BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y.– For a second night in a row, the Rochester Red Wings late innings haunted them as they were defeated by the Omaha Storm Chasers 8-4 Thursday evening.
“We didn’t execute on the mound at times and out defense, they didn’t show up in the box scored as much but we didn’t make enough plays either,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy stated about the loss.
Rochester’s hitless spells and defensive lapses plagued them in the second half of the ballgame. After the Red Wings took a 2-0 lead into the fourth inning, the Omaha offense came alive with a 411-foot grand slam from Adeiny Hechavarria to take a two-run lead.
Two innings later after Rochester tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth, Nate Eaton scored the go-ahead run for Omaha after he was hit by a pitch, stole second, made it to third on a throwing error that was made in the process of him stealing second, and scored on a wild pitch. The Storm Chasers pushed across three more runs including two on a run-scoring singles from Logan Porter that drove in Tucker Bradley both times.
The Rochester defense struggled to contain the Omaha offense in the later innings including surrendering two infield hits in the ninth inning with two outs.
“We just got to execute better,” LecRoy stated about the defensive play the last couple of nights.
Rochester’s offense in the first four innings provided the run support they needed. The former Storm Chaser Franmil Reyes got the Red Wings on the board in the first inning with his third long ball of the season that scored him and Nomar Mazara with two outs in the inning. After Omaha’s grand slam in the fourth, the Red Wings answered with back-to-back home runs from Travis Blankenhorn and Matt Adams. Blankenhorn blasted a 2-2 count pitch into the home bullpen to lead off the inning, while Adams took the second pitch he saw and powered it near the right field foul pole. It was the second time this season that the Wings hit back-to-back long balls with the other instance happening on May 31st against the Syracuse Mets when Drew Millas and Erick Mejia hit two out consecutively in the second inning. The round-tripper for Adams was his first since June 6th against the Worcester Red Sox.
“I feel like I’ve been putting some good swings on balls, but it’s nice to see one go over the fence that’s for sure,” Adams stated about his home run. “Especially after Travis hit his and I was able to go back-to-back with him and tie the game up there.”
The Rochester bats went cold from the fifth inning to the eighth. The Red Wings tallied one hit in the final five innings with a base hit from Jake Alu in the ninth inning. Rochester drew five walks in that span including drawing three of them in the sixth inning to load the bases trailing by a run.
“Good pitching is gonna usually gonna beat good hitting,” LecRoy stated about the lack of offense late in the game. “They made pitches against us and we didn’t impact the ball much. Especially late. Yesterday was kinda similar, but it all goes back to work and sometimes you go through things during the game.”
Right-hander Jose Urena started for the Red Wings and pitched only two innings before leaving the game with an injury to his pinky after taking a line drive to it to end the second frame. The righty was solid through the two innings he pitched with a punch out and allowed only one hit. Rochester used five bullpen arms to finish up the game after the Urena injury.
Rochester (33-37, fifth in the IL East, 13.5 games back of Norfolk Tides) and Omaha (36-33, sixth in the IL West, 10 games back of Iowa Cubs) will continue their series on Friday at 6:45 p.m. as the Red Wings will send right-hander Joan Adon (2-4, 4.73) to the mound and the Storm Chasers will start southpaw Anthony Veneziano (3-3, 4.38).
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