By Dan Glickman
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings fell in their fifth straight game on Sunday, dropping their series finale to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 12-8, despite a late comeback attempt that saw them narrow a 10-3 deficit to as little as 10-7.
“We didn’t pitch well enough [today],” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “We dug ourselves a big hole. The offense came alive late to get back in it, but it was just too big of a hole.”
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“But it’s baseball, and we got to continue to grind and compete and work… and hopefully we can turn this thing around.”
The Wings (2-6) went 1-5 in their first home series of the season. They’ve been outscored 42-13 in the losing streak, and have committed 10 errors after they had just one in their first three games.
Their lone win against the IronPigs (7-2) came on Tuesday, the home opener, when they won 10-1 behind six solid innings from starting pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara and a five RBI day by catcher Drew Millas.
Ogasawara retook the mound on Sunday but couldn’t replicate his opening day performance. After a smooth 1-2-3 first inning, Lehigh Valley’s Gabriel Rincones Jr. singled to center after a seven-pitch at-bat. The following batter, third baseman Christian Arroyo, then ambushed Ogasawara’s first pitch, smashing the 79.7 MPH curveball 381 feet to left, well over the left field wall for a two-run home run to give the IronPigs the early 2-0 lead.
Rochester struck back the next half-inning. On the second pitch of the bottom of the second, Nabil Crismatt left a 71.8 MPH curveball low, allowing Rochester designated hitter Franchy Cordero to get around on it and send it high. At first, it seemed like the ball would die at the track, but with the wind blowing to right, the ball kept carrying. Rincones, the Lehigh Valley right fielder, made a jump to try and rob it, but it wasn’t enough, as the ball landed in the Red Wings bullpen for Cordero’s first home run as a Red Wing. The Lehigh Valley lead was halved, 2-1.
The veteran slugger, a veteran of parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, has been a bright spot in the Red Wings lineup so far this season, hitting .364 with a .985 OPS, behind only third baseman Brady House on the team in both categories.
“He brings a little stability, a little veteran presence that can help stabilize the lineup,” says LeCroy. “He’s taking pressure off the young players. It’s early in the season, but he’s doing his part.”
It would be all IronPigs the next few innings, as they scored three in the third, two in the fourth, and another two in the fifth to extend their lead to 9-1. Seven of those runs, including six earned, came against Ogasawara, who went four innings while allowing nine hits and striking out two.
“Shinnosuke wasn’t as good as he was last time out,” LeCroy said.
The Red Wings scrapped back two runs in the bottom of the fifth on a double by center fielder Robert Hassell III and an RBI single by House to make it 9-3, but Lehigh Valley again scored in the seventh, adding a run to put the score at 10-3.
After the seventh-inning stretch, Rochester struck back with what seemed to be a game-changing rally, as the first five hitters reached base, including a two-RBI double from the House and a two-RBI single from Cordero to cut the lead to 10-7. However, the rally soon died at the hands of a double play and a groundout. The IronPigs added two more in the eighth and a Juan Yepez RBI in the ninth was too little, too late.
The Red Wings hit the road for a series with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre beginning Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. The Wings will send out right-hander Chase Solesky (0-0, 3.00), while the RailRiders will send out right-hander Erick Leal (0-1, 3.60). Scranton is currently 5-4 but has always been a difficult matchup for the Red Wings in recent years, particularly in Scranton, where the Red Wings are 48-75 since 2011- a timespan encompassing parts of both the Twins and Nationals eras.
Still, LeCroy is hopeful that the Wings can make it work and get some wins down in Pennsylvania— if they play well enough.
“Hopefully we can battle and give ourselves a chance to win,” says LeCroy of the coming series with the Yankees’ affiliate. “That’s the bottom line. We have to play perfect, and we haven’t played perfect enough to stay in the games.”
Can we just forget this past sorry week happened? The whole team went into the abyss. Let’s do a re-set