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Outdoor notes

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Darryl Danko back in contention for Giants Despair title

<p>The first half of the minor league season technically arrived two weeks ago, and today&#8217;s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre game is No. 92 of the 144-game International League schedule.</p><p>But, the traditional halfway point ends today as several minor leagues take a break for all-star games to be played, including the I.L., which takes part in the only all-star contest consisting of all 30 Major League Baseball affiliates, the Triple-A All-Star Game, which will be held in Omaha on Wednesday.</p><p>With the first half now over, it&#8217;s time to look back at highlights for the RailRiders so far in 2015 and look ahead at what the second half (or the last 52 games) have in store for the club.</p><p><strong>Opening Day head count</strong></p><p>When the initial RailRiders&#8217; roster was released on Opening Day, April 9, a total of 26 players were listed, which included catcher Austin Romine, who hadn&#8217;t reported to the club yet so wasn&#8217;t counted towards the 25-man roster.</p><p>Just four of those 26 &#8212; Romine, Rob Refsnyder, Kyle Roller and Ben Gamel &#8212; have not been involved in a transaction this season. Fourteen rostered players from that roster have made their way to New York, which includes 11 pitchers. The first call-up to the Yankees this season was lefty Matt Tracy, who was then claimed by Miami before getting re-claimed by New York and being sent back SWB. He was with the RailRiders until late last month when he was transferred to Double-A Trenton.</p><p><strong>A day to remember</strong></p><p>Outfielder Ramon Flores had perhaps the most memorable Opening Day in the franchise&#8217;s 26-year history when he hit for the cycle at PNC Field in the first game of the season.</p><p>Flores walked and went 4 for 4 homering in his first at bat and completing the cycle in his final at bat with a double in the bottom of the eighth to become just the third player in franchise history to accomplish the feat, and the first since the Yankees became the team&#8217;s affiliate in 2007. The only other players to hit for the cycle were Red Barons, Jon Zuber in 1997 and Brennan King in 2006.</p><p><strong>The long and short</strong></p><p>It seems like every game in the 2014 season took at least three hours to finish. While that certainly wasn&#8217;t the case, a 15-inning, 4 hour, 13 minute game against Lehigh Valley in early April made it seem like the 2015 season was going to follow the same route, even with the new pace of game rules in Minor League Baseball.</p><p>Turns out though that game was the longest game of the season to date and just 11 other games took longer than three hours to conclude.</p><p>The games have been so quick that the RailRiders have even played a pair of nine-inning games in less than 120 minutes, both at PNC Field. Those games were so out of the ordinary in the past that the last time a game was finished in less than two hours at home before this season was nearly a decade ago.</p><p><strong>Romine&#8217;s revenge</strong></p><p>It seemed like a scene out of a movie when Romine got payback on Rochester.</p><p>On June 12, the RailRiders hit consecutive home runs against Rochester&#8217;s Lester Oliveros in the bottom of the first. Romine was the next batter and got drilled in the head by a fastball. The catcher then missed less than a week with his first game back coming against the Red Wings.</p><p>He returned in grand fashion with two hits and six RBI, including a grand slam to lead the RailRiders to the come-from-behind victory.</p><p><strong>No June swoon</strong></p><p>Speaking of June, as the weather heated up for the summer SWB got hotter with the temperatures.</p><p>The RailRiders went through a heated stretch winning 17 of 22 games to jump from fourth place in the division on June 1 to a 5.5 game lead over Rochester and go to 12 games over the .500 mark for the first time the franchise has been that high since the 2012 SWB Yankees won the division title.</p><p><strong>The prospects arrive</strong></p><p>Plenty of prospects started the season on Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s roster, but the highest-rated currently on the team didn&#8217;t arrive until the last day of May.</p><p>That was when left-hander Luis Severino, the consensus No. 1 prospect in the organization arrived. A few weeks later, outfielder Aaron Judge reached Triple-A, and about two weeks after that, first baseman Greg Bird was promoted.</p><p>Judge is the organization&#8217;s No. 2 prospect according to MLB.com, while Bird is No. 4 on that list.</p><p>What&#8217;s in store?</p><p>When the RailRiders were routed by Louisville on June 25, it was thought the team was just cooling off a bit.</p><p>Turns out that SWB started a slump with that contest and entered Saturday having dropped 12 of 16 games to fall 1.5 games out of first place.</p><p>There&#8217;s still plenty of time for the team to turn things around and right the ship. What better way to do it to start the second half than the way the low stretch began &#8212; against Western Division foe Louisville.</p><p>In fact, the RailRiders will get their fill of the entire West right after the break as 20 of their next 24 games will be against the division.</p><p>In the last few years, the team has encountered problems versus the West and is 4-3 against those squads this season. Luckily for the RailRiders, after the game on Aug. 9 at Toledo, they face just North Division rivals the rest of the season as they have won 31 of 54 games against the North this season and those games will come just in time to make a run as division champs for the first time since 2012.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Ramon Flores (31) is congratulated by Rob Refsnyder after hitting a home run in the first inning on Opening Day for the RailRiders on April 9. Flores made history on the night hitting for the cycle. It was one of many highlights for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre so far this season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL041015ball-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Ramon Flores (31) is congratulated by Rob Refsnyder after hitting a home run in the first inning on Opening Day for the RailRiders on April 9. Flores made history on the night hitting for the cycle. It was one of many highlights for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre so far this season. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Plenty of excitement so far in 2015</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>drosengrant@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</p></shirttailMeta></div>

First half filled with highlights