By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester baseball fans showered Stephen Strasburg with a pair of standing ovations in short order, the first to recognize his no-hit bid and the second to applaud his full body of work.
Buffalo Bisons pitcher Max Castillo, Strasburg’s counterpart, yielded just a run on two hits himself. That run, a Donovan Casey solo shot, was all Strasburg required to leave his rehab assignment with a lead.
The veteran right-hander continued to impress in his rehab from the thoracic outlet syndrome that ended his 2021 season, featuring a biting curveball and garnering seven Bison groundouts. His experience got the best of top Blue Jays prospect Gabriel Moreno, twice a strikeout victim.
Strasburg did not feature in the final decision, as the Bisons tied the game off Rochester reliever Alberto Baldonado in the eighth, but the 2019 World Series Most Valuable Player has now yielded just four hits over 12.1 innings pitched at Frontier Field. He shut out the Red Wings to lead the Syracuse Chiefs to a 5-1 victory on May 19, 2010, during his initial ascent to the major leagues. Twelve years later, against a markedly better lineup than that sub-.500 Rochester outfit, he was even better.
Strasburg threw 50 of his 83 pitches for strikes, with his fastball sitting in the typical 90-91 mph range. He also utilized his changeup and sinker to register outs in the later innings. Rochester prevailed 2-1 in the ninth, loading the bases for Joey Meneses, who broke the tie with an infield single.
“Really good night,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy remarked. “I thought Strasburg threw the ball well, had a really, really good mix, both sides of the plate. He had his sinker going; he had a four-seamer away going. Breaking ball was really good early and then the changeup came alive there at the end. That’s a good sign for our organization, that he’s headed in the right direction.”
“He’s more concerned about the command right now, which is natural for him to feel that way,” LeCroy continued. “It was there tonight.”
Strasburg threw just 31 of his 61 pitches for strikes in his first rehab assignment of the season for Single-A Fredericksburg, but has located 88 of his 141 offerings (62.4 percent) in the strike zone over the two starts since.
Meneses, who has arguably replaced Luis García as the player Red Wings manager LeCroy most desires at the plate with the winning run in scoring position, ensured the teams avoided extra innings before their Saturday doubleheader. The ninth inning was the only frame that saw multiple Red Wings reach base safely, a better-late-than-never proposition for Rochester.
Casey led off the final stanza with a single, securing his sixth multi-hit game of the season and second in three games. Cole Freeman singled two batters later, a play that saw Casey advance to third on a throwing error by third baseman Eric Stamets. Ehire Adrianza walked, loading the bases before Meneses hit a sharp liner off Stamets’s glove, easily scoring Casey.
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“There was no doubt in my mind that I thought [Meneses] was gonna get the job done,” LeCroy acknowledged. “This is a unique team, man. We’re athletic and they pull for each other. They’ve got some really tremendous chemistry in the clubhouse, but the big thing is they compete every night. They compete, they get ready to play and it shows.
“You play a team like Buffalo, who had the best team in the league last year and then they’re right there again at the same spot. Us being able to compete with them, to win a ballgame the way we won it tonight, that’s a good sign for us.”
The Red Wings can win the week-long series with a doubleheader sweep of Buffalo on Saturday.
fun game to watch. It was under 2 hours heading into the top of the 8th, when the Wings got into some trouble. They might have been able to turn the DP that would have kept the score 1-0, but the 2nd baseman was out of position to throw to first and his toss was off mark. We wondered if he had immediately flipped the ball to the shortstop right nearby, he may have been in a better position to throw out the runner going to first.
In the 9th, Wings got two infield hits…both high bouncers to 3rd. The first one, which was a very difficult play near the baseline forced the 3rd baseman to hurry a long throw, and it got by the 1st baseman, allowing runners to take an extra base.
Surprised at that point they they elected to pitch to Adrianza…and it almost worked as he worked a full count before drawing the walk. With sacks full and our best hitter up there, Meneses hit another very high chopper that glanced off the top of the glove of the 3rd baseman. He was unable to make the play and the winning run scampered home. Mission accomplished. Happy ending.
Strasburg was brilliant for 6 innings of work. Too bad he couldn’t have gone out for one batter in the 7th so he could walk off the mound to what would have been a very nice ovation. Bisons pitcher was also brilliant. The Wings have a very nice ballclub so far. Hope it lasts. It has been like forever since we have been this competitive. If we win one of the last 3 in this series we will stay in 1st place as we hit the road next week.
Also, like the Amerks, it was so good to see the ballpark full again.