By TOM GARIGEN
July 2, 1999
The 1999 season carried more lowlights than highlights for the Rochester Red Wings. The team went 61-83 for a fifth-place finish out of six clubs in the International League’s North Division. Rochester was 17 games behind the pace set by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in manager Dave Machemer’s one year in town.
However, the Wings did flash some promise in the middle of the season. Rochester reached its first three-game winning streak of the season in thrilling fashion, tying Ottawa in the ninth and then scoring four in the 11th to come away with a 6-2 win over the Lynx on this date 21 years ago.
Julio Vinas had the big hit in extra innings, chasing home Ryan Minor with an RBI single in the top of the 11th to stake the Wings to the lead. Howie Clark and Esteban Beltre then worked a pair of bases-loaded walks, and Eugene Kingsale followed with a run-scoring single to cap the inning.
Vinas came on as a pinch runner in the ninth with Rochester trailing 2-1. Down to the team’s final out, Clark came through with a base hit to score Vinas and knot the game at 2. Tommy Davis advanced to third on the play, but Clark was gunned out trying to reach second to end Rochester’s hopes of winning in regulation.
Ottawa scratched across single runs in the second and the third, but were otherwise shut down by tremendous pitching from the Red Wings. Doug Linton was stellar, tossing nine complete innings while allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits and striking out six. David Evans then tossed the final two frames, with a Lynx single his only blemish
In a season with more downs and ups, the late rally assured that the efforts of Linton and Evans were not in vain.
Davis and Kingsale had two hits apiece, as did PJ Forbes and Calvin Pickering. Minor reached in the ninth and scored the tying run. The burly third baseman had eschewed the NBA to play baseball even after an All-American senior season at Oklahoma. Minor was already known as the player who replaced Cal Ripken Jr. in the Baltimore Orioles lineup after Ripken had played in 2,632 consecutive games.
| Red Wings 6, Lynx 2 (11 inn.) | |||||||||||
| Rochester | AB | R | H | BI | Ottawa | AB | R | H | BI | ||
| Kingsale cf | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | Bergeron lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Forbes 2b | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Jones cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| May lf | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Bennett p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Minor 3b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Blum 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Pickering 1b | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Frnandz 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Webster dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Malave ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Vinas pr | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Coqulltte 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Davis c | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Hunter dh-rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Clark rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Post 1b-3b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Beltre ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Stowrs rf-cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Morales c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Carvajal ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Totals | 39 | 6 | 11 | 6 | Totals | 36 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Rochester | 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 – 6 | ||||||||||
| Ottawa | 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 2 | ||||||||||
| E – Forbes, Minor, Beltre. DP – Rochester 2, Ottawa 1. LOB – Rochester 9, Ottawa 2. 2B – Pickering. 3B – Post. SH – Kingsale. SB – Bergeron. CS – Kingsale. | |||||||||||
| Rochester | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||||
| Linton | 9 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||
| Evans W, 1-6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Ottawa | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||||
| Smart | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Small | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| Bennett | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Forster L, 0-3 | .1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | |||||
| Baker | .2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| WP – Linton. Umpires – Robertson, VanVleet, Kowalczyk.
T – 2:51. Att. – 2,571. |
|||||||||||
Also on this day: 1989 – Pitcher Dave Johnson allowed a run on six hits and struck out seven over 8 ⅔ innings as the Wings defeated Tidewater 2-1. Tim Dulin provided all the support Johnson would need with a two-run single in the second. Steve Culkar came on to record the final out for his first save of the season. Francisco Melendez had three hits and scored a run.
Leave a Reply