By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
An inordinate amount of walks is never a good thing for a pitcher.
Combine too many walks with far-from-pristine play by the defense and you have a sure-fire recipe for a loss.
The Rochester Red Wings were proof of that on Tuesday night, when they kicked off a six-game homestand at Frontier Field.
Starter Zack Littell walked five batters over 4 2/3 innings and also allowed five hits as the Toledo Mud Hens built a 5-0 lead and rolled to a 5-1 victory.
A lead-off walk to Jason Krizan cost him a run in the second, and walk in the fifth led to another run.
And then came the defensive problems. Nick Gordon failed to field a Dawel Lugo grounder that could have been an inning-ending double play. Worse, however, was his lack of hustle to retrieve the ball in shallow left field.
As Gordon jogged after the ball, Dixon Machado never slowed down and scored from second on the play. Then a subsequent throwing error by Willians Astudillo led to a second run on the same play, with Lugo racing all the way to third by the time the ball was back in the infield.
The Little League triple, some would say.
One out later, Mike Mahtook singled home Lugo and the Wings were in a 5-0 hole.
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“When you have walks and don’t play good defense, bad things happen,” manager Joel Skinner said.
Failing to run hard compounds the problem. Skinner figures he understood what Gordon was thinking, however.
“It was a double play ball and he was disappointed it got away from him and he probably figured he lost the play,” Skinner said. “It’s something you try to address.”
A learning moment for Gordon, Skinner inferred.
Yes, it was one of those nights for the Wings, who, at 50-62, have had lot of those nights, especially at home. The Wings have been shut out 12 times and scored just one run 17 other times. That’s 29 of their 112 games, slightly better than a quarter of the schedule.
They also are just 19-34 at Frontier Field, where they will host ROC the ROC Night on Wednesday.
But, again, when the starting pitcher walks three of the first five batters he faces, the outcome rarely will be positive.
“You want to pitch to early contact and go from there,” Skinner said. “You want to establish your strike zone with the umpire.”
That’s what Toledo starter Matt Hall did. He was terrific in his seven shutout innings, yielding just three hits and no walks while striking out nine.
The Wings run scored in the eighth off Kevin Comer after Edgar Corcino led off with a double and scored on a Juan Graterol single.
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