ROCHESTER, N.Y. – In baseball, sometimes it isn’t how many hits you have, but when you hit them. On Thursday, the Rochester Red Wings got those hits when they needed them in a 7-4 win over the Buffalo Bisons, largely due to a sixth-inning grand slam and a seventh-inning RBI double by left fielder Travis Blankenhorn.
The slam off Buffalo’s Ryan Boyer came after the AAA newcomer loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch and a walk and put the Red Wings ahead, 4-3, for their first lead of the game.
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“He wasn’t really locating early on in the other guys at-bats, so I was taking until I had a strike,” said Blankenhorn, who went 2-for-4 with five RBI on the night. “I was just trying to get a good pitch and drive and put the ball in play and get a run in.”
“That was a big hit for us,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “We needed that; our offense was really poor up to that point. It was a big blow that kind of turned the momentum around.”
The win came despite being outhit by Buffalo, 13-6. When Blankenhorn hit his grand slam, it was only Rochester’s second base hit of the game.
Buffalo got on the board first in the top of the third with one out and men at first and second when Bisons designated hitter Addison Barger hit a double to left. Both runners scored to give Buffalo the early 2-0 lead. Barger came home later in the inning on a single up the middle by shortstop Rafael Lantigua to extend the lead to 3-0.
Those would be the only three runs allowed by emergency starter Anthony Banda, who was initially scheduled to go on Friday but moved into the Thursday start after Joan Adon was a late scratch. Although he allowed 10 hits in his five innings of work, he spread them out and avoided damage in any other innings.
“He responded well; he was prepared to pitch,” said LeCroy. “Leading up to yesterday, he actually assumed [he was pitching today], which worked out in our favor.”
“He did a nice job, he had some tough spots, but he only gave up three. It was real big.”
Buffalo, depleted by Wednesday’s 12-inning win, was running a bullpen game, beginning with Hagen Danner. For the first four innings, Danner, Hayden Juenger, and a rehabbing Zach Pop allowed just one hit and two baserunners overall.
Then came the fifth. Boyer, an alumnus of the Buffalo area’s Canisius College, came into the game for Buffalo to make his AAA debut. He walked the first two Red Wings he faced and ultimately only escaped unscathed due to a double play and a flyout.
Boyer would have no such luck in the sixth, as the 26-year-old hit shortstop Richie Martin with a pitch and then walked Jake Alu and Jeter Downs to load the bases. It was then that Blankenhorn came to the plate. Working a full count, the left-fielder smashed the sixth pitch of the at-bat deep into the hot Rochester night, well over the right field fence. Just like that, the Red Wings had taken a 4-3 lead.
The grand slam’s distance was measured at 455 feet, the longest of the year for a Red Wing. It was also Blankenhorn’s first grand slam in over two years, as he hadn’t had a bases-loaded home run since June 18, 2021, when he was with the Syracuse Mets. The homer also moved Blankenhorn into the lead for team home runs with 12.
Buffalo struck back in the top of the seventh, as shortstop Rafael Lantigua knocked in the tying run on a two-out single to make it 4-4.
The Red Wings would break that tie in the bottom of the inning, again thanks to a key hit by Blankenhorn. After Alu reached base on a two-out infield single by beating out the throw to first, he stole second. After a walk of Downs, Blankenhorn stepped up against Brandon Eisert. He soon had two strikes against him.
“I was just trying to get with a two-strike approach and put the ball in play,” said Blankenhorn.
He did just that on a 2-2 pitch, doubling to right to score Alu and move the Wings ahead, 5-4.
Rochester got some insurance in the eighth on a two-run home run by center fielder Erick Mejia, his second of the season, to extend the lead to 7-4. They nearly needed those insurance runs, as Buffalo loaded the bases in the ninth before Gerson Moreno got right fielder Cam Eden to fly out to end the game.
Tyler Danish earned the win in relief to move to 2-2, while Buffalo’s Eisert fell to 2-2 with the loss. Moreno picked up his fifth save of the season.
The Red Wings (5-4 in second half, 39-43 overall, two games back in International League for half) continue their series with the Bisons (4-4 in half, 38-45 overall, 2.5 back) on Friday at 6:45 p.m. Rochester is scheduled to send recent right-handed acquisition Luis Cessa (1-4, 9.00 ERA with Cincinnati this season) to the mound against Buffalo’s Wes Parsons (1-2, 4.42).
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