By Tyler Murray –
Despite home runs from Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, the Worcester Red Sox (10-5, 49-41) saw their season-best six-game winning streak come to an end with a 5-3 loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Tuesday night at PNC Field.
Scranton scored a run in each of the first four innings, and Jhony Brito (W, 2-1) retired 11 of the 13 batters he faced before Abreu got Worcester on the board in the fifth. Leading off the inning, he uncorked a 1-0 fastball 402 feet over the fence in right for his 13th home run of the season and fourth in the last six games.
Abreu’s blast was one of just three WooSox hits through the first eight innings, but Worcester managed to put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the ninth after trailing 5-1.
Nick Sogard started the comeback effort with an infield single, and came home on a no-doubt shot from Rafaela. Boston’s No. 2 prospect (MLB.com) laid off a first-pitch fastball, then stayed back on a curve and crushed it 430 feet to left center. Rafaela extended his on-base streak to 14 games, and now has five homers in 15 Triple-A contests.
With the score now 5-3, a Ronaldo Hernandez single and Daniel Palka double put men on second and third, but Zach Greene (S, 1) induced a 3-2 fly out from Niko Kavadas – who had Worcester’s only two-hit night – to end the ballgame.
Brito cruised aside from Abreu’s home run, holding the WooSox to one run on two hits with a walk and eight strikeouts in six innings. Reliever Matt Krook (H, 5) retired all five batters he faced and struck out three before Worcester plated a pair against Aaron McGarity (H, 3) in the ninth.
Brian Van Belle (L, 1-1), took the loss in his second Triple-A start. He struck out four batters while walking one, and surrendered four runs on eight hits (including solo homers from Jamie Westbrook and Andres Chaparro) in five innings.
Rio Gomez handled a hitless sixth inning, working around a pair of walks by striking out former WooSox outfielder Greg Allen, who is rehabbing a right hip flexor strain. Theo Denlinger delivered a scoreless seventh, popping up Michael Hermosillo to strand the bases loaded.