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MOOSIC — There was a special energy in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders clubhouse Thursday afternoon.
Music was blasting. Players and coaches could be seen joking with each other throughout the clubhouse. The team was as relaxed as it could have been in the midst of a three-game losing streak.
Wednesday’s pair of losses to the Gwinnett Braves were clearly behind them, and the new page was finally turned when the RailRiders broke out for four runs in the fifth inning later that evening. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre took hold of its first lead of the series and never let go, going on to win 5-4.
With the win, the RailRiders (78-45) avoided what would have been their first-ever sweep at the hands of the Braves (61-61).
“In baseball you have to have a short memory,” RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said. “It’s a long season and I think the guys, as long as they go out and play hard, I’m happy with that. The results, if we do the little things right and we start playing as a team, we’re going to start winning more games, and tonight that’s what we saw. We got great pitching from (Brady) Lail, great job by the bullpen, timely hitting. We played well.”
Facing a 3-1 deficit — on a trio of solo shots — heading into the bottom of the fifth, the RailRiders had some work to do. But it wouldn’t take long to complete it.
Mark Payton worked a lead-off walk and then Eddy Rodriguez and Donovan Solano singled to load the bases. Still looking for his first hit of his Major League rehab assignment with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Greg Bird drove a Aaron Blair pitch to center field to bring home Payton and move Solano and Rodriguez each over a base. Ji-Man Choi gave the RailRiders their first lead of the game with a two-run double to the left-field wall two at-bats later.
Mason Williams finished off the scoring with a bunt single against an out of position Gwinnett defense to bring home Bird and provide the RailRiders a 5-3 lead.
“I always say that hitting is contagious,” Pedrique said. “If there are two to three guys and we keep the line moving — that’s what we saw tonight. We saw much better at-bats, we took walks, we took the pitcher to deep counts and finally we got better pitches to hit and we took advantage.”
Bird’s second hit of the game — a lead-off single in the seventh — was on a rope into right field. It was his best swing of the night. Bird said after the game that the plan is to play seven innings at first base on Friday.
“It was nice playing the whole game tonight and getting more than two at-bats. That was nice,” Bird said. “I’m just playing and keeping it simple, and really that’s just my game plan in general. I put my work in early in (batting practice) to hopefully go out and just play.
“If it was up to me I’d play nine tomorrow, but I’m playing seven, so we’ll start with that. But I’ll know (when I’m at 100 percent) and I’ll be ready.”
Aside from giving up the three solo home runs, Lail felt good about his night.
The off-and-on reliever pitched 6.1 innings of four-run baseball to pick up the win. He struck out six while also giving up six hits.
“The three homers — three mistakes,” Lail said. “The first one, I guess, was just me trying to get into a groove so I don’t know if I count that really as a mistake. The other ones were a hanging curveball and a fastball, 3-2, down the middle to a good hitter. I really think those were my only mistakes, so I feel like there were a lot of positives out of this outing.”
Castro joining Bird
New York Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro is expected to start his Major League rehab assignment with the RailRiders on Friday, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
Matt Holliday will begin his rehab in High-A Tampa.
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