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MOOSIC — The RailRiders will be glad they don’t have to play Gwinnett for the rest of the season.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre struggled against the pesky Braves in six games this season, losing four times including Thursday night’s 5-0 shutout at PNC Field.
The shutout was just the second time the RailRiders were shut out this season, with the first coming in Game 2 on April 10.
The SWB offense has struggled at times this season, but still ranks in the top half of the league in runs scored and batting average. On Thursday, the RailRiders had problems with runners on base, stranding nine and going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position as they couldn’t support rehabbing Yankee Chris Capuano, who got the start.
Capuano pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up just one run on four hits. He was relieved by Danny Burawa with none on and two outs in the top of the fifth after throwing pitch No. 73 of his 75-pitch limit. He finished his outing in the bullpen throwing 10-15 fastballs.
Recovering from a strained right quad that was injured during spring training, Capuano’s curveball was sitting between 74 and 81 miles per hour, while his fastball topped out at 91.
“I feel good. My right quad, what I’m rehabbing, feels great. The first couple innings I had some mechanical issues and was rushing a little and I felt like I settled in after that,” said Capuano, who will make another rehab appearance with the RailRiders on Tuesday in Norfolk.
Capuano got out of trouble in the first inning after the Braves loaded the bases with two outs, but the 36-year-old only allowed one hit and a walk in the inning before an error allowed the third baserunner to reach. He then fanned Elmer Reyes on a curveball to end the frame.
In the second inning, Capuano whiffed the first two batters then allowed back-to-back doubles as Gwinnett opened a 1-0 lead.
Again in the third inning, he danced out of trouble when two batters were on base with one out before inducing a groundball double play to get out of the inning. He started to hit stride late in his outing, retiring the last six batters he faced.
“It felt good to finish good because in the beginning I was rushing and I felt like my command wasn’t as good and my pitches weren’t as sharp as I wanted them to be,” Capuano added. “But it was good to halfway through the outing to feel like I regained that and was stronger.”
The RailRiders missed a golden opportunity in the second inning as Gwinnett starter Sugar Ray Marimon walked the bases loaded with one out and struggled to find the strike zone. Then with a 2-0 count on Cole Figueroa, the SWB shortstop fouled out before Jonathan Galvez struck out looking on a 3-2 count. In the inning, Marimon threw 30 pitches and 19 of them were balls, but the RailRiders couldn’t capitalize.
When that part of the order came to bat again in the fourth inning, Austin Romine singled for the RailRiders’ first hit of the game and Ben Gamel doubled Romine to third with one out. Again Marimon got out of the trouble, getting Rob Segedin to pop out and Figueroa to fly out to left.
Romine (2 for 3) and Gamel (2 for 3) started a rally in the ninth inning again as the RailRiders loaded the bases with two outs before Galves fanned to end the game.
Meanwhile, the G-Braves kept doing the little things to keep tacking on runs, scoring two in the sixth on a single, stolen base, fielder’s choice and a safety squeeze to go ahead 3-0. In the seventh inning, Gwinnett scored another run on a fielder’s choice to increase the lead to 4-0. Gwinnett added a run in the ninth on a two-base throwing error by second baseman Jonathan Galvez.
The small-ball playing, speedy Braves were 10 for 10 on stolen base attempts in the three-game series, eight of them were against Romine with four on Thursday and four in the first game of the series on Tuesday night.
“They’re getting really great jumps and it’s really hard to throw them out,” Romine said.
RailRiders 5, Braves 3
Gwinnett`AB`R`H`BI
Perez lf`4`2`2`1
Peraza 2b`5`0`1`0
Cunningham cf`3`0`0`0
Garcia 3b`4`1`1`1
Hunter dh`4`0`1`0
Reyes ss`3`1`0`1
Kennelly 1b`0`0`0`0
Kleinknecht 1b/ss`4`0`1`0
Benson rf`3`0`0`0
Schlehuber c`4`1`1`0
Totals`34`5`7`4
RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI
Heathcott cf`4`0`1`0
Austin rf`4`0`0`0
Flores lf`4`0`0`0
Roller 1b`4`0`0`0
Romine c`3`0`2`0
Gamel dh`3`0`2`0
Segedin 3b`3`0`0`0
Figueroa 2b`3`0`0`0
Galvez 2b`4`0`0`0
Totals`32`0`5`0
Gwinnett`010`002`101`—`5
RailRiders`000`000`000`—`0
E: Galvez 2 (3). DP: Braves 0, RailRiders 1. LOB: Braves 8, RailRiders 9. 2B: Schlehuber (2), Perez (2), Gamel (4). SAC: Benson. SB: Peraza (11), Perez 2 (16), Garcia (1), Heathcott (3).
Gwinnett`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Marimon (W, 2-0)`6.0`2`0`0`3`5
Carpenter `2.0`1`0`0`0`1
Fisher`1.0`2`0`0`1`2
RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Capuano (L, 0-1)`4.2`4`1`1`2`4
Burawa `2.0`3`3`3`1`0
Webb `1.1`0`0`0`1`1
Pinder `1.0`0`1`0`1`0
Umpires: HP: Joe Born. 1B: Sean Barber. 2B: Chad Whitson. 3B: Brian DeBrauwere
T: 2:41. Att: 3,737.