By IAIN HIGGINS
Rochester Red Wings leftfielder Luis Maza homered twice while Brian Buchanan and Corky Miller slugged a home run apiece in a tight shootout with Ottawa on this day in 2005. Closer Willie Eyre put a stop to Ottawa’s ninth inning rally, giving the Wings an 12-11 road win at Lynx Stadium.
Maza’s first home run came in the second inning, dinging the left-field foul and bringing home Brian Buchanan. His second came in the fifth, also a two-run shot. Buchanan’s own two-run deep ball in the third inning marked his first home run as a Red Wing. Yet another two-run homer came from Corky Miller, following Maza’s in the fifth. Four early bombs, plus Garrett Jones’s three-run double in the third put the Wings up 11-2 by the sixth inning. Maza scored the Wings final run as he headed home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Luis Rivas in the ninth.
Ottawa’s luck changed late as the Wings bullpen quickly gave up seven runs in the final two innings. Wings starter Scott Baker walked one, fanned two, and held the Lynx to four runs in just under seven innings, but he was replaced when he hit his second batter of the inning. Beau Kemp and Travis Bowyer allowed nine hits and seven runs between them before Willie Eyre was called in with the tying run at second and the .300 average Lynx leftfielder Bobby Darula in the batter’s box. Eyre forced a pop up and earned the save.
With the win and Buffalo’s loss to Pawtucket, Rochester sat a game and a half outside of first place in the International League North.
| Rochester | AB | R | H | BI | Ottawa | AB | R | H | BI | |
| Tyner cf | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Castro 2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Abernathy 2b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Moriarty 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Heintz 3b | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Raines cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| West rf | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Wilken 3b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Jones 1b | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Darula lf | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Buchanan dh | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Freire 1b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Maza lf | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Young dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Ojeda ss | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Calzado 3b | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| Rivas ss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Reed rf | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| Miller c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Martinez c | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Rogers ss | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Totals | 39 | 12 | 14 | 12 | Totals | 44 | 11 | 18 | 9 |
E- Baker, Calzado; DP- Lynx; LOB- Red Wings 7; Lynx 10; 2B- West, Jones, Buchanan, Maza, Wilken, Freire, Young, Reed, Martinez; 3B- Darula; HR- Buchanan (1), Maza 2 (5), Miller (8), Rogers (5); HBP- Abernathy, Miller 2, Moriarty, Freire; SF- Rivas; SB-Freire.
| Rochester | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Baker W, 5-6 | 6.2 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Kemp | 1.1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Bowyer | 0.2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Eyre S, 6 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ottawa | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Stephens L, 1-2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 |
| Cahill | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Ormond | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Rodriguez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
WP- Kemp; HBP- Abernathy (by Stephens), Miller (by Ormond), Moriarty (by Baker), Friere (by Baker), Miller (by Rodriguez); Umpires- Home, Persinger; 1st Roberts, 3rd Bolick; Time- 2:41; Attendance- 2,813.
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