WORCESTER — To say Marcelo Mayer is swinging a hot bat would be a major understatement.
The 22-year-old continued his torrid streak of beating up on Triple-A pitching during Wednesday’s double-header against the Syracuse Mets, hitting his fourth home run in his last seven games. The bomb to right-center off righty Dom Hamel in the first inning of the second game of the day seemed to temporarily break StatCast, which didn’t have a distance or exit velocity on the hit. The two-run shot brought in Roman Anthony, who singled to lead off the inning.
He added another single as part of a 2-for-3 game and a 4-for-6 day.
Over his last six games, Mayer is 12-25 with an eye-popping 16 RBI and four of his six home runs on the season coming in the past week.
Mayer’s torrid streak sparked on April 18 in Rochester, when he smacked a grand slam for his third home run of the season, driving in a total of seven runs in a 20-7 WooSox victory.
Prior to last week’s road trip, the hits weren’t falling for Mayer, who was hitting just .193/.233/.298 with three walks and 14 strikeouts in his first 14 games.
Marcelo went through a period there last week and the early part of Rochester, everything was just popped up in the infield,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said. He hit his little lull…he just started mishitting balls, and usually that’s just timing and you start to press a little bit. It’s like ‘just slow down.’ And it usually takes a ball or two to square up, which he did, and then he kind of took off and he hit the grand slam.“
Including that game, Mayer has now racked up six straight multi-hit performances, which he credits to maintaining a consistent approach at the plate.
“Now he’s squaring it up again and in a place where he wants to be,” Tracy said. “I’ve hit enough to know that sometimes it can just be feeling a little out of sorts and your timing’s not quite there and you miss hit balls. He’s not right now.”
WooSox 5, Mets 4 (7 innings)
WooSox 5, Mets 4 (7 innings)
The first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader belonged to Mark Kolozsvary, who drove in four of the WooSox’ five runs as part of a 3-for-3 day.
Tied in the sixth, Anthony doubled with one out, and in a huge sign of respect for the hot hitter, Mets pitcher Dedniel Núñez intentionally walked Mayer with two outs in the inning. An error on a grounder hit by Nick Sogard brought in the winning run, and Isaiah Campbell worked out of a two-on jam in the top of the seventh to secure his first save of the season.
In addition to Mayer’s home run in the second game of the afternoon, Nathan Hickey launched what turned out to be a very important two-run home run in the fifth.
Robert Stock gave the WooSox 3.1 innings of work in the first game, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks. Bryan Mata struggled in his two-thirds of an inning, walking three and allowing two runs. Brian Van Belle went 3.2 innings in the second game, allowing a couple of runs on six hits and a walk.
Reliever Austin Adams had a tough WooSox debut, allowing two runs, though both were unearned thanks to a Worcester error.
Notes
Overshadowed by the offensive output from the WooSox over the past week was last Thursday’s seven-inning no-hitter compiled by three WooSox pitchers: Cooper Criswell, Campbell and Jacob Webb, caught by Kolozsvary.
“It’s cool. It’s not nine innings, but it’s still a no hitter. It’s an official game,” Tracy said. “Seven innings without allowing a single base hit was really cool. We were fired up in the dugout, pumped for [pitching coach] Dan [Campbell] and [bullpen coach] Noah [Junis]. They worked their ass off getting them prepared and they executed the game plan very, very well that day.”
The coaching staff printed out lineup cards for each of the pitchers and Kolozsvary.
“I didn’t really realize until about the sixth, because you’re changing pitchers and it’s like the second or third guy, and you kind of glance up, they’re like, we haven’t given up a hit yet,” Tracy recalled. “Nobody said a word in the dugout. Like, we just played the game, not one word was spoken. And then when the last out was made, everybody was like, ‘yeah, all right.’ So everybody actually knew what was going on.”
What’s Next
The WooSox continue their series against the Syracuse Mets on Thursday with Hunter Dobbins on the mound. Lucas Giolito will make another rehab start on Friday.
2-7, 7 RBI, HR
2-4 2B 2RBI
2-5 HR 3RBI
2-4 2B HR 2RBI
2-3
2-3 HR 2RBI
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