outs and nothing brewing once again, Breyvic Valera got things started with a walk. Amburgey then singled and Ryan McBroom draw a walk of his own to load the bases and prompt a pitching change.
Zehner then took a big cut at a 1-1 pitch that curved out toward the foul pole in right field. Aquino got his glove up over the top of the fence, only to have the ball carry just enough to reach the bleachers for a grand slam.
Up 5-0 in the eighth, the RailRiders pushed across what turned out to be a critical insurance run without a hit. Clint Frazier and Tyler Wade drew back-to-back walks with Frazier moving over to third thanks to a pair of wild pitches by Bats reliever Justin Grimm.
With two outs, Grimm got Valera to swing at yet another wild pitch for what would have been the third out. But Valera managed to reach first on the play, allowing Frazier to come home and make it a 6-0 lead.
It didn’t last.
Amburgey and newcomer Terrance Gore had two hits apiece. The speedy Gore was acquired in a trade by the New York Yankees earlier in the week and went 2-for-4 while batting ninth and playing center field.
The three-game set continues Saturday with a 6:35 p.m. start in Moosic.