Red Wings silenced for second straight night

BY MIKE ROSE

Rochester, NY — After winning the first three games of the series against the Omaha Storm Chasers, the Rochester Red Wings were silenced by the Storm Chasers pitching for the second consecutive night. Behind a dominant start from Dinelson Lamet, Omaha shut out the Red Wings once again, 2-0. Rochester followed up last night’s offensive struggle with just one hit on Saturday.

“Offensively we just ran into a couple of buzzsaws to keep us off the board,” Rochester Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said of his team’s offensive struggles the last two games. “You have to tip your cap, they’re in first place for a reason. You can tell, they keep them in every game and hopefully, we can come back tomorrow and do some things offensively to get on the board. It’s not lack of work, it’s not anything other than their guys on the mound were better than our hitters tonight and yesterday.”

Rochester started the game with its only hit, a leadoff single from Dylan Crews. He was caught stealing shortly thereafter and the next 11 Red Wings were retired as Lamet cruised through the Rochester order across five innings facing the minimum 15 batters. Lamet exited after just 62 pitches and five shutout innings with one walk and five strikeouts. Brad Lord matched Lamet blow for blow across the first five innings before running into trouble in the sixth.

Lord jumped ahead in the count 1-2 on John Rave before the Strom Chasers right fielder ripped one down the line and into the right field corner for a leadoff triple. Nick Loftin would plate the first run of the night with an RBI single and eventually advanced to second after a balk by Lord. Brian O’Keefe lofted an RBI single in front of Crews to make it a 2-0 game and that was all the offense for Omaha but it was more than enough.

Austin Cox gave Rochester its only chance with a running in scoring position of the night after walking Jack Dunn and Jackson Cluff in the bottom of the sixth. Cox would follow with a strikeout of Darren Baker before Jonathan Bowlan was called upon to face Crews, and forcing the Nationals’ top prospect to bounce into an inning-ending double play. Rochester would only manage one more baserunner the rest of the night.

It was the first time the Red Wings had been shut out in back-to-back games since August 10 and 11 of 2021 against the Buffalo Bisons. Saturday also marked the first time Rochester had been shut out in back-to-back nine-inning games at home since April 16 and 17 of 2013 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Lord earned a tough luck first career loss in Triple-A after 5.2 innings of work. He allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts. LeCroy was happy with Lord’s effort but dosappointed his team couldn’t take advantage of the performance.

“In most of all his (Lord) starts there hasn’t been a lot of strenuous spots,” LeCroy said. “He can pitch, I think he’s got a chance to pitch at the next level if he continues to do what he’s doing. I hate that we wasted these two pitching performances but it’s part of the game you tip your cap, flush it and come back tomorrow.”

The Red Wings will look to finish the series with Omaha on a high note tomorrow at Innovative Field. Kyle Luckham (1-1, 7.88) will make his third Triple-A start for Rochester while Alec Marsh (7-7, 4.71, MLB) will make his second start this season for the Storm Chasers after being optioned by the Royals on Wednesday. The first pitch for the series finale is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.