Ceddanne Rafaela Leads The Way In Woo Sox 7-3 Win Over Mets
By DJ Harding
The Worcester Red Sox took on the Syracuse Mets for game four of their six game series.
Worcester won the first two games of the series in what was a four game win streak before falling to the Mets last night in a 6-1 loss.
The Woo Sox are 4-2 versus the Mets this season going into tonight and have outscored them 44-34. Looking to improve to 5-2 which would put themselves in position to win the series over the weekend they would have to get back to their winning ways at home.
Despite the loss Thursday night Worcester has won four of their last five and ten of their last thirteen games at home. Additionally since April 27 the Woo Sox are 23-4 and overall are 26-17 compared to 17-23 on the road.
Winning the series could give Worcester a 9-6-0 record during their first fifteen series. As of now the Woo Sox are 8-6-0 with no series splits. The last time they split a series was last August at home against Rochester August 16-21.
On the mound tonight for Worcester was Norwith Gudino. Gudino picked up his third win of the season pitching five innings allowing 2 hits, 2 runs, and 1 Homerun.
Manager Tracy Postgame said “Gudino was great on the mound not giving up much besides the one homerun.”
Syracuse had Joey Lucchesi take the mound pitching for four innings allowing 8 hits, 6 runs, and 1 Homerun.
Worcester would jump out to an early lead scoring five runs in the first three innings.
Four runs is the Woo Soxs magical number as they are 41-16 when they score more than four runs. On the opposite side of the spectrum when the Woo Soxs score under 3 runs they are 2-24.
The scoring started in the first inning as Bobby Dalbec hit a double which scored Pablo Reyes. Reyes got on base with a single two batters before Dalbec.
The bottom of the second then saw two runs scored first Nick Sogard scored off a single from Ceddanne Rafaela. Narciso Crook moved to second on the Rafaela single and later scored on a Pablo Reyes single.
The fourth and fifth runs came during the third inning from a Ronaldo Hernandez double which scored both Bobby Dalbec and Wilyer Abreu.
The Mets would finally get on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning courtesy of a Jaylin Davis homer which scored him and Luke about bringing the score to 5-2.
Ceddanne Rafaela responded with two home runs off his own one in the bottom of the fourth inning and another in the bottom of the sixth. Rafaela went 3 for 5 on the day with three hits, two home runs, two runs, and three RBIs.
Postgame Rafaela told me “I’m just trying to be myself, that’s the advice the guys gave me and try to not do too much because it’s a team sport.”
In the later innings John Schreiber took the mound in a relief appearance which is part of his rehab assignment. Schreiber pitched ⅔ innings only giving up a walk in his short appearance.
Luke Voit hit a homer for the Mets in the top of the eighth which brought the score to 7-3 which was the final score.
Syracuse falls to a record of 2-7 since the second half of the season started while Worcester improves to 5-4.
The two clubs square off again tomorrow for game five with Worcester having an opportunity to win the series after going up 3-1 tonight.
Brian Van Belle is going to take the mound in his triple A debut and First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 PM EST.
