Courtesy of RedWingsBaseball.com
By Nick Sciarratta and Sam Weber
The Rochester Red Wings topped the Toledo Mud Hens 7-1 Sunday afternoon at Frontier Field. The paid attendance of 9,116 pushed the Wings over the 30,000 mark for the three-day weekend, the second time this season fans have helped reach that mark. The win gave the Wings seven victories in the eight-game homestand; the Red Wings will return home on August 1 to host Lehigh Valley (Phillies).
The Red Wings took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning when Mitch Garver hit a solo home run off Toledo starter Daniel Norris for his team-leading 14th of the season. Rochester added a run in the inning after Matt Hague scored from third on a wild pitch, extending the Red Wings lead to 2-0.
Norris left the game with two outs in the first inning with an apparent injury. He finished with 0.2 innings pitched, allowing two earned runs on two hits, two walks and one strikeout. He threw 32 pitches – 17 for strikes.
Garver added another RBI in the bottom of the second inning when he doubled in Niko Goodrum, making it a 3-0 ballgame. After a Hague RBI single and a two-run home run by Kennys Vargas later in the inning, his fifth of the season, Rochester’s lead was stretched to 6-0.
Rochester starter Aaron Slegers looked impressive to begin the game, allowing no hits and striking out five through the first three innings.
Toledo recorded their only run of the game, which cut Rochester’s lead to 6-1, on an RBI single by JaCoby Jones in the top of the sixth inning.
After a hit and two walks loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning, Engelb Vielma hit an RBI groundout that scored Daniel Palka, who returned Sunday after missing the last 56 games with a fractured left index finger. The run made it a six-run ball game again and gave the Red Wings a 7-1 advantage.
Slegers was replaced by Drew Rucinski to begin the top of the eighth inning after pitching 7.0 innings, allowing one earned run on four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. He threw 103 pitches – 72 for strikes.
Rucinski allowed a hit and struck out two in his relief inning, and Jake Reed pitched the ninth for the Wings. Reed found himself in a bases loaded situation with two out in the ninth inning, but a game-ending strikeout secured the win.
Winning Pitcher: Slegers (11-4)
Losing Pitcher: Norris (0-2)
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