By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
On the night the Rochester Red Wings honored legendary manager Joe Altobelli and the 1971 championship team, Josh Rogers turned in the kind of performance Roric Harrison, Mickey Scott and the ‘71 pitching staff made commonplace.
Rogers pitched deeper into Friday night’s game against Syracuse than any Red Wings starting pitcher this season, completing 7.1 innings of three-hit, shutout ball. He struck out five batters, issued just one walk and threw 57 of his 83 pitches for strikes.
The outing served as a significant improvement from Rogers’s last start against the Mets, when he surrendered seven earned runs on eight hits and was pulled after 3.1 frames in Syracuse. The effort didn’t yield a decision, as the Red Wings managed just one hit before he exited the contest, but the 27-year-old is growing comfortable at Frontier Field; Rogers has allowed just three hits in each of his last two home starts.
Neither team wavered in a scoreless regulation, as Rogers and counterpart Josh Walker traded zeroes for seven innings and their respective bullpens completed two more. The Mets won the 10th inning 2-1, however, to take the win in extras.
“I thought (Rogers) did an outstanding job,” manager Matt LeCroy remarked. “He was in total command; he had a good mix. He pitched (inside), he got some swings and misses when he needed to get them. That last inning, we felt pretty strongly about him going back out in the eighth. He took that ball off the ankle that he kind of favored a bit and gave up a hit. Then we went to Suero.”
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Wander Suero, who the Nationals optioned to Rochester on Aug. 3 after he allowed multiple runs in three consecutive major league appearances, recorded the final two outs of the eighth before being substituted for a pinch hitter. Alberto Baldonado relieved Suero and worked himself into and out of trouble in the ninth, but Nick Goody wasn’t as fortunate.
Baldonado allowed a leadoff double, walked a batter and threw two wild pitches but ultimately struck out Khalil Lee and Chance Sisco to escape the frame without allowing a run. Goody hung a slider to pinch hitter Martin Cervenka, who struck a liner into the left field corner to score automatic runner Chance Sisco.
Wilfredo Tovar added an insurance run to score Cervenka that became crucial when Red Wing Brandon Snyder drove in automatic runner Jake Noll with a line drive single to left in the bottom half of the inning.
Roel Ramirez held on for the save, while Goody took the loss as Rochester fell to 32-45. The Red Wings collected just two hits, a Blake Swihart leadoff single in the first and Snyder’s run-scoring single in the 10th.
Rochester has scored just nine runs over the first four games of the week-long series. Friday marked the first time a Red Wings game has been scoreless after nine innings since July 5, 2013.
“Our offense didn’t show up tonight,” LeCroy acknowledged. “Give them guys some credit; they pitched extremely well. We just didn’t make the necessary adjustments to win the ballgame. We pitched extremely well. When you pitch this well you should win ballgames. We just didn’t get it done on the offense.”
The Red Wings honored Altobelli, who died in March at 88, with a pregame ceremony. The man nicknamed Rochester’s “Mr. Baseball” served the club in playing, coaching, front office and broadcasting capacities before retiring from color commentating in 2009.
Don Fazio, Jim Hutto and Bill Kirkpatrick, three 1971 Junior World Series champions, attended the ceremony and shared memories of Altobelli. LeCroy, who greeted the trio on the field after each man threw a ceremonial first pitch, enjoyed his brief conversations with each and noted the unique circumstances of the evening.
“Despite the outcome, it’s a special night when you honor a man like Joe: what he meant to this community; what he meant to this organization; and what he meant to a lot of players that were coming up, trying to live their dream of becoming big leaguers, special” LeCroy commented. “Those three guys, it wasn’t enough time to spend with them but they were pretty funny. It was a good opportunity for me to go out and shake their hand and get to meet them.
“It was a good night, good crowd. I just wish we could’ve came out on the winning end of it.”
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