BY JONATHAN SKUZA
Rochester dropped its fourth straight as the Red Wings fell in the series finale to the Worcester Red Sox 5-2 Sunday afternoon.
After the Red Wings took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Enmanuel Valdez hit a solo home run to right center field to tie the ball game in the bottom half of the inning. Narciso Crook gave Worcester the lead the following inning with an RBI base hit that drove in Ronaldo Hernandez who doubled to lead off the inning. Valdez tallied his second RBI of the afternoon with a base hit in the third to extend the Red Sox lead.
Worcester put the game out of reach in the eighth inning with a two-run inning. Ryan Fitzgerald hit a sacrifice fly to score Nick Sogard who doubled to open up the Worcester half of the inning. Hernandez drove in Valdez with a base hit with two outs in the inning.
Brandon Walter picked up his first win on the season for Worcester with a six-inning performance where he struck out seven and gave up two runs on six hits and two walks. The Red Sox bullpen shut down the Red Wing’s bats in the last three innings surrendering only one hit. Ryan Sherriff picked up his first save of the season.
Derek Hill blasted his seventh home run of the season on the first pitch of the ball game to left field to give the Red Wings an early lead. After Worcester took a 3-1 lead, Jake Alu pulled the Red Wings within one with a forceout RBI that scored Richie Martin who doubled to start the inning. Martin extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
Joan Adon got the start for Rochester. The right-hander threw six innings of three-run baseball, struck out five, and gave up six hits and one walk. The Rochester bullpen struggled giving up two runs in the eighth inning and allowed three hits.
Rochester will return home and will look to get back into the win column as they welcome the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders to Innovative Field. The Red Wings will send southpaw Anthony Banda (0-0, 7.80) to the mound while right-hander Mitch Spence (4-2, 4.21) will get the start for the Railriders.
They were oh so close to achieving .500 after 2 nice wins in Worcester. Then everything reverted back to the April edition of the Red Wings as they frittered away the next 4 games pretty much dashing any further chance of .500 for the first half the season.
The hitting disappeared and so did the clutch pitching. Wings pretty much went thru the motions in those final 4 games. At least thats how they looked. Very uninspired and totally different than they had looked over the past couple of weeks.
A shame too because they were starting to look like a decent ballclub. Just get these last two weeks over with and re-set. Who knows?