MOOSIC \u2014 Things are rolling right now for the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.<\/p>\n
Brendan Beck tossed six shutout innings and set a career-high with 12 strikeouts Tuesday as the RailRiders beat the Rochester Red Wings, 8-3, in the opening game of a six-game series at PNC Field before a crowd of 4,568.<\/p>\n
A 13-hit attack backed Beck and three relievers. The first five batters in the lineup \u2014 J.C. Escarra, Marco Luciano, Oswaldo Cabrera, Yanquiel Fernandez and Tyler Hardman \u2014 each had two hits for the RailRiders, who won their eighth straight game to improve to 23-9 in the second half (60-46 overall). They lead the International League second-half standings by one game over the Durham Bulls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good day at the yard,\u201d Beck said. \u201cI got ahead of guys pretty well tonight. Had some traffic early on in the game, but once we worked through that, we got rolling and didn\u2019t stop. Executed the gameplan well, had a good feel for what they were trying to do and exploit some things. A good start to the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
For as well as the RailRiders are playing now, they could potentially be better when Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and Max Schuemann arrive. They were sent down by the Yankees on Monday and have 72 hours to report. Manager Shelley Duncan expected Schuemann to arrive Wednesday and for Volpe and Dominguez to be here Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit,\u201d Beck said. \u201cThose are great players and we\u2019re going to be excited to have them join the team. Everyone wants to be up top; this isn\u2019t anybody\u2019s end goal. It\u2019s nice that we\u2019re playing well right now and hopefully can seamlessly slide them in. Those are guys everyone is going to look to take things away from. They\u2019ve had huge experiences in the big leagues, played in huge games. That\u2019s something I\u2019m interested in taking things away from them and I know the other guys are probably going to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duncan cautioned, however, that there could be an adjustment period, even though Volpe and Dominguez have been here this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys in that clubhouse over the past two weeks or so have allowed me to sit back and play almost the same lineup every day,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cThey\u2019ve gotten really comfortable together and the chemistry is phenomenal. A lot of times when you bring in new players, even when you bring in really good talent, it takes a little bit for everyone to vibe and get to know each other. Anytime there\u2019s any movement on a team, there\u2019s always a little time that chemistry builds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to expect the same chemistry right out of the get-go. It takes work. Having a good team takes work. It takes constant effort to pour into that team. We\u2019ll need to do it again. When we do, you let the talent play for itself. It will be interesting, but it will be fun at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three times this season Beck (9-2) has been named the IL Pitcher of the Week. He may be bidding for a fourth weekly award with his performance Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The righthander, who is the No. 19 prospect in the Yankees organization, allowed four hits and walked one. He threw 87 pitches, 60 for strikes, and had multiple strikeouts in five of his six innings.<\/p>\n
He performed a Houdini act in the top of the second inning. Rochester loaded the bases with no outs on a leadoff double by Cayden Wallace, single by Sam Peterson and a walk to Leandro Pineda. But Beck struck out Maxwell Romero swinging and Kyle Hayes looking before getting Seaver King to fly out to center fielder Duke Ellis to keep the game scoreless.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously great to get out of there with a zero. But when it\u2019s bases loaded and no outs, you\u2019re really just trying to keep it small and minimize their opportunities,\u201d Beck said. \u201cJust trying to be in the zone and get a double play or a flyout, anything you can do to keep runs off the board. When you get the two strikeouts, you realize you have a chance to get out of there with a zero. You have to realize the job\u2019s not done and not change your approach there. Continue to try to get ahead and execute. Getting the flyout to end the inning was big and kind of opened the floodgates for our offense to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duncan called it the turning point in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat right there, doing that when it\u2019s a 0-0 game in the second inning, talk about a momentum shift. That was awesome,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cCouldn\u2019t have been anything more than we needed to start off a series. Especially the first game after a long travel day. Easy for guys to go out there dragging. But he goes and sets the tone like that and gives us the energy to relax and just go out there and pound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillip Glasser led off the top of the third for the Red Wings with a single. That would be their last baserunner against Beck as he retired the final 12 batters he faced.<\/p>\n
When he fanned Romero to end the top of the fourth, it was Beck\u2019s ninth strikeout, tying a career-high he had done three times previously this season and five times overall. He was well aware of that fact and, after not recording a strikeout in the fifth inning, whiffed the side in the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a running joke where I\u2019ve got to nine a few times and haven\u2019t been able to get to double digits,\u201d Beck said. \u201cSo I went out there knowing if I get to two strikes, let\u2019s take a couple shots. Really cool, cherry on top, to strike out the side in that inning. But overall just happy to wrap up a good outing and give ourselves a chance to win tonight. Hopefully, we can do it throughout the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Beck blanking the Red Wings, the RailRiders offense went to work in the bottom of the third. Three consecutive hits gave them a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Escarra singled with one out and Luciano followed with a double. However, Escarra was thrown out at the plate trying to score. Cabrera then singled to plate Luciano.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big one was Cabrera getting the single to right field to pick up that run,\u201d Duncan said.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s team baseball right there. That\u2019s coming in clutch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellis reached on an error leading off the bottom of the fifth. He stole second and third and scored when Escarra sent an 0-2 pitch from Chandler Champlain 366 feet into the left-field bullpens for a two-run home run and a 3-0 lead. Luciano then singled, advanced to second on a groundout by Cabrera and, after a pitching change, scored on a single by Fernandez.<\/p>\n
Christian Bethancourt, making his PNC Field debut with the RailRiders, singled with one out in the sixth. He moved to second on a wild pitch by Erik Tolman and scored on two-out single by Kenedy Corona to make it 5-0.<\/p>\n
Cabrera and Fernandez singled to open the bottom of the seventh and Hardman had an RBI double. With two outs, Ellis ripped a two-run double into the right-field corner to make it 8-0.<\/p>\n
Rochester avoided the shutout with three runs in the top of the eighth \u2014 two off Zach Messinger and one against Brian Hendry. Riley Adams had a two-run single and Wallace an RBI double. Rafael Montero pitched a scoreless ninth to finish the victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOOSIC \u2014 Things are rolling right now for the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Brendan Beck tossed six shutout innings and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[51447,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-260447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-rail-riders","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}