Lehigh Valley bullpen holds off RailRiders

May 16—MOOSIC — It seemed like things were trending in the right direction for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Despite being in a five-run hole after Lehigh Valley's fourth time up to bat, the RailRiders never pressed. They slowly chipped at the lead, getting on the board in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two more in the fifth, then coming within a run of the IronPigs in the sixth with plenty of game left to play.

They had the momentum. Lehigh Valley veteran relievers Bryan Mitchell and Neftalí Feliz snuffed it out.

The duo combined to retire nine of the last 10 RailRiders, including the final seven in a row, and Lehigh Valley held off the RailRiders, 5-4, on Saturday at PNC Field despite another dominant effort by the SWB bullpen.

"I thought we were in a really good position there," RailRiders manager Doug Davis said. "You know, in the middle of the game, we scored those four runs and got back within one and I kind of thought, yeah, we would find a way to scratch another one across the plate. But we just weren't able to, although we took some good swings and we had some just misses out there. We weren't very far away."

Mitchell, the former Yankees farmhand, allowed just a walk to Socrates Brito with two outs in the seventh in his two scoreless innings. Feliz, the 2010 American League rookie of the year when he notched 40 saves for the AL pennant-winning Texas Rangers, breezed through a three-up, three-down ninth to pick up his first save at any level since June 9, 2018, when he was a member of the Triple-A Reno Aces of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He got Estevan Florial, who was making his Triple-A debut, to ground out to first to end it.

Lehigh Valley tagged RailRiders starter Mike Montgomery for five runs on eight hits in four innings, bumping his ERA to 9.26 through three starts. C.J. Chatham delivered a two-out, two-run single in the first inning, Luke Williams' third-inning triple set up another run, and Travis Jankowski made it 5-0 by driving in two with a single in the fourth.

"They didn't drive any balls really that hurt him, they just singled him to death," Davis said. "And when they had a couple of key situations with runners in scoring position, they were able to come through with a single to drive in a couple."

Once the RailRiders turned to the bullpen, Lehigh Valley's offense shut down — a common theme for this series.

Nick Nelson had everything working in his 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, striking out five and walking none. The 25-year-old has 14 strikeouts against just two walks in 8 1/3 innings with SWB this year, pitching to a 2.16 ERA.

"I think just filling up the zone has kind of helped me a lot, you know?" said Nelson, who had a 9.72 ERA in 8 1/3 innings with New York this year. "Not trying to be too fine with pitches. But yeah, I feel great. The past two or three outings felt really good."

Braden Bristo worked the next 1 1/3 innings, striking out one, then Nick Goody worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts and an easy flyout.

Through five games against Lehigh Valley, the SWB bullpen has a 1.03 ERA. In 26 1/3 innings, they've allowed just 12 hits, walked 13 and struck out 42.

"It's unbelievable," Nelson said. "I mean, all the guys are awesome, and then on top of that, like, we're all doing really good.

"Once somebody comes out of the game, it's next guy's up, and he's doing the same thing. So it's awesome to be a part of and watch from, I guess, like a fan perspective. It's fun to watch."

The RailRiders managed a walk and two hits their first time through the lineup — one of the hits a triple by Florial in his second Triple-A at-bat — but were squaring up Lehigh Valley starter Adonis Medina all afternoon. Florial lined out to right leading off the game, Chris Gittens drove one to the wall in the deepest part of the park, and Andrew Velazquez hit two flyouts to the track.

By the fourth inning, the hard contact started to lead to results.

Brito started the inning with a single, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Ryan LaMarre's base hit. In the fifth, Florial worked a two-out walk and then Gittens made Medina pay, shooting a line drive to the lawn in right-center field for his third home run of the season. LaMarre's sixth hit of the series started another rally in the sixth inning against Philadelphia Phillies rehabber Archie Bradley, and Armando Alvarez drove him in with a hard single to center.

But Bradley retired the next two batters to strand a pair of runners, then gave way to Mitchell and Feliz to finish it off.

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