An Uncommon Doubleheader With The Talk of PEDs In The Air

By: Brittany Jones
 
Suspended game concludes...

It's not often that you see two ball teams meet to complete a suspended game.  The Syracuse Chiefs and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders met at NBT Bank Stadium to finish their July 12th game, with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders as the home team.

August 6th:
Syracuse Chiefs vs Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

The score was 6 - 6 in the 12th inning, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders' pitcher Mark Montgomery was on the mound to start the inning.  Montgomery struck out the first two batters of the night.  After giving up a hit to Josh Johnson and walking Jhonatan Solano, he got Will Rhymes to fly out to right field to leave runners on first and third.

The Chiefs sent Mike Crotta to the mound in hopes of quickly ending this extended game.  Crotta got the first two batters to ground out before walking Dan Johnson.  However Crotta struck out Ronnie Mustelier on four pitches to send the game to the 13th inning.

The 13th inning started off with a one, two, three inning by Montgomery.  The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had the bottom of their lineup due up next.  After Corey Patterson struck out on three pitches, Melky Mesa drew a walk and stole second base.  With only one out, the winning run was now in scoring position.  Brendan Harris hit a single to move Mesa to third. Albert Gonzalez then hit a walk off single to left fielder Tyler Moore to end the game, and give the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders the win after 13 innings.

The Chiefs turned the tables in the second game, reverting to being the home team and winning 3-2 behind solid pitching by Yunesky Maya.

A major problem in a minor place

But this uncommon scheduled doubleheader was not the only talk around the stadium that night, as baseball players were asked about the issue of Performance Enhancing Drugs.  Syracuse Chiefs' Will Rhymes pointed out that the first game may never have been suspended if not for PEDs.

On July 12, with the Chiefs up by one in the 7th inning, Fernando Martinez hit a home-run to tie the game.  As a result of this run the game went into extra innings, where rain stopped it after the eleventh, still tied.

On Monday August 5th, Major League Baseball handed out multiple suspensions to those who violated MLB's drug policy, and Martinez was of many on that list and received a first offense penalty of 50 games suspension.

Syracuse Chiefs' infielder Will Rhymes, who had some playing time in the Majors but signed a Minor League contract in November 2012, sees players using Performance-Enhancing drugs and cheating the system as unfair.  

"The vast majority of us are pretty upset about it, especially guys like me who have been up and down for the last several years," Rhymes said.  That was 12 jobs that one of us could have had.  Obviously the system isn't working, and unfortunately the player's union is going to protect the one percent of dudes who are making the A-Rods, but their forgetting about those of us who are grinding out for the minimum."

The Chiefs' Zach Walters agreed, and said he has no respect for the players who are using PEDs.  "For as far as cheating goes and guys that are getting caught, I really hope that every guy gets caught."

Dan Becker, a Syracuse Chief fan of 15 years who was at the game with his nephew, felt the PED issue had a negative effect on the game of baseball.  "It's definitely given it a black eye"

Though the PEDs scandal continues to have a major effect in Major League Baseball, it also has affected Minor League Baseball in several ways.


Up Next: The Syracuse Chiefs and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to play each other again on Wednesday.  The game is scheduled to start at 7pm.

After Losing Game 1 in "Doubleheader", Chiefs Strike Back Against RailRiders

Syracuse Chiefs vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (c) 2013 Julianne Dellorso

By Julianne Dellorso

It's the bottom of the 13th inning; the sun is shining over NBT Bank Stadium with 2 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre runners on base.  The RailRiders’ Alberto Gonzalez drills a pitch from Syracuse’s Mike Crotta to left. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, playing as the home team, wins the game.

The Syracuse Chiefs took the field not once but twice Tuesday night and split games with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The first game, ending in a 7-6 defeat, was a continuation of an extra-innings game that was suspended on July 12th in at the RailRiders home stadium in Moosic, Pennsylvania.

Chief’s DH Will Rhymes, who left two runners stranded after play resumed in the 12^th, told reporters after the game, “It didn’t work out. I just missed the pitch. That’s how it goes.” 

"That’s a situation there where I really want to give us a chance to win the game," said Rhymes, who was not scheduled to play in the second game. "So I was a little frustrated.”

The second game got underway around 7:15PM, 30 minutes after the end of the first game. Announced attendance was 6,000 for the second game, a little more than half the 11,000 capacity of NBT Bank Stadium.

The Chiefs’ Yunesky Maya (7-7, 3.94) retired three batters in a row to give the game a quick 1-2-3 start. The pitcher would throw for eight innings with four K’s and five hits.

The Chiefs, returned to home-team status, struck early with a leadoff double from Eury Perez. A single to left from Jeff Kobernus advanced Perez to third. A sacrifice fly from Tyler Moore drove Perez home, putting the Chiefs up 1-0.

The RailRiders would answer back in the bottom of the third with a two-run bomb from Melky Mesa over the centerfield wall. Mesa drove in Brendan Harris who had singled to right field.

The Chiefs rallied in the bottom of the 4^th when Corey Brown singled on a fly to center field.  Zach Walters drilled a ball up the middle, allowing Brown to reach third. Jhonatan Solano then singled to right, driving Brown home and advancing Walters to second. Josh Johnson stepped up to the plate, connected, and sent the ball flying to deep left field. Walters scored easily from second. Jhonaton Solano came hustling around from first to try to score, but was thrown out at the plate on a close call, ending the inning.

“I was just looking for a pitch I could handle," Johnson said of his game-winning hit. "[I] got something elevated. He [pitcher David Huff] kind of fooled me. I wasn’t prepared to see that pitch on the outer-half, I was looking for something inside, and then he came back with it. I kind of set him up a little bit, but it worked out.”

As for Solano trying to score from first and ending the inning, Johnson said he thought that was “awesome.”

The Chiefs are 56-63 on the season, last place in the standings of International League North. They take on Scranton/Wilkes-Barre again for the last time during the regular season on Wednesday night. 

Chiefs Overcome Quick "De-Railment," Split Modified Doubleheader at NBT Bank Stadium

BY PETER SWEENEY

Game One (RailRiders 7, Chiefs 6)

It was a peculiar night last Tuesday at NBT Bank Stadium. There wasn’t one game. There were two. You could call it a doubleheader, but then again, you couldn’t. The first game only lasted two innings.

In a makeup of a suspended game from July 12th, the Syracuse Chiefs hosted the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, beginning action in the top of the 12th inning. But this was not your average makeup game either. In Triple-A baseball, if two teams need to play a makeup game and the visiting team is not scheduled to come back to the stadium before the end of the season, the game is made up on the road. So when the game resumed at 6:00, the visiting RailRiders took the field.

The Chiefs’ biggest chance to score in the game came in the top of the 12th. With runners on first and third and two outs, veteran Will Rhymes came to the plate. He flew out to the right fielder.

The game ended in the bottom of the 13th when Alberto Gonzalez broke the tie, hitting a game-winning single. And in the most bizarre sight of the entire night, the visiting team walked off with the win.

Game 2 (Chiefs 3, RailRiders 2)

In a game where runs were hard to come by, Josh Johnson doubled on a deep fly ball to left field in the fourth inning to give the Chiefs a 3-2 lead for good. 

 “I just was looking for a pitch I could handle [and] got something elevated,” Johnson said after the game. 

Yunesky Maya (W, 7-7) started for the Chiefs and was outstanding. His only blemish on the scorecard was a two-run home run to Melky Mesa in top of the 3rd inning. Maya pitched eight strong innings for the Chiefs, giving up two runs on five hits while striking out five. Maya has now given up less than four runs in his last four straight starts. 

His counterpart, David Huff (L, 4-6), wasn’t so bad himself, but still ended up receiving the loss for the RailRiders. Huff pitched five innings for Scranton/WB, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out six. Huff turned the ball over to Yoshinori Tateyama in the 6th. The loss marked Huff’s second in a row. 

In the top of the ninth, Chiefs’ closer Erik Davis made quick work of the RailRiders, delivering a 1-2-3 inning for the save. The save was Davis’ 12th of the year. But even with his great performance, he was simply happy to get the win. 

 “Whether you leave the bases loaded or get them 1-2-3, as long as your put that zero up, that’s really all that matters,” he said. 

Corey Brown had the only multiple-hit night for the for the Chiefs, going 2 for 3 with a strikeout. Randy Ruiz hit the ball extremely well in the losing effort for the RailRiders, gathering 3 of their 5 hits on the night before flying out to the right fielder in his 4th and final at bat.

The Chiefs finish their series with the RailRiders tonight at NBT Bank Stadium. Danny Rosenbaum (6-7, 3.95) will be on the mound for the Chiefs.

Video

Going East: From Cheyenne to Syracuse

Image courtesy of Syracuse Chiefs

By Mason Walling – Syracuse Chiefs infielder Zach Walters can hit from either side of the plate; evidently, he can also play baseball on either side of the country.

           He proved this again on Tuesday night against the RailRiders of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, by coming up big when the Chiefs needed him.

With a full count and his team down by one in the bottom of the fourth, Walters smashed a single straight up the middle to advance Corey Brown from first to third.  Jhonatan Solano followed that up with a single of his own, scoring Brown and tying the game at two apiece.  With two men on, second baseman Josh Johnson doubled to bring Walters home for the go ahead and eventual game winning run.

            Earlier Tuesday evening, the Chiefs completed a game against the RailRiders that was suspended on July 12.  Walters did not participate in the continuation because he was ejected from the original meeting for arguing with the umpire after he struck out looking in the top of the third inning.  The resumed contest lasted just two innings, as Alberto Gonzalez drove in the game winning run for the RailRiders in the bottom of the thirteenth.

            In the last three years Walters has done quite a bit of travelling, including a big jump from the West coast to the East coast.

Walters was born and raised on an air force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  He lived in Montana for several years of his adolescence before his family made the decision to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, so that he could seriously pursue baseball in high school.  Upon graduation, Walters was offered a full scholarship to the University of San Diego, where he played for three years.

Walters decided to forego his senior year of college when he was selected in the ninth round of the First-Year Player Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He went to play for the Yakima Bears, a short-season class A affiliate of the Diamondbacks located in Yakima, Washington.  Walters led the 2010 Yakima Bears with a .302 batting average.

The following year saw the most drastic moves for Walters.  He first landed in Indiana, playing ball for the South Bend Silver Hawks.  On July 30^th, 2011, Walters was acquired by the Washington Nationals from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Jason Marquis. 

He started off in his new organization by playing for the Potomac Nationals, a single-A affiliate in Woodbridge, Virginia.  After proving himself, Walters spent a large part of the 2012 season with the Harrisburg Senators, the double-A club in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

He became a member of the Syracuse Chiefs in the latter half of 2012, and says he enjoys the food and the people of Syracuse, just not the humidity.  “It’s different, it’s a new look,” Walters said, “I like the east coast, heart’s still in California though.”

Walters has still yet to play a game in the Major Leagues, but the Syracuse Chiefs have taken him as close as he has ever been on the minor league circuit.  “Right now I’m just hanging out in Syracuse, I feel like it’s a world away to me,” Walters said when asked about his future MLB aspirations.

Despite the Chiefs' less than stellar performance this season, the 23-year-old has stumbled upon some success in Syracuse.  Walters was selected as the International League Player of the Week twice in 2013, the first Syracuse Chief receive this honor twice in a single season since pitcher Brandon Lyon in 2001.

Image courtesy of Syracuse Chiefs

Click here for Zach Walter's full Post-Game Interview via SoundCloud

A Strange Day in a Strange Game

Created with flickr slideshow.
By Kayla Chadwick (Syracuse) - According to pitcher Erik Davis of the Syracuse Chiefs, strange things are common in minor league baseball - common enough that a game ending nearly a month after the first pitch was thrown didn't faze him for a minute.

"You’ve gotta be ready for anything," said Davis, who collected a save in the second game. "I’ve seen stuff from monkeys riding dogs... I’ve seen some crazy stuff, so this is way on the low scale.”

The evening's events might not qualify as "crazy" to Davis, but the schedule certainly wasn't normal. At 6pm, the Chiefs took the field at NBT Bank Stadium as the visiting team to finish a game that had been suspended in Pennsylvania nearly a month ago.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders managed walk off with a win in the 13th inning overall, after just two innings played in Syracuse. Rail Riders' center fielder Melky Mesa scored the winning run on a single by shortstop Alberto Gonzalez, sending both teams back to their clubhouses.

The Chiefs didn't have to wait long for their chance at redemption, as the regularly scheduled game started thirty minutes after the RailRiders' walk-off victory.

Chiefs starter Yunesky Maya was excellent, allowing just two runs in eight innings before handing the ball off to Davis to close things out.

When asked about Maya's performance on the mound, Josh Johnson at first gave a one-word reaction, "Wow," before elaborating.

"Unbelievable job, the guy has got a high baseball IQ, he did a great job," Johnson said. "I mean, Maya’s been here before, he’s a veteran guy in our locker room, another great teammate. All I can say is outstanding job.”

Davis agreed, adding that Maya's efficiency and mound presence makes for quick games that are fun to watch.

"Maya was awesome," said Davis. "I love when Maya pitches, because he works fast, throws strikes. You know, he's always out there doing something funny - the guy runs off the mound, I think that's awesome."

With just under a month to go in the Triple-A season and the Chiefs in last place, it's unlikely that Syracuse will see playoff baseball this season. Still, according to Johnson, the players are working hard, and feeling better about recent performances.

"We have a good vibe in the clubhouse right now, a lot of momentum," Johnson said. "We just gotta keep it going. You know a game like this can really get the ball moving. We've been playing well, we swing the bats well on the road, we threw the ball well, we caught the ball - we did everything we needed to do. We’re fundamentally sound, you know, we just gotta keep it going.”

The Chiefs are 10 1/2 games out of the division lead, and have played sub-.500 baseball all season, but with 28 games left to play, a comeback wouldn't be impossible. After all, strange things happen all the time in minor league baseball.

After Losing Walk-Off at Home, Chiefs Rally Back for Victory Behind Strong Effort from Maya

Chiefs starter Yunesky Maya delivers the first pitch of the
second game to RailRiders leadoff hitter Melky Mesa.

By Jonathan Gault

Despite an odd beginning to the night – a walk-off loss in their own ballpark – the Syracuse Chiefs were able to come away with a victory on Tuesday as Cuban righty Yunesky Maya fired eight strong innings in a 3-2 victory over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders at NBT Bank Stadium.

The night began with the resumption of a game that began on July 12 at PNC Field in Moosic, Pa., but was suspended after 11 innings due to rain. That contest ended quickly in the bottom of the 13th when Railriders second baseman Alberto Gonzalez blooped a one-out single into left field off Chiefs pitcher Mike Crotta, sending Melky Mesa home with the winning run.

Though Chiefs players had no way of knowing when the first game would end, they were able to respond well and rally for a victory in the second contest.

“You have to prepare yourself for whatever happens,” said Chiefs second baseman Josh Johnson, who had two steals on the night – and four total – in the first game and drove in the game-winning run in the second. “I kept the same routine today, most of the guys kept their same routine. You have to be ready for anything.”

Maya (7-7), who entered the All-Star break with a 4-6 record and 4.73 ERA for Syracuse, posted his fourth straight dominant start in the second game, allowing two runs on five hits over eight innings while striking out five to earn the victory. In his four starts since the All-Star Game, Maya has gone 3-1 with a 1.52 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting just .159 against him in that stretch, as opposed to .308 before the break.

It doesn’t hurt that the 31-year-old, who has spent time in the big leagues in three of the past four seasons, worked quickly during what had the potential to be a long night at the ballpark.

“Maya was awesome,” said Chiefs closer Erik Davis, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning on Tuesday to record his 12th save of the season. “I love when he pitches because he works fast, throws strikes. It’s just fun to watch that. It’s great to be out of here before 10:00 p.m.”

Maya was able to fool several hitters by mixing his fastball with an effective curveball that ran in the low 70s.

“Maya’s been good for a long time,” Chiefs first baseman Tyler Moore said. “He was locating his heater getting a handle on his curveball.”

Though both Maya and RailRiders starter David Huff ran into some trouble early, both were able to regain control quickly. The starters’ performance, coupled with effective bullpens on both sides, resulted in no scoring after the fourth inning.

The fourth was the key inning in the game, as Syracuse scored twice on four hits to take a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish. Corey Brown began the rally by lofting a two-out single to center off Huff. Third baseman Zach Walters worked the count full before lining one up the middle which allowed Brown, running hard all the way, to advance to third.

After catcher Jhonatan Solano drove in Brown with a single to right, Johnson unloaded on a pitch from Huff, sending it to the left field wall and scoring Brown from second. The RailRiders were lucky to escape without further damage, as Solano made the final out on the play after he was gunned down at the plate following a strong relay throw from Gonzalez.

“[Huff] is really good,” Johnson said. “Good hard fastball, good off-speed breaking ball. He kind of fooled me 2-0 – I wasn’t prepared to see that pitch on the outer half. He came back [inside] and I kind of set him up a bit, but it worked out.”

The Chiefs got on the board first earlier in the game when Moore drove in center fielder Eury Perez with a sacrifice fly. Maya’s sole blemish came in the third inning, when he allowed a two-run homer to center fielder Melky Mesa.

Brown was the only Chief to record more than one hit, going 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. DH Randy Ruiz went 3-for-4 in a losing effort for the RailRiders. Danny Espinosa – who began the season as the everyday second baseman for the Washington Nationals – continued his season-long slide, going 0-for-5 on the night with two strikeouts, including one in the first game. He is now batting .185 this season between Syracuse and the majors.

Though the split will do little to help Syracuse’s cause this season – like their parent club, the Nationals, they sit eight games back in the wild-card race – how the Chiefs players perform over the next month will go a long way toward deciding which players will get the call to the big club once major league rosters expand September 1. As of now, they have 28 games in 27 days to show Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo what they can do. The clock is ticking.