By DAN GLICKMAN
The Rochester Red Wings will have a blank slate at midseason for the first time in the team’s history.
That’s because this season will be the first time that the International League will utilize a split-season schedule. The teams with the best overall record for each half will play a series at the end of the season for the International League title and a chance to face their counterpart in the Pacific Coast League. While player statistics will carry over from half to half, the over record will, in practice, be reset to 0-0.
The first half ended on Sunday with the Red Wings’ 7-3 home loss to the Omaha Storm Chasers. Rochester finished its first half with a record of 34-39, good enough for sixth place in the IL East Division, 13.5 games back of the division and first-half league champion Norfolk Tides.
The first opponent for the Red Wings in the second half will be the same one they faced to begin the first half: the AAA Phillies affiliate, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The Red Wings and IronPigs played only two of a scheduled three games in the opening weekend series at Innovative Field in late March and early April. Rochester lost the first two, 8-7 and 2-1, before the Sunday finale was canceled due to inclement weather.
Those two losses were part of the first of what Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy called the “two halves” of the first half.
“We started out with a lot of guys missing,” he said. “People on the [injured list], moves at the big league level, so we had a tough time offensively.”
Indeed, the Red Wings had plenty of trouble in March and April, going 9-16. By the end of May 21, they were 17-28. It was then, LeCroy says, that the half began to turn around.
“I thought we made some moves, we signed some guys, we got all our guys back off the IL, and we really got going offensively as a unit in Toledo,” he said. “We started winning a lot of ballgames.”
Beginning with a 5-3 win over the Toledo Mud Hens on May 23, the Red Wings are 17-12. That includes a stretch from May 23 through June 2, where the Wings went 9-1. The team hit .243 in April (16th-best in the IL), but they have hit .262 (10th-best in the IL) in the last 30 days. The Wings were dead-last in the league in On-Base-Plus-Slugging (OPS) in April with a .690 mark but were a middle-of-the-pack 11th with a percentage of .798 in the last 30 days.
The pitching has similarly improved. In April, the Red Wings had the 17th-best ERA (5.54) and 15th-best opponent’s batting average (.272). In the last 30 days, the Red Wings have the third-best ERA (4.67) and opponent batting average (.242).
LeCroy hopes the team can keep up the improved performance and make noise in the second-half race.
“Hopefully, we can go out and win every series. If we can win every series, we should put ourselves in a good spot to play for something in the second half,” he says. “That’s why we play.”
“Our team play was good at times, and we have to continue at it, get rolling, and have everybody play to their potential and we’ll get to a good spot.”
Their first chance in the second half comes against an Iron Pigs team that finished 36-37 in the first half, good for a fourth-place finish in the division and two games ahead of the Red Wings. This series will be Rochester’s first visit to Allentown this season.
Lehigh has been paced at the plate for much of the season by former Red Wing outfielder Jake Cave, who holds this season’s IL lead in batting average (.373), slugging (.712), and OPS (1.161). Joining Cave in the outfield is MLB.com’s no. 10 Phillies prospect, Simon Muzziotti, currently second in the league in hits (85) and third in batting average (.347). Red Wings pitchers will also have to deal with shortstop Weston Wilson, who is tied for seventh in the league with 16 home runs.
Although there had been no announcements on probable pitchers for the Iron Pigs as of Sunday, Lehigh Valley’s rotation is led by right-handed starter Noah Skirrow, tied for second in wins (6). In the bullpen, righty Jeremy Walker is 5-1 with a 3.67 ERA. Rochester’s Wednesday starter was still to be determined, but right-hander Jose Urena (0-1, 6.27) is scheduled to start on Thursday before being followed on Friday and Saturday by righty Joan Adon (2-5, 4.84) and lefty Anthony Banda (0-0, 6.23).
The Red Wings will return to Innovative Field to face Buffalo next Tuesday, July 4, to open their first home series of the second half.
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