BY JONATHAN SKUZA
Insurance runs are always important during a close contest.
Travis Blankenhorn provided a key insurance run that turned out to be the winning run in the eighth inning as the Rochester Red Wings claimed a 4-3 victory over the Worcester Red Sox Saturday evening.
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Rochester was leading 3-2 in the top of eighth when Blankenhorn led off the inning. The left-handed hitter took a 2-2 sweeper and crushed it 427 feet over the center field wall to give the Red Wings’ lead a slight cushion.
Worcester in the bottom half of the inning responded with their own long ball as Niko Kavadas hit a 0-1 sinker over the right field wall to make a one-run contest again.
Rico Garcia came in after the long ball and locked down the slim victory for the Red Wings with an inning and two thirds performance for his 15th save of the season.
Rochester fell behind early in Saturday’s contest after Matthew Lugo gave Worcester a 2-0 lead in the second inning when he launched his fifth home run of the season over the center field wall.
Two innings later Rochester was able to take the lead. Jackson Cluff got the Red Wings within one with an RBI double that drove in Joey Meneses who collected a one out base hit. Erick Mejia two batter later drove in Cluff and Stone Garrett with a base hit to give Rochester the lead they wouldn’t surrender for the rest of the ballgame.
Rochester received solid pitching from Brad Lord who hurled five and two thirds innings of work where he struck out four while giving up two runs on six hits including a home run and one walk. The Rochester bullpen was able to keep up Lord’s good work leading to the victory.
Rochester currently sits atop of the International League in the second half with a 13-4 record and don’t look to be slowing down as they have been on a roll. The Red Wings have a +26 run differential through the first 17 games of the second half of the season.
The Rochester Red Wings (13-4, 51-39) will look to capture the series victory against the Worcester Red Sox (8-8, 43-48) on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. as they send south paw DJ Herz (3-2, 3.75) to the mound while righty Brad Keller (1-1, 9.00) will toe the slab for the Red Sox.
No matter what happens Sunday, Wings will enter the break no worse than tied for 1st. A win would be nice however since that will give them the series 4-2 and keep them on a positive arc.
Nice to see Blankenhorn mashing again. Up to 19 HR’s. 20 HR seasons are very rare for the Red Wings over the past several decades. He could still get 30 if he plays regularly.
Wings still need stronger pitching to make believers of us. However if they win, being 10 over .500 2nd half would look real good on the resume!