WORCESTER, MA – After starting out the season on the right foot with a clean win 11-2 on Opening Day, the Worcester Red Sox were looking to make it two in a row against the Syracuse Mets.
The Mets, however, had other ideas as they hit five home runs – one being a grand slam off the bat of no. 2 prospect Brett Baty – to the tune of a 16-6 shellacking on Saturday afternoon at Polar Park.
“Well, [it was] a tail of two games,” manager Chad Tracy said. “Yesterday I felt great, today was kind of sloppy and got away from us. You’re going to have games like that, but really it’s about flushing it out and coming back tomorrow, and you have another game to play.”
Brandon Walter got the start for the WooSox, and he struggled in his first start and was credited with the loss. Walter went 3.2 innings, allowing five runs (all earned), on seven hits. He also walked two, and struck out one.
Tracy was happy with his starters performance, but felt the Mets just had the better offense on Saturday afternoon.
“Some good, some bad. Obviously the line doesn’t look great,” Walter said of his start. “I got off my game a little bit, my reputation throughout my career has been that I found the strike zone, working good off-speed in the zone. I wasn’t able to do that today… It was a weird one for me.”
The Mets offense seemed unstoppable on Sunday afternoon as they were able to notch a run on the scoreboard in every single inning except for the seventh inning. They were led offensively by Baty.
Baty, who happens to be the New York Mets, no. 2 prospect went 4-for-5 with two home runs – one being a grand slam, four runs scored, and a walk. In fact, he was so proficient, that he wasn’t even retired by Worcester’s pitchers until Syracuse’s half of the 8th inning.
“He’s a good player,” Tracy said. “There’s some big time power the other way, power to the pull side. When you see a guy who’s so competitive against righties, and take some swings against lefties, he’s a difficult guy to tackle.”
Early in the week, the Boston Red Sox announced that Bobby Dalbec was going to be demoted to Triple-A to start the season and he would also be playing some positions other than his usual first base and third base.
Today, Tracy put him in at shortstop. Dalbec had a few plays that he had issues with, but did not commit any errors and also turned a 6-4-3 double play. Shortstop is a position that Dalbec has only played 14 innings at since high school, but is comfortable at.
“Great,” Dalbec said of playing shortstop. “I mean every position is unique, I feel very comfortable over there.”
While they were able to muster just six runs, the Red Sox were able to put together 11 hits with Nico Goodrum, Jorge Alfaro, and Caleb Hamilton all collecting two hits each – the latter of the three also collecting two RBI as well.
Two of Hamilton’s RBIs came on an early home run that gave the WooSox their only lead of the game – 2 to 1 in the second inning.
“It felt great,” Hamilton said of the home run. “Just got a pitch and it happened to be over the fence.”
Saturday afternoon’s loss was a tough one Worcester, but on Sunday they look to salvage the series and to go out on a happy note when they conclude the series with the Mets: first pitch is at 1:05 p.m.
The Northeast Regional Sports Journal 
Leave a comment