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MOOSIC — The RailRiders have been playing very well since the calendar turned to June. They have been clubbing opponents night after night to enter Thursday night’s game against Louisville with a 5.5 game lead in the International League North Division.
It happens in baseball where no matter how good a team is playing, it will eventually have one clunker occur.
Thursday night the tables were turned on Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as the team was rocked by Louisville 15-2, allowing season highs in runs and hits (24).
“In football you gotta wait a week, but in our league with 144 games, squash it,” said RailRiders first baseman Rob Segedin, who finished 2 for 4. “Tomorrow, show up and we got a new series coming in (today) and just be ready to go (today).”
Starter Jaron Long set franchise records in his outing — and not the ones he would have liked to set. He allowed a career-high 14 hits, which tied the franchise record for most allowed in a game and was set by the Red Barons’ Carlton Loewer in 1997. Long also gave up a career-high 11 runs, which was also franchise-record tying. Twice a pitcher gave up 11 runs in franchise history, the last time being by the Barons’ Clay Condrey on July 25, 2004.
The right-handed Long started off on the right note, allowing singles in the first and second innings but inducing groundball double plays each inning to erase those hits. He fell apart in the third inning as the Bats sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on seven hits. The big blow of the inning was a three-run, opposite-field home run by Yorman Rodriguez as Louisville went ahead 7-0.
Louisville got another run in the fourth inning before Long induced another double play to minimize the damage, but the Bats led 8-0 after the frame.
Long was pulled in the fifth after the first three batters of the inning all smoked balls for hits. The Bats scored four more runs in the stanza, sending 10 batters to the plate for the second time in the contest to open a 12-0 lead. Rodriguez again had the big hit with a two-run double. Still, the RailRiders didn’t feel like the game was over.
“There’s never a point where you feel like the game is out of reach and the game’s over,” Segedin added. “Obviously we were down big, but things happen. Just like they scored 12 runs and had a seven-run inning, we’ve done it before and one big inning could put us back in and give us momentum.”
Normally it has been the RailRiders’ offense piling up the runs as they scored double-digit runs four times in June, getting contributions from all over the lineup.
Not this night as seven Louisville batters had multiple-hit efforts led by Irving Falu, who finished a homer short of the cycle in a 4 for 4 night when he scored three runs. Jason Bourgeois (4 for 6), Hernan Iribarren (4 for 5), former RailRider Brennan Boesch (3 for 6) Rodriguez (3 for 6) and Jose Constanza (3 for 5) all racked up hits as the team batted .500 on the night (24 for 48) and everyone in the starting lineup had at least one knock.
The lone highlight for the RailRiders came in the bottom of the eighth when Aaron Judge clubbed his first Triple-A homer, a lined shot to left that came with a runner on base. He hit 12 longballs for Trenton before his promotion earlier this week. Before Thursday’s game, he was named to the All-Star Futures Game to be held July 12 at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park.
“I just got a good pitch to hit. I finally got a pitch I could drive and I got it,” Judge said. “It’s such an honor to represent the Yankees. It’s a whole team reward right there, coaching and good teammates put me in good situations. I’m just blessed and honored to represent the Yankees there.”
RailRiders 6, Bats 4
Louisville`AB`R`H`BI
Falu 2b`5`3`4`1
Bourgeois cf`6`2`4`3
Iribarren ss`5`1`3`2
Satin 1b`6`0`1`1
Boesch lf/rf`6`2`3`1
Curtis 3b`4`1`1`1
Rodriguez rf`4`2`3`5
Benedetto cf`2`0`0`0
Cabrera c`5`1`2`0
Constanza dh`5`3`3`1
Totals`48`15`24`14
RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI
Gamel cf`4`0`1`0
Figueroa 3b`3`0`0`0
Refsnyder 2b`4`1`1`0
Judge rf`3`1`1`2
Romine c`4`0`1`0
Flores lf`4`0`0`0
Austin dh`4`0`0`0
Segedin 1b`4`0`2`0
Castillo ss`4`0`3`0
Totals`34`2`9`2
Louisville`007`140`003`—`15
RailRiders`000`000`020`—`2
E: Bourgeois (1), Gamel (3), Refsnyder (13). DP: Bats 2, RailRiders 4. LOB: Bats 10, RailRiders 8. 2B: Falu (10), Rodriguez (13). 3B: Falu (3). HR: Rodriguez (8), Judge (1). Outfield assists: Bourgeois (Refsnyder at second).
Louisville`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Holmberg (W, 4-5) `8.0`8`2`2`3`3
Balester `1.0`1`0`0`0`1
RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Long (L, 5-5) `4.1`14`11`11`0`2
Burawa `1.2`5`1`1`1`0
Tracy`2.1`5`3`3`1`2
Martin`0.2`0`0`0`1`1
WP: Burawa, Tracy
HBP: Curtis (by Long)
Umpires: HP: Jeremy Riggs. 1B: Nic Lentz. 3B: Max Guyll
T: 2:21. Att: 4,032