Box Score
Worcester, MA – The Syracuse Mets brought the fireworks to Polar Park on the Fourth of July, slugging three home runs and utilizing a brilliant starting pitching performance to cruise to a 9-1 win over the Worcester Red Sox in front of nearly 9,500 fans at Polar Park. The Mets have now bounced back to win consecutive games after losing their prior three games, advancing back to 20 games over .500 on the season in the process.
It was a pitcher’s duel three innings in as Richard Fitts for Worcester (40-44, 5-4) and Joey Lucchesi for Syracuse (52-32, 6-4) matched each other with three scoreless frames each to start the game.
In the top of the fourth, the Mets got to Fitts and opened the scoring in the process. Luke Ritter struck out to start the inning, but it took 11 pitches to strike him out. A clearly tired Fitts struggled from there, allowing a single to Pablo Reyes with one out and a two-out walk to Carlos Cortes to put two runners on base with two outs. Yolmer Sánchez then came to the plate, got a hanging breaking ball, and did not miss it, lining it over the 18-foot-high wall in right field for a go-ahead, three-run homer and a 3-0 lead for the Mets in the blink of an eye.
From there, the game spiraled out of control for the Red Sox. The Mets did not stop scoring down the stretch. Syracuse scored twice in the fifth, twice in the sixth, and two more times in the seventh to completely put the game out of reach. The fifth was highlighted by an RBI triple for Luke Ritter, who had another highlight later to come. In the sixth, a two-out, two-run homer from Rylan Bannon added the sixth and seventh runs on the board on the evening for the Mets. Bannon now has 15 home runs on the season.
In the seventh, the Mets put a capper on the scoring bonanza with two more tallies. Luke Ritter smashed the first pitch of the frame over the center-field wall and off the batter’s eye for a solo home run that capped off his brilliant night. Ritter finished the game with…
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