BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y.- – The Rochester Red Wings gave up a combined seven runs in the seventh and eighth innings as they were beaten 9-3 by the Durham Bulls Wednesday evening.
“Offensively we weren’t good enough to get back into it,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “Tough ballgame, but if you make a mistake against these guys, they’re gonna make you pay. It’s what good teams do. You gotta play clean baseball.”
Rochester held a narrow 3-2 lead going into the top of the seventh when Durham offense woke up. Osleivis Basabe drove in Vidal Brujan and Curtis Mead to give Durham its first lead of the evening with a two RBI triple. Brujan reached base on a double that was misplayed by the Rochester defense that led to the big innings.
Brujan finished with three extra base hits while Mead reached base in every plate appearance.
Tristan Gray singled to drive in Austin Shenton who walked after the two RBI triple.
Durham sent eight hitters to the plate in the seventh and drove in the three runs on three hits and three walks.
The Bulls did much the same in the eighth. Jonathan Aranda drove in two with a base hit through the hole at shortstop to pad the Durham lead. Mead drove in Aranda with a triple and then scored himself on a groundout to first from Shenton.
The Red Wings within the same two innings had Richie Martin reach on a throwing error from the Durham shortstop Basabe and Jack Dunn tally a base hit as their only offense. The Rochester offense only produced three hits in the final six innings of the ballgame.
“Our approach was in the right spot at times, but you just have to score when they give you opportunities,” LeCroy said.“We put ourselves in good spots, but we just didn’t execute situationally enough.”
Rochester used five pitchers during Wednesday’s contest. The Wings have used five or more pitchers in both games in the series depleting an already thin bullpen.
Jackson Rutledge started for Rochester where he went only three innings striking out three giving up two runs on four hits and two walks.
“He ran into too many pitches in the third and we had to take him out,” LeCroy said. “It puts a lot more pressure on other guys to try to pick up innings, but that’s baseball.”
Despite the losing effort, Rochester did come out of the gates picking up where they left off the night prior when they secured a series opening victory 12-8.
Travis Blankenhorn drove in Jake Alu and Derek Hill in the bottom of the first inning with a double down the right field line. Alu led off with a double while Hill followed him with a base hit to keep his hot bat going since returning from the majors.
In the third inning, Hill collected his third triple in the last two games to led off the inning. With one out, Matt Adams drove in the Iowa native with a 10 pitch base hit at-bat.
“I thought our bats early were really good,” LeCroy said. “We just didn’t tack on when we needed to tack on.”
Durham tied the game in the second inning from a Brujan two-run home run to right field on a 3-2 pitch.
Rochester has given up eight or more runs in five of their last six games while posting a 4-6 record over the last 10 games.
The Rochester Red Wings (8-9/42-48) will look to bounce back against the Durham Bulls (9-8/49-43) in a quick turnaround on Thursday at 11:05 a.m. Righty Jose Urena (0-2, 6.49) will get the ball for Rochester while right-handler Evan McKendry (7-2, 3.89) will be on the bump for Durham.
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