By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — If only the Rochester Red Wings played more games against the Norfolk Tides.
For the second straight night, the Wings rocked Norfolk pitching. Six different batters recorded multi-hit nights in a 10-5 Rochester victory.
“Hitting’s contagious,” said Wings nine-hole man Jimmy Kerrigan who was one of four players with three hits. “It’s true what they say. You see a lot of guys getting on out there, you want to hop in and do some damage too. It’s been fun.”
One night after pounding out a season-high 22 hits in a 16-3 win over the Tides, every batter in the lineup had a knock by the third inning. The Wings had enough runs for the win by the end of that third frame.
“We were hitting really well in Norfolk, too,” Kerrigan said referring to last week’s series when the Wings took three of four. “It’s crazy… crazy. Nobody can get out. Got here and just exploded. Everybody’s just seeing the ball, I guess.”
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Jaylin Davis finished 2-for-4 on the night with an RBI and a run scored. Wilin Rosario went 3-for-4 with two RBI. Davis singled in the first for his sixth hit in as many at bats over the two nights. Rosario had hits in first three at bats. The Wings DH ran his streak to seven straight hits before getting caught looking in the fifth.
“You get anybody on base in front of them, and it works out really well,” Wings manager Joel Skinner said.
Rosario had three homers and a double in Tuesday’s win, a night in which he collected seven RBI. Davis came into the game leading the minors with 33 RBI, 34 runs scored and 91 total bases since June 24th.
Drew Hutchison went five innings and improved to 7-6 on the season. After working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, the right-hander retired nine of the next 11 he faced before running into trouble in the fifth inning.
“It was a situation where he threw a lot of pitches in the first inning (24 pitches),” Skinner explained. “His pitch count got away from him a little bit early. Then he was able to kinda stabilize it. He pitched with a lead and went from there.”
Hutchison struck out nine and walked one. He allowed three runs (all earned) on seven hits. The big blow came in the fifth off the bat of Mark Trumbo – a two-run home run to straight away center.
“He just got to the point where he was in the 90s when he got through five,” Skinner said of his starter. “Trumbo got a nice pitch to hit and didn’t miss it.”
Norfolk made it 8-3 and had a pair of runners on base when Hutchison set down Jesus Sucre on strikes for the final out of the inning.
Two innings later, Kerrigan led with a solo shot inside the left field foul pole.
“Guy was throwing hard, so I just tried to get a good pitch to hit,” Kerrigan said of Tides reliever Evan Phillips. “Thought he was going to throw me a heater. Hit a foul ball off my toe (on the previous pitch) which is always fun. He threw me a slider that stayed in the middle part of the zone and just got a good swing off it.”
One out later, Nick Gordon singled for his third hit of the night. Gordon scored from first when Davis scorched a double to right center.
“He hit that ball hard,” Skinner said of Davis. “If you were to look up gapper, that was right in the gap.”
Fernando Romero allowed two runs over three innings of work out of the bullpen.
Ian Krol struck out the side in a scoreless ninth.
Of Rochester’s 19 hits, 16 were singles.
Section V alum Chris Bostick finished the night 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. After striking out in his first two trips to the plate, the former Aquinas Institute star doubled home a run in the fifth. Bostick singled and scored in the eighth when Norfolk scratched across a pair of runs.
The teams close the three-game on Thursday with an 11:05 AM start at Frontier Field.
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