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Bullied around all month by Charlotte, the RailRiders finally had enough.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre broke through by scoring eight runs in the top of the seventh. And it still wasn’t enough to beat the Knights.
Both teams erased big deficits, with Charlotte ultimately winning its fifth straight against the RailRiders, 13-12, on Charlie Tilson’s RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (65-56) led 12-8 after seven innings, only to have the Knights score twice in the eighth and ninth to force extras. They took advantage of a Gosuke Katoh throwing error in the ninth that extended the game against newly signed reliever David Hernandez.
Zack Collins, who homered twice earlier in the game, drew a bases loaded walk to tie it. And Tilson came through with a two-out single in the 10th to win it a night after the Knights beat the RailRiders 15-1, pounding out 23 hits. Charlotte had 14 on Wednesday.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s lead in the IL North was cut to three games after Buffalo’s extra innings win.
The RailRiders had scored just 10 combined runs in the first four meetings against the Knights this month, getting outscored 39-10 in four losses, including a Knights’ sweep in Moosic last week.
Things looked to be headed in that direction yet again on Wednesday, as Charlotte led 7-2 after five innings and 8-4 after six.
Then it finally happened.
Trey Amburgey launched a two-run shot, his 21st homer of the season, in the top of the seventh. And it triggered an avalanche of runs that the team badly needed. The eight runs were the most in a single inning all season and more than the RailRiders had scored in a full game in 10 days.
The home run cut the deficit to 8-6, and the RailRiders kept it right up by quickly loading the bases. Clint Frazier struck out, and Tyler Wade saw a 3-0 count run full, putting a huge inning in jeopardy.
But Wade drew the walk for the RBI and the dam burst. Kyle Higashioka followed it up with a full-count walk of his own to tie it up. Then Ryan McBroom came through with the payoff, a two-run single that caused the Knights to unravel for the first time in the season series.
A fielding error by pitcher Thyago Vieira, who walked in the two runs, allowed another run to score. Amburgey picked up his second hit of the inning before a Katoh groundout brought in one more for the 12-8 lead.
When it was over, the RailRiders had sent 13 batters to the plate and regained some confidence in the box that had been missing for much of the month.
Eight of the nine hitters recorded at least one hit, with Wade finishing 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI. Higashikoa, McBroom and Amburgey all drove in two runs apiece.
Brody Koerner had a tough start, giving up seven earned runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings, striking out four and walking five.
Rex Brothers gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth but was in line for the win. J.P. Feyereisen took over in the seventh, and things got dicey in the eighth when Collins and Yermin Mercedes hit back-to-back homers with two outs.
David Sosebee took over in the ninth, and a Trey Michalczewski RBI single put the tying run on base. With two outs, a grounder to third could have ended the game, but Katoh was charged with a throwing error to put runners at the corners instead.
That brought on veteran right-hander Hernandez, who had been released by the Cincinnati Reds earlier in the week after a rough stretch that saw his ERA go above 8.00. The Yankees signed the 34-year-old to a minor-league deal earlier in the day.
His fortunes didn’t change in his first Triple-A appearance of the season, as he couldn’t get Collins to end the game in the ninth, walking in the tying run. He picked up two outs in the bottom of the 10th but Tilson ended it there, singling home the runner that opened extras on second.
The series concludes with today’s 7:04 p.m. start in Charlotte.
Riding the rails
• Prior to the game, the RailRiders lost middle-of-the-lineup infielder Thairo Estrada to New York. After the call-up, Estrada hit ninth and played second base for the Yankees in yet another win over the Baltimore Orioles.
• Outfielder Zack Zehner was activated from the seven-day injured list and started in right field, batting ninth. He went 1-for-4 with a single in that big seventh inning.
• Pitcher Brady Lail, who signed a deal with the Yankees last week, was designated for assignment after New York claimed pitcher Ryan Dull off of outright waivers from the San Francisco Giants.