SYRACUSE, N.Y. — After taking 2-of-3 games against Buffalo at home, the Rochester Red Wings began their seven-game road trip at Syracuse needing similar success. Despite an ugly start and an unfortunate finish, Rochester had its chance to steal game one from the Mets. However, once the Wings finally grabbed the lead in the 10th, it was quickly erased by an RBI triple from Travis Taijeron and a walk-off single from pinch hitter, Luis Guillorme as the Wings fell 5-4 to the Mets.
Rochester was the first to score in extras, taking advantage of the pace-of-play rule. Lamonte Wade Jr. began the inning on second and Wilin Rosario singled in his second run of the game, this time for the lead.
Down by one in the 10th, Syracuse was on the verge of being shutout for the ninth straight inning. On paper, it was Guillorme that won the game by driving in Taijeron for the winning run. But if it weren’t for reliever Stephen Nogosek, he would never have gotten the opportunity.
Nogosek’s unexpected entrance into the game came after Ryan O’Rourke gave up back-to-back walks on 10 pitches and was ejected from the game due to his display of frustration.
With two outs and the bases loaded off walks in the top of the ninth, Nogosek got Wade Jr. to pop out and keep the score tied at three.
It all started following the bottom of a harsh first inning. The Red Wings had to disregard their initial game plan and break into another starter, prematurely. Syracuse chased the Red Wings’ starter, Gabriel Moya, out of the game after smashing five hits to take the early 3-0 lead. Moya was able to earn the third out but not before facing all but one batter in the Syracuse lineup. Fortunately for Rochester, recent call-up Randy Dobnak was rested enough to enter the game and prevent the Mets from adding to their lead.
At the end of his day, Dobnak went a full six innings, giving up zero runs on five hits, four walks and six strikeouts. In his third appearance for Rochester, Dobnak’s stat line was his best performance in Triple-A thus far.
After giving up eight hits by the end of the fourth, Rochester’s relief pitching held Syracuse to just two hits, until extra innings. Earning the loss was DJ Baxendale who came in following Dobnak’s leave and struck out five over two and a third innings.
Earlier in the game, Rochester was able to get one run back in the top of the second when Rosario singled in Brent Rooker. By the third inning, there was 11 total hits in the game.
Down 3-1, Rochester was able to tie the game in the top of the fourth. With two outs to open the inning Wynston Sawyer walked and Rosario singled to put two Wings on base. The number nine hitter, Jordany Valdespin, picked up one of the biggest hits of the game for Rochester by tripling to right field and driving in both runners.
The Red Wings finished with two less hits than the Mets with 10. During the ten-inning hit parade, both teams managed to leave 26 men on base.
Compared to Rosario and Valdespin driving in both runs for Rochester, Syracuse had five different players drive in a run. Rene Rivera, Danny Espinosa, Arismendy Alcantara, Taijeron and Guillorme each added a single run in the two innings Syracuse scored, the first and last.
The Red Wings will play Syracuse again on Tuesday, June 4 at 1 p.m.
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