BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y.– Resilience is defined as the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties.
The Rochester Red Wings were the definition of resilience Tuesday evening as they outlasted the defending International League champions Durham Bulls 12-8 in a back-and-forth slugfest at Innovative Field.
“I think it just moves our guys,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “They work extremely hard and they play the right way and when you can get that mix with some talent and some luck at times, you can make it a lot more fun in the clubhouse.”
Rochester and Durham exchanged blow for blow in front of 9,128 eager fans.
The Bulls threw the first punch with a solo home run from Jonathan Aranda in the top of the first inning.
Drew Millas answered for Rochester after the first five guys had been set down with a solo home run of his own on the first pitch of the at-bat with two outs in the second. The long ball was the second of the year for Millas with the other one coming on May 31 against the Syracuse Mets.
“It just builds confidence around the dugout and you feel it,” Millas said. It’s not really like a physical thing that you can see necessarily all the time, but you can feel that all the hitters were locked in tonight.”
After an groundout RBI by Curtis Mead in the third to regain the lead for Durham, Rochester secured its first lead of the contest with a Jeter Downs home run on a 3-2 count to lead off the inning and Derek Hill swiping home after a wild pitch. Downs round tripper went 434 feet to center field.
Durham would grab the lead a third time in the fourth inning with a two-run home run off the bat of Greg Jones. The Bulls tacked on another run the following inning with a sacrifice fly from Aranda.
The Red Wings stormed back in the bottom half of the fifth with a three run inning to take the lead. After Jake Alu reached base via a fielder’s choice, Hill connected for his first of two triples to score Alu. Blake Rutherford drove in Hill with a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run ballgame. Millas followed it up with an RBI base hit to take the lead once again.
Rochester piled on some more runs the next inning when Hill drove in Downs and Richie Martin on his second extra-base hit of the night to extend the Red Wing lead.
Durham kept pushing as they scratched across three runs of their own to tie the ballgame at 8. They were aided by two fielding errors and a couple of base hits in the seventh.
The Red Wings put the finishing blow to Durham in the eighth inning when they pushed the contest’s final four runs across the plate. Hill tallied his second triple and fourth hit of the contest to drive in Erick Mejia who legged out a triple to lead off the inning and Alu. Travis Blankenhorn blasted his team leading 14th home run of the season. Hill scored on the play
Hill is the first Red Wing to tally two triples in a single game since Andrew Stevenson achieved the feat on April 8, 2022 at Toledo. The Iowa native is the first Red Wing to achieve that feat at home since Danny Santana did it against Pawtucket on April 14, 2014. The center fielder was also the first Red Wing to tally five RBI at home since Israel Pineda achieved it on September 1, 2022. He joined teammate Blake Rutherford who drove in five on June 28 of this year at Lehigh Valley.
“Just sticking to the plan that the team gives me,” Hill said. “We have our analytic guys giving us great information. We got our hitting guys giving us great approaches. So I just try to stick to the plan.”
“He’s in a lot better hitting position,” LeCroy said. “He’s on time and he’s not sliding as much as he did at the major league level. Hopefully he’ll continue.”
Rochester used six pitchers to secure the victory on Tuesday. Wily Peralta started on the mound for Rochester, but left the game after two innings of work due to precautionary reasons after experiencing tightness in his lower half of his body.
“Lower half became a little bit tight and we thought his stuff wasn’t as sharp so we just made the decision to take him out,” LeCroy said. “I expect he’ll make his next start.”
Newly acquired Rico Garcia earned the win out of the bullpen after he pitched an inning and a third of shutout baseball were struck out two Bulls in his second outing as a Red Wing.
No matter how much deep the deficit became for Rochester Tuesday evening, they never quit and produced runs when mattered the most.
“Not often you get on a team where everybody just combating and everybody super confident,” Millas said. “We know at some point everybody’s going to hit or at least somebody will get a hit and it’s fun being around it.”
“This is probably the best lineup,” Hill said. “There’s not really any holes or weaknesses. It’s very nice to know that you don’t have to do everything yourself.”
Rochester (8-8/42-47) will look to continue its momentum against the Durham Bulls (7-9/48-43) in game two of their series on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. Right-handed Jackson Rutledge (1-0, 4.50) will get the start for Rochester while righty Erasmo Ramirez (2-1, 5.19) will be on the bump for Durham.
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