Worcester, MA – For the third consecutive game, the Worcester Red Sox and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (AAA-New York Yankees) played an entertaining back and forth affair on Thursday night at Polar Park that ultimately ended up in a crazy walk-off victory for the WooSox, 10-8 in 12 innings. It was the longest game in terms of innings in WooSox history.
The WooSox had multiple heroes in this bizarre victory including Allan Castro who belted the game-winning 2-run home run in the 12th to make a winner of Nathan Hickey, normally a first baseman, who came on to pitch a scoreless top of the 12th inning. Hickey, who has been used in pitching emergencies four times now this season, got Oswaldo Cabrera to hit into a double play to end the 12th inning and keep the game tied.
WooSox LF Braiden Ward made his second brilliant catch of the game up against the wall to help Hickey keep the RailRiders off the board. Ward was also on base three times with 2 walks and a hit by pitch (for the 11th time this season – most in the league) while stealing 2 bases giving him 16 SB (the second most in the league) and scoring 2 runs.
Worcester, who leads the 6-game series, 2 games to 1, won the opener on Tuesday, 7-6 and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was victorious, 9-7 in 10-innings on Wednesday. The WooSox (20-15) victory on Thursday kept them tied with Syracuse atop the International League East division and moved them one game ahead of Scranton/WB (19-16).
The WooSox looked like they would win this in relatively normal fashion as they took a 7-4 lead to the 9th inning. Reliever Cade Feeney, promoted from Double-A Portland earlier in the day, entered to make his Triple-A debut and was greeted rudely with a Cabrera double, a Seth Brown (4-for-5) triple, a walk, and a game-tying RBI single by Kennedy Corona with two outs in the 9th to cap a 3-run rally.
Feeney would battle through that adversity, however, and came back to pitch a scoreless 10th inning and allow just an unearned run in the 11th to keep the WooSox alive.
For the 7th time in their last 9 games, the WooSox scored in the 1st inning. Ward was inserted into the leadoff spot and he did what he’s done more of than any player in the league this season (got hit by a pitch). The speedster immediately stole 2nd base and went to 3rd base when the throw skipped away. On the next pitch Nick Sogard lined a single to center and it was 1-0 WooSox after one.
Scranton/WB took the lead in the 2nd on a 3-run HR by LF Duke Ellis (#1), who had 4 hits on the night, off Sox starter Seth Martinez. However, the WooSox answered with a pair of runs on RBI groundouts in the bottom half of the inning to tie things at 3-3. Tsung-Che Cheng’s grounder to first scored Anthony Seigler (walk) and Matt Lloyd followed with a grounder to second to plate Allan Castro with the equalizer.
The RailRiders went back ahead, briefly, in the 4th inning as Ellis ripped a double and came home on a sac fly by Anthony Volpe. Like they have all series, the WooSox would once again have an immediate reply. Seigler smoked his first home run of the season leading off the 4th with a towering blast over everything in right centerfield. Castro was next and he singled, stole 2nd, went to third when the throw got away, and then scored the go-ahead run on a sac fly by Cheng.
Worcester’s bullpen, especially busy over the past few weeks, did a nice job until the 9th inning. Eduardo Rivera followed the 2-inning start from Martinez and went 2.2 innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits with 4 strikeouts. Kyle Keller fired 1.1 hitless innings with 3 strikeouts including a huge K of Ellis to strand runners at 2nd & 3rd to end the 5th inning. Keller has now given up just one earned run in his last 10.2 innings. Devin Sweet turned in a 1-2-3, 7th inning. Tayron Guerrero came on for the 8th and yielded two singles and a walk but escaped a bases loaded jam by getting Volpe to strike out on a nasty slider and then blowing a 100 MPH fastball past #3 batter Yanquiel Fernandez.
The WooSox tacked on what they thought were insurance runs in the 7th (thanks again to the speed of Ward) and in the 8th (on Matt Lloyd’s first HR of the season).
The 27-year-old Ward, who was acquired from Colorado in an off-season trade for reliever Brennan Bernardino, worked a walk to begin the 7th, stole 2nd base for the second time in the game, and scampered home when shortstop Volpe made an error on a ground ball from Sogard. Ward, who stole 50 bases in 2024 and 57 last year between Double-A Hartford and Triple-A Albuquerque, now has 16 SB on the season good for the 2nd most in the league.
WooSox DH Lloyd, who missed most of April with a hamstring strain, lined a solo homer to right center in the 8th to up the Sox lead to 7-4 which seemed safe until Scranton/WB rallied for 3 runs in the 9th.
After each team was held scoreless in the 10th inning, both would score one run in the 11th on sac flys (Ernesto Martinez Jr for SWB and Kristian Campbell for WOR). Credit to RailRiders’ catcher-turned-reliever Edinson Duran who battled for 2.1 innings and gave up just 1 hit and 1 earned run.
But the stage belonged to Hickey, who pulled off his Houdini act, and to Castro who had the blast that sent WooSox fans home happy after 12 innings and 4 hours & 3 minutes of baseball.
Worcester and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will play game four of their 6-game series at Polar Park on Friday night at 6:05 pm. WooSox players and coaches will wear “The Art of the Woo” uniforms and caps depicting Worcester’s artistic culture. After the game fans will be treated to the ever-popular Unibank Fireworks set to the music of the Grateful Dead (of all people)!
Isaac Coffey (0-1, 4.61) gets the start for the WooSox against RHP Dom Hamel (1-4, 9.12). The game can be heard on NASH 98.9 FM and the rest of the WooSox Radio Network.