By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Vance Worley was cruising through his fifth face-off with Rochester this season, retiring the first 10 Red Wings in just 27 pitches on Wednesday. Keibert Ruiz was the 11th at-bat, however, and the 23-year-old continued to get the best of Syracuse pitching.
Ruiz crushed Worley’s one-out, 1-1 pitch to the NBT Bank Stadium “Salt City Deck” beyond the right field wall, wiping out the early no-hit and shutout bids in one fell swoop as the Red Wings broke a scoreless deadlock. The Nationals’ top prospect wasn’t finished, either, homering to provide three insurance runs in the seventh as Rochester’s lead grew to 7-0.
Ruiz has now hit 21 home runs in 2021 and 50 in his professional career. He recorded back-to-back multi-home run games for the first time after also hitting a pair on Tuesday.
The Red Wings ran away with a 7-1 victory in Game 1 of the doubleheader before the Mets took Game 2 5-0.
Andrew Stevenson, playing his first game since being optioned back to Triple-A on Aug. 22, led off and batted 2-for-4 with an RBI double and run scored in Game 1. Stevenson, Ruiz, Daniel Palka and Jake Noll each drove in runs from the top of the lineup, while six of the eight regular hitters tallied at least one hit.
Ruiz, Palka and Noll were among the Red Wings regulars to sit out Game 2 entirely, while Stevenson pinch-hit. Mike Ford and Rafael Bautista scratched across Rochester’s only two hits as Zack Godley threw six one-hit innings to earn his sixth win in 10 decisions. Nick Banks led off the seventh with a walk against Arodys Vizcaíno, while Ford singled, but Vizcaíno retired the final three batters in order.
The Red Wings, who own a 41-54 record, continue the series on Thursday at 6:35 p.m. Luis Reyes, who allowed just three hits in 6.1 innings against Buffalo on Friday, is scheduled to pitch for Rochester.
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