BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings on their first night of Defenders of the Diamond superhero night, flexed their team superpowers and powered past the Indianapolis Indians, 14-7 Friday evening.
”It was a nice team effort tonight,” Red Wings manager Matthew LeCroy said. “We’ve been on a nice little roll right now and hopefully we can continue to play good tomorrow.”
After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, the Red Wings flexed their muscles when they sent 15 batters to the dish and pushed across nine runs that was highlighted by a Trey Lipscomb 377 foot grand slam to give them a 5-3 lead.
”Trying to work the count, saw some good pitches, got a slider and put a big swing on it,” Lipscomb said.
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The big inning started off when James Wood reached second base off of a throwing error from Indianapolis’ starting pitcher Luis Cessa that scored Dylan Crews. Lipscomb gave the Red Wings the lead with his grand slam with two outs which started a chain of seven straight Rochester hitters reaching base safely.
Crews continued the big inning with his second hit of the inning that scored Alex Call. Darren Baker added on with an RBI base hit of his own to score Jackson Cluff. Riley Adams walked with the bases loaded to score Crews and Carter Kieboom drove in the final run of the inning with a base hit to score Baker. The Red Wings finished the inning with five hits and six walks as they kept the line moving throughout the 45 minute inning and saw 91 pitches combined between the two teams.
”It’s next guy up,” Lipscomb said. “Which is just battling, competing and have some good at-bats and then they started to stagger.”
The nine run first inning was the Red Wings first one at home since their last game of the season in 2013 against Scranton Wilkes/Barre.
The Indians drew a little closer in the third inning with a two run inning when Seth Beer drove in two runs with a base hit.
Rochester responded in the fifth when Kieboom collected another two RBI with a double that scored Wood who doubled with one out in the inning.
The Red Wings would tack on three more runs the following inning that was highlighted by a Baker RBI double and a Wood two RBI double to push across 12 two out runs.
”Our two-out RBI hitting has been really good for us,” LeCroy said. “We don’t hit a lot of homers as a group, but we do put together good at-bats, especially with two outs, so it was good to continue that.”
Adams pushed across the final Rochester run with a sacrifice fly that scored Crews who led of the inning with a walk.
Josh Palacios closed the gap slightly for the Indians with a two out two RBI double in the top of the ninth, but Rochester’s lead was too much as they cruised to their sixth straight victory.
”It feels great, but baseball is baseball and can change in a heartbeat,” LeCroy said. “We’re going to keep our focus on trying to win each game and take each game day by day.”
Crews, playing in his 10th Triple-A contest, finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and four runs scored while extending his hitting streak to nine games. The Nationals No. 2 prospect played a crucial part in the big inning as he was hitting lead off for Rochester.
”As a lead off, you’re trying to get to get on every way possible,” Crews said. “I wasn’t really trying to hit the double. I was trying to get on base and try to keep things rolling in our lineup.”
Spenser Watkins got the ball for Rochester and gave the Red Wings five innings on the bump. He struggled slightly on the mound as he gave up five runs on 10 hits and one walk and only fanned one Indian in his start.
”He’s a veteran,” LeCroy said. “He knows how to pitch and he made some mistakes early. They made him pay for it, but he settled down and gave us five.”
The Rochester bullpen finished off the last four innings, shutting down the Indian’s offense for the most part by giving up two runs on four hits and one walk while striking out five batters.
Rochester clinched the series victory on Friday evening as they are undefeated to start the second half of the season with four straight victories. The Red Wings will look to make it five in a row in the second half of the season and seven victories overall.
”We’re gonna go out and compete,” LeCroy said. “When you’re on a roll like this, you have to stay focused and believe that you can do it and right now our group is in a good spot.”
The Rochester Red Wings (4-0, 42-35) will continue their series with the Indianapolis Indians (0-4, 33-44) on Saturday at 6:45 PM as Rochester will send righty Jackson Rutledge (4-4, 6.616) while Indianapolis will have former Yankee, right-hander Domingo German (2-4, 5.55) toe the slab.
The two walk off wins were pretty exciting. Can’t remember that happening in a double header…maybe it did years ago? But it certainly is rare.
Last night, the bats flexed and scored a pair of touchdowns. Pitching is still a concern for these Wings but it sure is nice to see them on top of the standings..even if its only 4 games in.
Wings are the only undefeated team in the league in the 2nd half and they have won 6 straight overall.
Nats are calling Wood, which should come as no surprise but they hardly ‘need’ him. The team is wallowing under .500 and has little chance of securing a wildcard. Does our young slugger deserve a call-up? Of course. At least in todays MLB way of doing things. Back in ‘the day’, young prospects normally completed a full season at AA or AAA before beginning a major league career. Some exceptions of course. Cal only spent a half season with the Wings and interestingly he got off to a terrible start with the O’s…before well…you know!
Anyway Wood is quite a talent and should do well in DC.
As for our guys, if they can find some consistent pitching, they may stay in contention, which would certainly be refreshing. Since the weather has ‘improved’ somewhat, attendance has been very good at ‘the field’.
All in all, a real nice start to the 2nd half.