By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
As unthinkable as it may seem to the average fan, Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy believes opposing batters are growing comfortable with Cade Cavalli’s 97 mph fastball.
“The one thing that I’m noticing now, a little bit, is his inability to throw the ball inside,” LeCroy said. “I think he’s gotta get back to the inside part of the plate, commanding that part of it.”
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs have scored more runs than any of the other five opponents the Rochester Red Wings have faced in 2022. The Philadelphia Phillies’ top farm team proved its mettle again at Frontier Field on Tuesday, snapping Rochester’s nine-game win streak in the process.
Lehigh Valley chased Cavalli in the first inning, the right-hander’s shortest start since last Sept. 29. The Nationals’ top prospect allowed five two-out runs, walking two batters and allowing four hits before being relieved by Carson Teel. IronPigs infielder Yairo Muñoz issued the bases-clearing blow, doubling to drive in three.
Teel surrendered four runs himself, the most he has allowed this year, and the Red Wings collected just one hit over the first five innings before mustering a rally in the sixth. Lehigh Valley secured an 11-5 victory, its fifth win in seven meetings with Rochester this season.
Cavalli exhausted just 10 pitches to strike out Matt Vierling and Austin Wynns to start the game, but quickly lost the strike zone. He walked Darick Hall on four pitches, allowed back-to-back singles to Dustin Peterson and Scott Kingery and issued another four-pitch walk, this time to Nick Maton, before Muñoz and Jorge Bonifacio recorded consecutive run-producing hits.
Cavalli has struggled against the IronPigs, yielding nine runs in two starts and losing both. He threw just 17 of his 37 pitches for strikes, his lowest strike percentage in seven starts, and now owns a 7.62 ERA.
“What I’m seeing right now is a lot of guys are comfortable against his 97 [fastball] and against his good slider,” LeCroy acknowledged. “And that just tells me they’re eliminating one side of the plate, that he doesn’t throw it in. Last year I thought he threw some good balls inside; this year he hasn’t commanded the fastball I know he’s capable of commanding it. But he’s definitely gotta get back to mixing that ball in and making them a little bit conscious of that ball in. I think that’ll make a big difference moving forward.”
Jake Noll, Josh Palacios and Lucius Fox plated runs against Corey Oswalt in the Red Wings’ four-run sixth. Noll was the lone Red Wing to record multiple hits, although his baserunning error in the first inning thwarted a scoring opportunity. Right fielder Dalton Guthrie finished an inning-ending double play when he caught Joey Meneses’s fly ball and threw out Noll, who started to advance to third when he saw Andrew Stevenson bluff a tag-up in front of him. The left-handed Palacios, who has reverse splits and bats .333 against left-handed pitchers, would have been next, with a chance to get two runs back against southpaw Bailey Falter.
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Falter was nearly unhittable regardless, throwing five innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts. Seven Red Wings went down in order before they got to Oswalt, who spent parts of the last four years with the New York Mets. They stranded men on second and third when Donovan Casey struck out to end the sixth, but LeCroy was nonetheless pleased with his offense grabbing five unanswered runs after falling behind 10-0.
“A 10-run deficit, it’s a big hole, but we felt like we got back in that game in the sixth inning,” LeCroy remarked. “The big motto with Dauby (hitting coach Brian Daubach) is we’re not gonna give any at bats; we’re not gonna waste any. No matter what the situation is, these guys continue to fight.
“If we keep fighting, we’re gonna be in a good spot at the end. We just can’t lose that fight.”
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