BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The old saying goes, “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Drew Millas hit a walk-off home run to send the 3,202 in attendance at Innovative Field home happy as the Red Wings win 2-1 against the Syracuse Mets Wednesday evening in a tight contest.
”Exciting win for us,” Red Wings Manager Matthew LeCroy said. “It was a big hit for Drew [Millas], but a really good team effort. The pitching staff was outstanding, if they don’t pitch the way they did, we don’t win that ballgame.”
Millas came up to the plate as Rochester’s last hope before extra innings, and the switch hitting catcher wasted no time as he launched a first pitch fastball and sent it 410 feet over the center field wall.
”I got what I wanted, kind of middle in,” Millas said. “The last pitcher was kind of jamming me inside and threw a lot of cutters. So I adjusted my approach over to left center field and thankfully I got a pitch where I could hit and did something with it.”
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Despite the victory, Rochester did not start out on the right foot as Syracuse jumped out to a 1-0 in the first inning. Ben Gamel collected a one out double and then Rylan Bannon followed it up with an RBI triple to give the Mets the early lead.
Spenser Watkins started the game for Rochester and struggled in the first two innings as he gave up the first run and had 50 pitches at the end of the second inning. However, from the third inning on Watkins shut down the Mets’ lineup only allowing two hits and throwing 37 pitches in the final four innings of his outing. The 31-year old right-hander set down seven straight Syracuse batters to cap off his six inning performance.
”I was able to settle in after the high pitch count the first two innings but we were rolling through and shout out to Drew Millas for calling a great game and a fantastic swing at the end,” Watkins stated.
Rochester struggled to get any offense going as they had only two hits through the first three innings. However, one defensive play in the fourth inning seemed to turn around the ballgame for the Red Wings offense. Juan Yepez turned unassisted double play at first base for the first as he caught a line drive from Carlos Cortes and tagged Jose Iglesias as he was diving back into first base.
”That was huge,” Watkins said. “In a close game, anytime you can get something to swing your way, it’s huge. Something like that really got the momentum our way.”
”I’d say so,” Millas said about the momentum swing. “I think you kind of feel them starting to get a little bit of momentum and it was nice to get it killed right ther and it was a nice play.”
Rochester in the bottom half of the inning with two outs was able to tie the game after Carter Kieboom worked a walk, Millas collected a double down the left field line and Jack Dunn drove in Kieboom with a base hit.
The Red Wings bullpen kept the momentum going after Watkins finished his outing. Luis Reyes and Rico Garcia came out of the bullpen for Rochester and shut down the Syracuse offense the final three innings of the ballgame. The two arms struck out five and only surrendered three hits and one walk to help Rochester set themselves up for the victory.
”Guys out of the bullpen have been strong all year,” Watkins said. “Louie [Luis Reyes] did a fantastic job segwaying into Rico [Garcia] with some power stuff and getting big outs, especially the last strikeout.”
The Rochester Red Wings (13-12) will continue its series against the Syracuse Mets (15-12) on Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Rochester will send southpaw DJ Herz (0-1, 3.12) to the mound while Syracuse will have righty Mike Vasil (0-2, 10.91) toe the slab in the matinee contest.
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