By Kevin Oklobzija
After playing their first seven games of the International League season on the road, the Rochester Red Wings finally came home to Frontier Field and they were greeted by 11,343 fans on a sun-splashed Good Friday.
“The crowd,” Wings manager Mike Quade said, “was phenomenal.”
Among the baseball-starved patrons at the downtown ballpark were:
** Fans who have made Opening Day for Rochester Community Baseball a rite of spring for 60 years;
** Fans who are third-generation Wings’ diehards;
** Fans who one day will be told they partook in a baseball’s Opening Day before they ever celebrated their first birthday.
A great many wore their ball mitts, too, hoping to snare a foul ball down the base lines and in the upper level of seats.
In reality, though, the best place to grab a souvenir may be behind the outfield walls. These Red Wings, who sport a 6-4 record, are going to rock a few pitchers.
“I feel like there’s two spots in the lineup where there’s a 3-4-5 (set of hitters),” outfielder Daniel Palka said.
Needless to say, it’s pretty good when you can have a heart of the order following a heart of the order.
Want to pitch around Matt Hague, the 2015 IL MVP who is in his first season with the Wings? Then say hello to Kennys Vargas. Don’t want to give the power-swinging Vargas a pitch to hit? Palka is lurking in the 5-hole. Think you’re finally safe when you get past him? Guess what: Ben Paulsen, who spent most of the 2016 season with the Colorado Rockies, is stepping to the plate next. All he did was belt home runs in each of his first three games in a Red Wings uniform in the season-opening sweep of Syracuse.
Run production should not be an issue.
“No question, you look up and down the lineup and we’re kind of built for that,” Quade said. “We’re going to hit some home runs, regardless of what the conditions are.”
Through 10 games, the Wings lead the IL with 15 home runs, including a team-best four by Palka. Two of his came in Sunday’s doubleheader nightcap, a 7-5 loss to the Syracuse Chiefs, a day when the wind was gusting close to 30 mph toward left field.
Palka usually doesn’t need any help from the wind, and certainly didn’t on Sunday. His second homer of the day was a titanic blast, clearing the right-field video board. Ball park technology said the ball traveled 440 feet. The folks in the Wings clubhouse are quite sure it went farther, that the measuring device may lose tracking ability once the ball goes behind a solid object like the video board.
Palka, 25, was on an Opening Day Triple-A roster for the first time. He was promoted to Rochester from Double-A Chattanooga on July 7 and finished the season in the IL. He finished fourth in homers (34) among all minor-leaguers last season, hitting 21 for the Lookouts and 13 for the Wings.
“Some of the balls he has hit, and will hit, it’s pretty amazing when he hits one that far,” Quade said. “It’s impressive, that strength.”
Hague went 11-for-29 with a home run, two doubles, four RBI and four runs in the seven road games. He then went 3-for-4 in the home opener, a 3-2 loss to the Chiefs and finished the first homestand hitting a robust .400 (16-for-40).
“This is the pain I remember him causing two years ago,” Quade said, referring to Hague’s MVP year for the Buffalo Bisons. “I just want that for five months – or have him doing it in Minnesota.”
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the pitching: Jose Berrios is back for a third season in Rochester and he’s again showing he’s probably too good for the IL. In 14 innings over two starts, Berrios allowed just one run, seven hits and one walk while striking out 13.
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