Red Wings open RailRiders series with 10-0 loss

BY DAN GLICKMAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Some say baseball is split into three aspects: pitching, hitting, and fielding. It was the first two that sent the Rochester Red Wings down in defeat, 10-0, in their series opener with the Scranton Wilkes/Barre RailRiders on Tuesday, as Rochester managed just two hits while Scranton knocked 16 hits against four Red Wings pitchers.

The Red Wings fell behind early, as Scranton scored a run in the top of the first, with center fielder and top Yankees prospect bringing in Jorbit Vivas on a groundout force play to put the RailRiders up 1-0. They added four more in the following inning when shortstop Oswald Peraza slugged a grand slam 377 feet to left-center for his first home run of the season to extend the Scranton lead to 5-0 against Red Wings starter Jackson Rutledge.

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“It started off not in our favor, Rutledge battled but made too many mistakes near the middle of the plate where they did their damage,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy.

On the other side of the game, Wings hitters struggled against Yoendrys Gomez, who went 5.1 innings allowing just one hit while striking out four.

“With Peraza’s grand slam, we were down in a hole,” said LeCroy. “Offensively, [Gomez] pitched a good ballgame. He has a sub-three ERA, he’s not overpowering but he’s very effective.”

Rutledge settled down after that, throwing a scoreless third and fourth, but the RailRiders’ bats came alive once again in the fifth, as they put up four more runs to go up 9-0, including a stretch of four straight singles with two outs. Eight of the Scranton runs on the day came with two outs.

Scranton’s offense added another run in the seventh on a TJ Rumfield solo shot, and the Red Wings briefly threatened by getting Darren Baker into scoring position in the eighth, but the outcome was no longer in doubt.

The Red Wings will need a short memory: they continue their series on Wednesday with a 1:05 game. Lefty Andrew Alvarez (0-1, 20.25) is set to face Scranton left-hander Josh Maciejewski (1-1, 4.50).

To hear LeCroy tell it, the need to move on after a shutout loss is another important part of the sport.

“In baseball, you play 150 games,” said LeCroy. “You’re going to have games where you don’t really have much of a shot. You gotta learn to flush a loss.”

“You respect a loss, but you gotta learn how to flush it.”