Courtesy of RedWingsBaseball.com
ROCHESTER, NY – The Rochester Red Wings completed the first half of the season last night by beating Columbus and finishing the first 72 games at 44-28.
Rochester, which has the most home wins (193-130) in the International League since the start of 2012, has the best home winning percentage (.629), tied for the most home wins (22) and tied for the most road wins (22) in the IL this season.
The Red Wings fell on May 3 at Syracuse, dropping to 11-15 and last place in the six-team IL North. The Wings trailed the Chiefs by 5.0 games. Since that date, Rochester is 33-13 to take over the best record in the league. It is the first time the Red Wings have had the IL’s best record this late in the season since the 1997 Governors’ Cup Championship team was 83-58 to end the regular season. Rochester had a -21 run differential in April but have a +74 mark since May 1.
The Wings were second to last in team batting average for most of April before climbing the ranks. Rochester is now sixth in the league with a .255 collective team average while leading the IL with 253 walks, ranking second with 22 triples and tied for second with 320 runs scored. The Red Wings have hit 40 of their 56 home runs, or 71.4 %, in 36 games since May 14.
The pitching has remained relatively consistent, though the starting pitchers have really pitched well recently. Starters are 14-3 with a 2.51 ERA in 20 June games and have thrown at least 5.0 innings in 43 consecutive games and only 14 of those have been less than 6.0 innings. Overall, the Red Wings have the fourth-best team ERA in the league at 3.40.
Several individual players appear among International League leaders. Logan Darnell leads the league with eight wins and two shutouts while he’s tied for lead with two complete games. Jason Wheeler is sixth in the IL with a 2.49 ERA and fourth with a 1.02 WHIP and a 9.33 fewest baserunners/9 IP ratio.
Kennys Vargas leads the league with 49 RBI and 45 walks while tying for the league-high with 70 games played. Adam Brett Walker leads the IL with 14 home runs, though he does pace the league with 103 strikeouts. James Beresford has scored a league-best 47 runs while Wilfredo Tovar is third with 20 stolen bases. Max Kepler, who only has 30 games with the Wings, is tied for league lead with six triples. Jorge Polanco is tied for third with five triples.
Seven hitters have scored at least 20 runs, six have at least 10 doubles and seven have at least 20 RBI. Three pitchers have at least six wins and five pitchers with at least seven starts have an ERA below 3.36.
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