Toledo Tops Chiefs 4-3

Monday night's game between Syracuse and Toledo turned out to be one that Syracuse should not have lost. The Chiefs gave up all four runs to the Mud Hens in the 6th inning, but there were many opportunities to keep most of those runs off the board. After a lead off single by Maxwell Leon, Mike Hessman hit a rather questionable double. The ball seemed to be foul, however home plate umpire Fran Burke called it fair, allowing runners to end up on second and third with no one out. After a sac fly scored the first run, while moving Hessman to third, the Chiefs missed out on another opportunity. First baseman Hector Luna misplayed a foul pop up, which could have resulted in the second out of the inning. Instead, Fernando Seguignol was given new life, which he used to single home the then tying run to make the score 2-2. Toledo's next batter flew out, which would have ended the inning if not for the foul drop.

Chiefs starter John Parrish was uncharacteristically wild most of the game. He only threw 58 strikes on his 93 pitches, which is an extremely low number, considering Burke's very wide, albeit inconsistent, strike zone. The reactive, rather than proactive, approach towards the pulling of Parrish could also be blamed for the extra two runs scoring in the 6th. I'm not sure if Syracuse is given a strict pitch count, or is allowed to play moreso for the wins, but anyone at the game could tell that Parrish was struggling right before the deciding runs were scored.

All this being said, I think Syracuse should have been able to put together more than three runs for the night. The Chiefs batters were able to get good hits, but they were unfortunately in less than stellar situations. A few times, there were two out hits. When the hits came with less than two outs (look at the 7th-9th innings) the Chiefs hit into two double plays, with a third being avoided in the 9th by a throwing error. It's a tough loss to swallow, as Syracuse seemed like the better team for 8 of the 9 innings.


You could tell it was going to be an interesting game with the first batter of the night. Toledo's Freddy Guzman laid a nice bunt up the third base side and beat the throw by a step. First base umpire Adam Dowdy called him out. In fact, Syracuse was on the good end of another questionable call by Dowdy later in the game. That, coupled with Burke's horrendous night behind the plate made things rather frustrating for both teams and their fans.

Jonah Bayliss looked good in relief, allowing no base runners in his 2 1/3 innings of work.

Syracuse was struck out twelve times. Russ Adams was the only batter for the Chiefs to not have a strikeout. Still, you got the sense that the home run by Luna in the second was going to be enough with the way Syracuse's defense has been.


Syracuse is now 2 1/2 games out of the wild card (held by S/WB) and 3 1/2 behind Pawtucket for the division lead. These are the games that the Chiefs need to win if they have a shot to play after Labor Day.