BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings dropped their third straight against the Worcester Red Sox 13-10 Thursday evening after a late inning rally was snuffed out.
”Anytime you score 10 runs and you don’t win, it’s disappointing,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “You give up two innings where you give up five runs, that’s sometimes hard to rebound. Some credit to our team, they fought back. The offense got it going and we got close. We just couldn’t get that shut down inning.”
Worcester got on the board first with a solo home run in the third inning from Tyler Heineman who led off the inning with the 363 foot long ball.
Rochester responded in the bottom half of the inning when Jackson Cluff with a 426 foot two-run home run to right center field to give Rochester the brief lead. Trey Lipscomb scored on the long ball after leading off the inning with a lead off double.
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The following inning Worcester ambushed Rochester with a five run inning where 10 Red Sox stepped into the batters box. Bobby Dalbec started off the big inning with a game timing solo home run on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. After the Red Sox loaded the bases, Trevor Story regained the lead for them with a two RBI base hit. Kyle Teel drew a bases loaded walk for the fourth run of the inning and Vaughn Grissom drove in the final run of the inning with a base hit RBI.
After a quick fifth inning, Worcester pushed five runs across in the sixth inning and then added on another run in the seventh as they led 12-2.
After some offensive struggles between the fourth and sixth innings, Rochester finally put up a crooked number in the seventh inning as Lipscomb and Jack Dunn each chipped in a an RBI base hit to cut into the Worcester lead.
”That’s one thing about this team, they don’t ever quit,” LeCroy said. “We put together some good at-bats, used the whole field, we stayed on the ball, got on base and we got big hits.”
Rochester started an eighth inning rally that brought them within a few runs of Worcester. Riley Adams clubbed a three-run home run 385 feet to bring Rochester within five, then Cluff knocked in a run with his second base hit of the evening. Dunn knocked in two more runs with a base hit to finish off his 28th birthday with three RBIs.
”That’s one thing about this team, they don’t ever quit,” LeCroy said. “We put together some good at-bats, used the whole field, we stayed on the ball, got on base and we got big hits.”
”Looking for a pitch over the heart of the zone, he didn’t throw me any fastballs that at-bat,” Adams said. “I felt like I kinda saw him well and he left that slider a little too much over the plate and I was able to put a good swing on it.”
Worcester added on an insurance run in the ninth inning as they were able to keep Rochester from completing the comeback.
Rochester defense did show some bright spots as they were able to get Jamie Westbrook to ground into three double plays which helped the Red Wings keep big Worcester innings from getting worst.
”That’s damage control,” LeCroy said. “We’ve played good defense all year. These guys work on it everyday and those three plays tonight were big.”
Rochester’s pitching struggled for most of the game as they gave up all 13 runs on 19 hits including three home runs and eight walks. They let Worcester bat around twice and surrendered two five runs innings within a three inning span.
“When we hit we don’t pitch and when we pitch we don’t seem to hit,” LeCroy Said.
Rochester’s playoff hopes are starting to dwindle with their recent 3-7 stretch that has five games back of the second half lead and has them chasing five teams including Worcester. The Red Wings will look to turn around the series to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Rochester Red Wings (33-27, 71-62) and Worcester Red Sox (34-25, 69-65) will continue their series on Friday at 6:05 p.m. as Rochester will send righty Thaddeus Ward (7-5, 5.61) while Worcester will have righty Hunter Dobbins (0-1, 3.60) toe the slab.
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