Trenton adds Wagner, four others from Scranton
TRENTON >> During a rainout last Thursday while with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Brandon Wagner had a chance to watch the Thunder win Game 2 of the Eastern League Division Series in extra innings on his phone.
Having been in Trenton for 117 games already this season, nothing surprised the Princeton native about the way the Thunder rallied late for a second straight road victory in Reading.
“The defense, the pitching has been there all year. It was exciting to see,” Wagner said. “It doesn’t matter who it is. Somebody gets up there and it seems like we always get that big hit, and we really play together as a team.”
After the RailRiders’ season ended over the weekend, Wagner was one of five reinforcements who arrived in Trenton prior to Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Eastern League Championship Series.
Outfielder Zack Zehner, infielder Angel Aguilar, righthander Michael King and righthander Greg Weissert were the other additions. Trenton sent right-hander Matt Wivinis, righthander Nick Green, infielder Diego Castillo, infielder Oswaldo Cabrera and outfielder Alexander Palma down to High-A Tampa.
Wagner, a 24-year-old infielder, appeared in two games during his first-ever promotion to Triple-A at the start of the month.
“It was just a cool atmosphere, a bunch of great guys in the clubhouse and we’re all out there playing to win,” he said. “I learned a lot, just even watching games. It was a good experience.”
The second game Wagner played in featured a taste of postseason magic.
In a do-or-die division tiebreaker against Syracuse, Scranton was down 5-0 after the first inning and 7-1 midway through the seventh. After plating five runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 7-6, Scranton yielded six runs before rallying with eight more runs in the eighth for a wild 14-13 win.
Wagner played his role by batting 2-for-4 with RBI singles in the seventh and eighth innings.
“It was crazy. It was something I’ve never been a part of,” Wagner said. “You’re at a point where you can’t trade outs for runs, and we did a good job of that. Everybody got up there, found barrels, stuff was falling and guys were just station-to-station at that point. It was crazy.”
From a roster standpoint, the postseason has been hectic in Trenton with four Yankees pitchers rehabbing.
Jordan Montgomery, Dellin Betances and Stephen Tarpley were all scheduled to pitch Tuesday. Luis Severino will make his second start for the Thunder on Wednesday in the home finale before the series shifts to Bowie.
“Obviously they want to get their innings in and obviously be in New York come postseason, but it’s just cool to have them here,” Wagner said. “Hopefully they can throw some scoreless innings for us and put us in a good spot.”
The Thunder are eyeing their first Eastern League championship since 2013.
“I’m glad I went up to TripleA, but at the same time I’m very excited to be here for the last series,” Wagner said. “We just need three more wins. Everybody in the locker room wants to win. We’re going to go out there and play for each other and take it one out at a time, try not to do too much and hopefully we can get it done.”