By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Rochester Red Wings pitcher Cade Cavalli completed the first four innings with little difficulty on Thursday night, but did not record an out in the fifth. Reliever Jace Fry nearly bailed Cavalli out, striking out his first two batters, but allowed a grand slam to Buffalo Bisons infielder Samad Taylor in a full-count, two-out scenario.
Rochester and Buffalo were tied before the inning, but Taylor’s first home run of the season, his first professional grand slam, extended the Bisons’ lead to 7-1. Cavalli was charged for five runs and took the loss, as Buffalo seized a rout and took a 2-0 lead in this week’s series.
“They got in pretty good counts,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy acknowledged. “[Cavalli] fell behind at times and he kind of missed locations on a couple of his pitches.”
The Red Wings hadn’t allowed more than six runs or 11 hits before Thursday’s game. Buffalo rapped 16 hits, including three apiece from top three batters Nathan Lukes, Vinny Capra and Gabriel Moreno; each player also scored a pair of runs.
Bisons starter Casey Lawrence, meanwhile, improved to 2-0 this season after six innings of one-run ball. Lawrence scattered just six hits, two to a surging Luis García, and struck out four.
García has hit safely in six for his last nine at bats.
“He’s getting strikes to hit. He’s staying down in his legs a lot better than he was at the beginning,” LeCroy said of his 21-year-old shortstop. “I love the way he’s staying on left-handed pitching; he’s using the whole field.
“The bat’s gonna play. Right now we just need to clean up some things defensively to become the complete player, but he’s working hard every day with [hitting coach Brian Daubach] and doing his drills on defense. Hopefully he can continue to be the bright spot.”
Buffalo’s bullpen turned in an even better performance than Lawrence, compiling three innings of one-hit relief. Tayler Saucedo struck out four of the nine batters he faced, while Jeremy Beasley and Matt Gage each added a punchout.
Carson Teel surrendered the last three runs after surrendering three consecutive singles as well as a Cullen Large double in the sixth. Reed Garrett and Erasmo Ramirez each notched a pair of strikeouts in their appearances.
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Cavalli did strike out seven batters, one away from his Triple-A high, to just one walk. He recovered from Logan Warmouth’s leadoff double in the third by striking out the next two hitters, but Capra drove in Warmouth with a single.
LeCroy nonetheless believed Cavalli made strides from his first start of the year at Toledo.
“I think this outing, his stuff was better than his first outing,” LeCroy assessed. “We’ve just gotta continue to keep putting him out there and he needs to keep mixing up all his pitches for strikes, which I thought he threw some secondary pitches in the zone that were really good. But fastball command was just a tick off later in the game.
“He competes and battles every time out, and I think he’s getting closer and closer each time to putting together really, really solid outings. … That’s why he’s here in the minor leagues, to continue to develop and become the pitcher that we know he’s gonna become.”
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