Red Wings slug to series opening win

BY MIKE ROSE

Rochester, NY — The ball was flying out of the park Tuesday night as the Rochester Red Wings used a quartet of long balls to power past the Syracuse Mets, 8-1. It continued a recent offensive surge for the Red Wings who have won three of their last four games while scoring eight or more runs in those victories. On Tuesday the entire lineup got in on the offense with eight of the nine batters recording a hit in the win.

“Before the game we have our offensive meeting and the biggest thing is these guys like to throw the ball up in the zone to try and get some misses up there and we got them in some good offensive counts for us,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “I thought we did a good job hitting some low line drives up the middle, put some pressure and then obviously the homer was big for us too. I love what we did, we hit the ball hard tonight all over so hopefully that carries into tomorrow.”

The home run parade began for the Red Wings in the second inning when Brady House hit a towering solo shot over the triangle in left-center field. Rochester would follow with four consecutive hits but would run themselves out of a bigger inning when Joey Meneses was cut down at the plate trying to score from first on a Jake Alu double. Trey Lipscomb‘s RBI single added another run to make it a 2-0 game after two.

In the third, the long balls kept coming. After Darren Baker reached on a leadoff single, Drew Millas took one 429 feet to right field for a two-run shot. House would reach again, blasting a double the opposite way before Meneses made up for his base-running miscue the inning prior with a two-run home run of his own to give the Red Wings a 6-1 lead. Overall Rochester racked up nine hits in the two innings to open the game up.

“I think we were just being more aggressive,” Millas said of the second and third innings. “He started to give us some more pitches to hit and I think we took advantage of it. All the guys kind of fed off the momentum we built in those two innings.”

The final home run of the night came in the sixth off the bat of the Washington Nationals’ No. 1 ranked prospect Dylan Crews. Crews’ long ball was also a two-run shot. Rochester’s four home runs on Tuesday traveled a combined 1635 feet, with three of the four being 400+ feet.

“I think for us just passing it on to the next guy and just do your job whenever you’re up to bat,” House said of the Red Wings’ recent offensive surge. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do, whenever runners are on base doing our job and getting them over or doing something to get the runner in. We kind of all have been trying to come together and do that.”

Meanwhile, on the mound for Rochester, Jackson Rutledge enjoyed an adventurous outing. He worked into and out of bases-loaded jams in the second with a strikeout of Austin Allen. He came back out in the third and loaded the bases once again, this time with nobody out. He responded with back-to-back strikeouts before inducing a pop-up to escape without any damage. He ultimately labored through 4.2 scoreless innings and threw a career-high 112 pitches all despite not 100% pregame.

“I think with him it’s just pound the zone, you got good enough stuff to make people miss so attack at all times,” Millas said of Rutledge. “I think the more he chases he throws the ball in the zone and chases contact instead of strikeouts the better he is. He wasn’t feeling too well before the game today and he kind of grinded it out so kudos to him for just pushing through.”

Rutledge came just one out short of qualifying for a win after allowing five hits and walking four with six punchouts in his 4.2 innings of work. Two straight two-out walks ended his night in the fifth inning.

“He battled to put up a zero man,” LeCroy said. “He competed and made some pitches to put up zeroes. It just felt like he kept earning the right to go back out and we thought it’d be good to give him a shot (for the win).”

Rochester (23-17, 61-52) inched closer to the final playoff berth in the International League with the win on Tuesday, taking back sole possession of second place. They still trail the first-place Columbus Clippers by four games following tonight’s contest. Columbus was not in action Tuesday after their scheduled contest against the Iowa Cubs was postponed due to rain.

Rochester will be back in action tomorrow looking to carry its momentum into game two of its series against Syracuse. Thad Ward (6-4, 5.60) is slated to get the start for Rochester while Brandon Sproat (0-1, 11.57) is scheduled to make his second career Triple-A start for the Mets. The first pitch from Innovative Field is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.