BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The all-star break in the International League isn’t the actual half-way point to the season- the first half of the league’s split-season came weeks ago. Still, the prospect of days of rest away from the daily grind of professional baseball no doubt was on the minds of many on Sunday at Innovative Field.
Also on Innovative Field, however, was plenty of water, as occasional showers eventually turned into a full-on deluge that flooded the infield, forcing an early end as the Rochester Red Wings lost to the Worcester Red Sox, 2-0, in a game that ended with a man on second and two outs in the bottom of the sixth.
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“You kind of hate it shortened up like that,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “But we kind of knew going in that it was going to be a short day.”
Worcester got an early lead in the second, as Blaze Jordan and Nathan Hickey each singled to start the inning, getting Jordan to third. Jordan then scored when Trayce Thompson grounded into a double play to make it 1-0. Worcester added another run two innings later, 2-0, when Nate Eaton stole third base and then advanced home when Francisco Mejia threw a ball away trying to catch him.
Despite the loss, Red Wings starter Cade Cavalli pitched well for Rochester, scattering four hits over five innings while striking out seven and allowing an earned run. At one point, bothered by the rain and declining field conditions in the fifth, he walked the bases loaded, but then escaped the inning with a strikeout, a force play at home, and a lineout to avoid any further damage.
“I thought Cade was really good,” said LeCroy. “That’s the biggest thing in this game- I really thought Cade was okay out there. He lost some feel after the rain, but he put a zero there. It was a really big positive step for him.”
Offensively, Rochester had chances to get on the board, most notably in the bottom of the third. That’s when the Wings loaded the bases with two outs after an Andrew Pinckney single. Trey Lipscomb followed it up with a sharp grounder that looked like it would at least lead to an infield single, but Worcester shortstop Nick Sogard made a heads-up play and threw to third instead for a force-out that ended the inning. Rochester would later get the tying run to the plate in the fourth and also had the tying run batting when the game was called due to rain. Rochester ultimately went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on the day.
“We had some chances to get in it, but we just didn’t do it,” said LeCroy.
Despite the loss, the Red Wings finished the series 3-3 with Worcester, who had until now had their number throughout the season- before this series, the Red Wings had only won once in 12 games against the Boston affiliate.
LeCroy, who is heading south for the break to spend some time with his family in South Carolina, says that it shows the improvement the team has made.
“I love how our bullpen has been shaping up, our starting pitching I think is going to continue do well, and I like our lineup- we have an athletic group that can do some things on the bases,” he said. “We’ll continue to grind, compete our tails off every single day. We played a good team that had our number, and we split with them- I think that’s a positive, and we can build on what we did this series at home.”
The Red Wings are off until Friday for the All-Star break before they resume their play on Friday, July 18, at Lehigh Valley. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
“Hopefully we can go to Lehigh Valley and get on a nice little roll,” says LeCroy.
could they have finished the game? The rain stopped and sun came out and it was plenty early enough. Plus teams are now off for the break so there was no urgency. I get that MLB couldn’t care less about wins and losses in the minors, but with a 2-0 score and half the game to go, I feel it should have been played out. These fields drain pretty good these days. Clearly there was no real desire to finish this game unless I’m totally missing something,
It was a cheap win for Worcester.
I was at the game. There was a LOT of standing water on the basepath when it was called. They would have been ankle deep.
thats what I’m told. Still aren’t these fields built to drain rather quickly, especially after all the rain stops for good? Just a hunch(and maybe I’M all wet!) but were these games ‘meaningful’ like they used to be,
they would have completed it even if it took an hour or two to get the field playable again.
Since the games now have pretty much zero meaning, they just wrap them up or cancel them altogether.
If the score was like 10-0, OK fine, but this was still a ballgame with half of it yet to play. And while I’m grumbling, I have always felt its stupid to simply say if the game goes at least 5 innings, its considered a complete game. Why not just suspend it and continue it next day or next series? That rule really is silly.
Now I’ll just go back outside and feed my unicorn.