By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A quartet of relievers served as bucket brigade. Mitch Garver paced an 11-hit attack, and the Rochester Red Wings ran their win streak to seven Thursday night with a 4-2 victory over International League North-Division leading Lehigh Valley, 4-2 in front of 4,928 at Frontier Field.
Garver rocketed a two-run home run to give Rochester a lead they did not surrender in the bottom of the first. The Red Wings catcher plated Zack Granite with his seventh round-tripper of the season and second in as many nights.
The Rochester catcher doubled in the third for his fifth multi-hit game in his last 11 games.
The Wings bullpen for the second time this week delivered when needed. When Wing starter Yohan Pino left with an injury in the fifth, Alex Wimmers came on with one on and one out and retired the side.
The right-hander worked out of a jam in the sixth before giving way to Drew Rucinski with two on and one out in the seventh. Rucinski promptly escaped and hurled a scoreless eighth.
Michael Tonkin worked a scoreless ninth for the save for his first save of the season.
Wimmers got the win and improved to 2-0 on the season.
Niko Goodrum and John Ryan Murphy connected on back-to-back doubles to start the second to add to the Wings advantage. Bengie Gonzalez followed with an RBI single, and Rochester led 4-0.
But the Wings stranded eight runners over the remaining six innings.
Ryan Pressly and Jake Reed combined to throw three and a third scoreless innings in the Wings win over Buffalo on Tuesday.
Rochester (36-33) halted Lehigh Valley’s five-game streak. The IL North-leading IronPigs fell to 48-25.
The winning streak hasn’t come without a price. Mike Quade was so busy after the game with roster changes, the Red Wings head coach was unavailable for comment.
The same two teams meet Friday night in the second game of a four-game series. A 7:05 pm first pitch is scheduled.
Rhys Hoskins paced Lehigh Valley going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Former Red Wing Pedro Florimon went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
Garver finished 2-for-3 with a walk and was robbed of a perfect night at the plate when Lehigh Valley second baseman Jorge Flores, covering the bag as Granite broke from first, made a diving stab on the shortstop side of the infield.
Niko Goodrum was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
Granite collected his 15th multi-hit night in the last 20 games – a stretch in which he has 39 base raps and came into the night batting .493 since June 2nd.
“Music’s going,” Granite said with a smile. “Everything is going. We got a good team morale. One of my good friends just got called up, so we got some really good morale right now. Hopefully we can keep it going. Let’s try to make it eight tomorrow.”
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