BY PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The defense intended to prevent the game-winning run in effect allowed it.
Moving on contact, Drew Maggi scored from first on Nick Gordon‘s single to shallow left field as the Rochester Red Wings walked off to beat Lehigh Valley, 5-4 Sunday afternoon at Frontier Field.
Maggi took advantage of a miscommunication to score the game winner.
“Their third baseman pointed to second,” the Wings leadoff man explained. “As soon as I saw (Lehigh Valley left fielder Nick) Williams turn his back, I took off.”
With the game tied at four, Maggi reached on a two-out single to left to start the winning rally. Gordon followed and sliced a one-ball, one-strike offering from Tom Windle into left field.
“In that situation, you have to play ‘no doubles,’ to keep the other team from scoring,” said Red Wings manager Joel Skinner explaining the defensive alignment. “You try to keep the ball in front of you.
“The play took a while to develop from the standpoint that Nick kinda poked it down to left. Drew had no trouble getting to third, but when he got there he was able to get around the base and stay in athletic position.”
Gordon’s run did not matter, but the Wings shortstop alertly rounded the bag at first and looked ready to advance another 90 feet.
“Nick took a wide turn,” Skinner added. “By the time he (Williams) turned around to throw to the cutoff man, Maggi just saw that and took off.
“If I’m waving him home, Williams just picks it up and throws him out. He didn’t have to throw the ball very far.”
The play was reminiscent of that made by Rajai Davis on July 3rd. The Syracuse Mets centerfielder scored from second against the Wings on a Danny Espinosa hard single to left.
More tricks from the Maggician as the Wings walk it off to close out the homestand!!! #WignsWin pic.twitter.com/35nIk4QLnQ
— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) July 14, 2019
“Saw Raj do it recently, so I don’t know if it was instincts or something in my memory,” Maggi noted. “Having seen that play, though, helped.”
Maggi’s run capped a comeback from an early deficit and snapped a three-game losing streak.
“That was all on him,” Skinner said crediting his second baseman. “That’s not a coaching thing.”
Before the Wings came to the plate, Austin Listi gave the IronPigs a 3-0 advantage with his eighth home run of the season – a three-run job off Wings starter Drew Hutchison. Trackman measured the drive at 318 feet. The distance marker on the Frontier Field fence indicates 322 near where Listi’s ball left the playing area.
“Hutchison did a great job,” Skinner said. “The kid hit a ball, a pop up down the line that had just enough wind behind it. It landed on the top of the fence and hit the railing.”
Tomás Telis tied the game in the sixth with a three-run shot to straightaway center.
It looked like Lehigh Valley might take a commanding lead in the eighth against Wings reliever, Fernando Romero. Andrew Romine started the frame with a single. Williams put runners on second and third with his ninth double of the season.
Romero responded with two strike outs and allowed just one run.
“That was a pickle he was in,” said Skinner. “To only allow the one run was big. That could have gotten upside-down in a hurry. He gives up the one run, but man that was the game for us. Him getting off the mound with only one run scoring was big.”
Jaylin Davis knotted it in the home half with his 10th home run of the season and set up the game winner. Maggi crossed the plate with the Wings only lead of the day.
“That was a beautiful,” Skinner said with a smile.
Cody Stashak fanned two of three batters he faced in a clean ninth to pick up the win.
Hutchison struck out nine and allowed five hits over five innings.
Windle took the loss.
Davis finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Telis went 2-for-4.
The Wings (45-48) improved to 6-7 in the month of July. Rochester heads to Norfolk for a four-game set against the Tides and former Aquinas and Section V star Chris Bostick. The Wings return home on July 23rd to host Norfolk.
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