By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In what has become an all too familiar narrative of late, a Rochester Red Wing starter gave his team a chance to win but came away without much to show for it. Such was the fate for Fernando Romero, Saturday night.
Romero had hiccup in the first inning but responded with five shutout innings. What run support the right-hander received didn’t come until the eighth inning.
“The first inning I’m sure he’d want back just from a standpoint of his first 10 pitches or so,” Red Wing manager Joel Skinner said after Rochester’s 5-3 loss to the Norfolk Tides. “Then he really settled in and threw the ball well.”
The Dominican Republic native allowed three runs on two hits in a first frame where he threw 24 pitches. Romero needed 60 pitches to get through the next six innings.
“It’s getting your release point where you want it, all the different things that go into starting a ball game,” Skinner explained. “He was able to find it and keep it for a long time.”
Making his first start since allowing four runs on 10 hits over 4.1 innings with Minnesota on July 15th, Romero finished with three strike outs and three walks over 7.2 innings. He set down 10 straight from the end of the first through the end of the fourth.
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“That was beautiful,” battery mate Jordan Pacheco said. “That’s the pitcher he is.
“Once he got rolling, he did what he does. He threw his change up really well tonight. He was throwing his fastball in. Everything was working for him. We just had one rough first and that decided the game obviously.”
Romero allowed back-to-back singles to Luis Sardinas and Mike Yastrzemski to start the seventh. It looked like he would escape the jam when he induced a comebacker off the bat of Drew Dosch, but Romero mishandled the ball and only got one out on what should have been a double play.
Ruben Tejada followed with a sacrifice fly before Romero ended the inning getting the next batter.
“He really got into a groove after the first inning from a standpoint of just getting his rhythm and getting to the plate and getting everything going in the right direction,” Skinner noted.
The Wings offense, though, continued to sputter. Having scored just seven runs in their previous five games including three straight shutouts, the Wings managed just five baserunners through the first seven innings. Norfolk starter David Hess starter struck out nine and limited the Wings to two hits over seven innings. The right-hander set down the last 10 he faced and ended six of the innings he pitched with a strike out.
“Their pitcher was hitting his spots and keeping the ball out of the middle of the plate and keeping it on the edges,” Skinner noted. “When you do that, sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
Jon Kemmer and Pacheco started the Wings eighth with back-to-back hits off Norfolk reliever and former Wing Tim Melville. One out later, Gregorio Petit got Rochester on the scoreboard with a single.
“When you get a couple runs going especially we’re a team that’s struggling to get back-to-back bats together,” Pacheco said. “We figured it out there. Hopefully that rolls into tomorrow and we can just continue that offense and help our pitchers out.”
Nick Gordon made it 5-2 with a base hit up the middle. Miguel Sano, recently promoted from Class A Fort Myers, added another run with an RBI groundout. Rochester brought the tying run to the plate but could not convert.
“We played the whole game,” Skinner said. “You play 27 outs and keep pushing forward. We’re going through this funk right and we just need to get out of it. The only way to do that is to come out tomorrow and in the first inning keep going, keep pushing.”
The loss was the sixth straight for Rochester (44-52). The Wings dropped to 16-30 at home. Rochester ends its homestand with a 1:05 PM start against Norfolk on Sunday.
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