By Stephen Ur
The Worcester Red Sox hosted the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders at Polar Park in Worcester, MA on Tuesday night. The WooSox were coming off a six-game series against the Buffalo Bisons in which they took five of those six games. They also came into the game in first place in the division after the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs lost their game on Sunday.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Bradley Zimmer and David Hamilton both struck out, leaving the bases loaded and game scoreless headed into the third inning.
The game remained scoreless into the bottom of the sixth until Stephen Scott hit a three-run home run over the Worcester Wall on a 3-2 count with no outs.
Rafaela would add two more runs for the WooSox in the same inning as he tripled to right field, allowing Zimmer and Ronaldo Hernandez to score. Scranton would get two, one in the seventh on a Carlos Narvaez double and an Austin Wells homer in the eighth, cutting Worcester’s lead to 5-2.
Franchy Cordero hit a two-run home run in the ninth, and it was a 5-4 game just like that. Ryan Fernandez, who came in in relief, had on an 0-2 count with two outs. The next pitch, however, was homered to left field, tying the game at five.
Oswald Peraza would hit a ground-rule double that allowed Brandon Lockridge to score, giving the Railriders for the lead for the first time tonight. Ron Marinaccio would close it out for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as they took the opening game of the series.
The affiliates of the Yankees and Red Sox will meet again tomorrow afternoon at Polar Park in Worcester. First pitch is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. ET.