The Rochester Red Wings fell to the Toledo Mud Hens 5-2 on Saturday, as the team proved unable to dig out of an early 4-0 hole despite a strong finish by starter Logan Verrett and RBI by Donovan Casey.
Rochester fell behind to the AAA Tigers affiliate in the first inning. After getting the first two men out, Verrett gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Josh Lester (who would later leave the game due to a pending promotion to Detroit) and Brendon Davis. The Mud Hens scored two more in the second for the 4-0 lead.
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After giving up those six hits and four runs in his first two innings, Verrett proved unhittable the rest of his seven innings of work. He allowed only two base runners in innings three through seven, both on hit-by-pitches. The only other run of the game for Toledo came in the eighth on a solo shot by Daz Cameron, after Verrett had departed.
“Despite being not as sharp early, he settled down and the next five were pretty strong,” said Rochester manager Matthew LeCroy. “I expect him to go deeper into games, and he did that. He didn’t melt down after the first two innings.
The Red Wings got on the board in the bottom of the second, when Donovan Casey hit a two-out double to drive home Nick Banks from first. Casey also drove in the second run for the Wings, a bloop single in the sixth.
With a home run the night before, Casey has driven in three of the Red Wings last six runs. He feels like his recent success driving in runs ultimately comes down to doing what he always tries to do.
“It’s good pitch selection, that’s all it really is,” said Casey. “It just comes down to finding good pitches to hit and getting ready to hit it. That’s what I’ve been focused on the most- being ready to hit.
The issue for Rochester on Saturday ultimately was in the runs that they didn’t score. Rochester went 1-10 with men in scoring position on the game, and they stranded eight men on base in total. Two innings in particular stand out as “what might have been” for Rochester: the fifth and the seventh.
In the fifth, the Red Wings saw their inning end on a force-out at second by Toledo shortstop Zack Short. With men on second and first and two outs, Short dove to stop a Lucius Fox grounder from getting into the outfield. He then threw the ball from the ground, just barely getting Andrew Stevenson out on a force at second. If the bouncing throw had been just a little slower, the Red Wings would have at worst had the bases loaded and may have even scored a run.
In the seventh, meanwhile, the Red Wings led off with Adrian Sanchez‘s first triple of the year, only for the next three batters to go down in order to strand him at third.
“Offensively, we just didn’t do enough,” said LeCroy. “We didn’t have good enough at-bats, we struggled with two strikes. It just wasn’t a good night for the offense.”
The Red Wings, now 56-72 on the year, conclude their series with Toledo on Saturday at 1:05, with Daniel Ponce de Leon expected to take the hill for Rochester.
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