By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With one swing of the bat, Randy César ended a 14-inning drought, and the Rochester Plates (Red Wings) went on to beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 4-3 in extra innings, Thursday.
César connected on his third home run of the season, a two-out shot in the sixth inning. The Wings third baseman turned on a first-pitch slider from Scranton/WB starter David Hale.
“My approach was to just look for something up on the plate, so I could put a good swing on it,” César said.
He brought in John Andreoli with his second hit of the game.
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“I was looking for a good pitch and hit the ball. I just wanted that run in.”
The outing was his third multi-hit game in the last five. César doubled twice and drove in four runs in Monday’s win. He connected on three doubles last Saturday. The Dominican Republic native has 10 RBI in the last five games.
“That was a big home run,” second-year Wing manager Joel Skinner said.
One inning later, Luke Raley scored on a Jordany Valdespin one-out double.
Zander Wiel came home with the winning in the 10th inning on a Ronald Torreyes fielder’s choice. With the victory Rochester took its first series of the season.
D.J. Baxendale retired all three batters he faced in a perfect inning of relief to pick up the win.
Zack Littell started and went five innings. The right-hander struck out four, walked three and allowed one run on five hits including a Cliff Pennington home run in the third. Littell left after throwing 87 pitches.
“Obviously, he kept it a close game,” Skinner said. “He wants to go deeper into ballgames. He ran out of ammo after five innings. It’s something that he’s aware of.”
Scranton/WB pushed across two runs in the ninth against Gabriel Moya. The Wings reliever on rehab assignment from Minnesota, was assessed an automatic ball as a pitch clock violation and walked leadoff man Billy Burns.
“He’s got a routine he does out there,” Skinner said. “He’s been in the major leagues, coming out of spring training. It was only his second outing. We’ve mentioned it before. That reared its ugly head. You hate to have stuff like that. It was one of four. It doesn’t help, though.”
Rochester fell on Wednesday, 5-0.
Not to be Overlooked
With one out in the ninth, Wings third baseman gunned down Pennington at the plate on a Ryan McBroom ground ball. Two batters later, pinch hitter Ryan Lavarnway tied the game with a single.
“We’re dying for a double-play ball and they’re trying to stay out of double play,” Skinner stated. “It worked out that he made the right choice and threw the ball home.
“You got to give them credit. They had some guys come off the bench and have some good at-bats.”
Winners of three of four, Rochester (8-12) opens three-game set with Pawtucket on Friday. Chase DeJong will get the start for the Wings.
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