Vidal Bruján attacked the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning and sent it soaring toward right-center, beyond Gabriel Rincones Jr. and over the wall. The swing broke a tie, supplied a lead Syracuse never gave back and put Bruján at the center of another Mets victory.
Bruján homered and drove in two runs as Syracuse beat the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 6-2 on Friday at NBT Bank Stadium, extending its winning streak to four games. D’Andre Smith added a two-run single, and four Mets relievers combined to allow one run over the final five innings.
The home run was Bruján’s fifth of the season and the defining hit in a 2-for-5 night. It came after Syracuse had spent the previous inning answering Lehigh Valley’s first run and threatening to take more.
Raider Tello put the IronPigs ahead in the fourth with a ground-ball single against Justin Hagenman, scoring Otto Kemp. Syracuse responded with four hits of its own in the bottom half. Bruján and Eric Wagaman singled before Jose Ramos ripped a line drive into left to bring Bruján home.
The hit tied the score, but the rally lost some of its force when Billy Amick was thrown out trying to advance from first to third. Syracuse eventually loaded the bases before Drake Fellows escaped with no further damage.
Bruján made sure the missed opportunity did not linger. With two outs in the fifth, he drove Fellows’ first offering deep enough that Rincones could only retreat and watch. Syracuse had its first lead at 2-1.
An inning later, the Mets turned that narrow advantage into separation.
Ramos walked, Hayden Senger singled and Zack Short drew another walk after Max Lazar replaced Andrew Hoffmann. Smith followed with a ground ball through the middle, scoring Ramos and Senger as the throw from center field was cut off. Bruján later brought Short home with a groundout, completing a three-run inning and pushing the lead to 5-1.
Smith’s hit was his only one in four at-bats, but it delivered two of the game’s most important runs. Ramos finished 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, while Senger reached three times with two hits and a walk and scored once.
That support was enough for a Syracuse pitching staff that limited Lehigh Valley to four hits.
Hagenman allowed one earned run across four innings, striking out two without a walk. His lone difficult inning began when Kemp and Carter Kieboom were hit by pitches, but Tello’s run-scoring single was the only hit Hagenman surrendered in the frame.
Ben Simon took over in the fifth and worked two scoreless innings to improve to 5-4. He pitched around a Syracuse error in his first inning, then retired Lehigh Valley in order in the sixth.
Tello gave the IronPigs their only response after Syracuse’s three-run burst. He lifted Kevin Herget’s seventh-inning offering into the left-center-field bullpen for his first Triple-A home run, cutting the deficit to 5-2. Tello finished 2-for-4 and accounted for both Lehigh Valley runs.
Syracuse restored its four-run cushion in the eighth. Jefferson Rojas reached on an error, and MJ Melendez drove him home with a ball through the middle. Melendez kept running as the throw came toward the infield and slid safely into second with his 19th double.
Saul Garcia handled a scoreless eighth, helped by a line-drive double play, and Chayce McDermott retired the IronPigs in order in the ninth. McDermott struck out Colby Thomas before inducing groundouts from Tello and Nick Biddison.
The Mets finished with nine hits and overcame two errors, using Bruján’s decisive swing and one concentrated sixth-inning push to turn a close game into a comfortable finish.