BY MIKE ROSE
Rochester, NY — The Rochester Red Wings had won six in a row entering Sunday’s matchup against the Syracuse Mets, but they ended up on the wrong side of the series finale, 8-4. Rochester outscored Syracuse 41-8 in the first five games of the series but were unable to sustain offense against Mets’ starter Tylor Megill.
“You gotta tip your cap that guy pitched really good,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said of Megill. “We were close but really not close and we just couldn’t make enough adjustments to put heat on him.”
Megill started for Syracuse and allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks across 7.2 innings of work. He also racked up a career-high 11 strikeouts. Meanwhile, with Rochester searching for length out of its starting pitcher Jackson Rutledge, he failed to make it through his third inning of work. Rutledge struggled with his command in a similar fashion to Tuesday but Syracuse made him pay this time around. He surrendered four runs on three hits, four walks and also hit a batter.
Rutledge began the day striking out the side in the first for his only three punchouts of the game before trouble arrived in the second. After two hits and a walk loaded the bases for Jackie Bradley Jr., he plated the first run with a sacrifice fly. A wild pitch one batter later allowed Pablo Reyes to wheel home and make it a 2-0 game. Rochester responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning on a Jake Alu sac fly before more was done in the third.
Luisangel Acuña worked a leadoff walk to bring Brett Baty to the dish and he belted an elevated fastball from Rutledge 411 feet to make it a 4-1 lead for the Mets. The long ball was Baty’s third of the series. After inducing a pop out from Drew Gilbert, back-to-back walks spelled the end of the line for the Nationals’ 27th ranked prospect.
“I know they’re working every day, him and Chavy (Red Wings pitching coach Rafael Chaves) and our analytic guy to get some movement and some things squared away to get him on line and in the zone,” LeCroy said of Rutledge. “That’s the key for him if he can throw the ball over because he has the movement it takes to get guys out. And confidence, I think confidence is a big key. He wants to be good and he’s a perfectionist, but sometimes that may get in his way.”
After Rutledge gave way to Garvin Alston the Red Wings were able to hang around. Alston made just his second Triple-A appearance and ultimately produced a career-high four innings to keep Rochester within striking distance. The hole was just too deep to dig out of against Megill on Sunday.
“We hung in there, we had some chances to get back in it,” LeCroy said. “When we had people on he made pitches, he’s a veteran guy and knows how to pitch.”
Rochester got one back in the fourth on an RBI double from Trey Lipscomb. Lipscomb was a bright spot in the Red Wings lineup finishing the day 3-for-4 at the dish. The two teams traded runs in the late innings with a two-out RBI triple from Eddie Rosario being answered by a Joey Gallo solo home run in the sixth to keep the lead at two. Syracuse responded back with Reyes bringing home Baty on an RBI double before the Red Wings had a chance in the eighth.
Drew Millas smashed a one-out triple off the right-field wall and scored on a groundout from Brady House to cut the lead back to two at 6-4. Darren Baker came up as a pinch hitter for Gallo and legged out an infield single before swiping second base for his 37th stolen base of the year. Carter Kieboom was at the plate representing the tying run but was set down on a 3-2 breaking ball. The Mets would add two more runs in the top of the ninth, essentially putting the game out of reach.
Despite a sour ending to the homestand the Red Wings (27-18, 65-53) ultimately earned a series victory, taking five out of six from Syracuse. Rochester still holds sole possession of second place in the International League standings trailing first place Columbus (29-15, 61-57) by 2.5 games with just over a month left in the regular season. Lipscomb still has confidence in his team heading down the stretch run.
“Just knowing that we can do it, whoever is on the mound, whoever is in the box, just kind of that next man up mentality,” Lipscomb said. “I feel like that’s the mentality we’re gonna have when we go on the road and other than that we’re just going to play baseball.”
Rochester will head into a day off on Monday before beginning a 12-game road trip on Tuesday to kick off the final stretch of the season. The trip begins against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (22-21, 56-60) with Thad Ward (6-4, 5.31) projected to get the start for the Red Wings while David Buchanan (9-3, 4.82) is slated to get the start for the IronPigs in the series opener. The first pitch from Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
its very hard to sweep a 6 game series. This is the 3rd time this half that the Wings took 5 of 6 and thats commendable. Too bad Columbus had to win because it cost the Wings a full game in the standings.
But there is still time to make it up. A tough roadtrip coming up. Two opponents the Wings have historically really struggled against. I still hold out hope that the Gnats will fortify our roster soon.
Yesterday the pitching wasn’t good but for the series, it was decent. Mets had several ex-MLB players or rehabbing players in the their lineup so it wasn’t a walk in the park. At the end of these next 12 games we should know if the Wings are truly contenders or not. It will be quite the test.
If the weather had been a bit better I think a couple of the weekend games would have drawn 10K.