BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – In the days before the Rochester Red Wings opened their series with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, starting pitcher Chase Solesky admits he saw plenty of videos of star Yankees prospect Spencer Jones on his Instagram as New York’s No. 2 prospect tore up the International League in his first two-and-a-half weeks at the AAA level.
Solesky’s thoughts upon seeing those posts?
“Cool, I’ll get to face him tomorrow, or maybe two days from now.”
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.
What Solesky didn’t know, he says, was that Scranton was also on a long winning streak, taking 11 straight… until the Red Wings ended their streak on Tuesday by using the early innings to batter the pitching of the Yankees’ affiliate to the tune of 7-1, all while Solesky and three other pitchers held Jones and No. 12 Yankees prospect Everson Pereira hitless.
In fact, the Red Wings pitching in general held back Scranton’s high-powered offense, with Solesky allowing only two hits in five innings before the bullpen allowed two more over the remaining four. Only a late home run by Scranton catcher Rafael Flores prevented what would have been Rochester’s second straight shutout showing.
It was an important win for the Red Wings (37-57, 10-12 in the second half), who opened the series 8.5 games back of the first place RailRiders (55-38, 17-4 in the second half). The Red Wings likely need to win the series, perhaps decisively, to have any hope of entering the International League’s playoff picture.
“I’m proud, it was a really good team effort,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “We played it very clean, the offense was really good, hopefully we can continue to play good baseball.”
Rochester opened the game with a run in each of their first four innings- one in each of the first three and then a four-run fourth.
Oddly enough, the bottom of the fourth initially looked like a missed opportunity. Left-fielder Andrew Pinckney led the inning off with a single, and then stole second and advanced to third when Rafael Flores’ throw to try and get him sailed into center. After a strikeout of Trey Lipscomb, catcher Francisco Mejia walked to put runners at the corners, but a nice play by Scranton starting pitcher Sean Boyle got Pinckney at home when Nasim Nunez tried to bunt him home.
It was a play that Pinckney- who had earlier helped the Red Wings build their initial lead with a solo home run in the second- took responsibility for.
“When there’s a safety squeeze situation, you’re reading the bunt and wondering if it’s possible to score or not- when it’s right back at the pitcher, you’re supposed to shut it down,” he said. “I thought it was a little bit more to his left and that I had a shot at it. I went for it and it didn’t work out for me.”
Then came a two-out rally. Robert Hassell III walked to load the bases, chasing out Boyle for a rehabbing Yerry De los Santos. Then, Yohandy Morales singled to center, scoring Mejia and Nunez to extend the lead to 5-0. Jose Tena put an exclamation point on the inning with a ground rule double next, bringing in Hassell and Morales to bring the score to 7-0.
Earlier, Hassell III began the offensive explosion with a single to lead off the bottom of the first that got by Scranton right-fielder Bryan De La Cruz, allowing Hassell to hustle to third on the error. He then scored the game’s opening run when the the next batter, Morales, floated a sacrifice fly to left to make it 1-0.
Pinckney, who hit two home runs during the Red Wings’ three-game series in Lehigh Valley last weekend, continued his hot streak in the bottom of the second. Despite unfavorable winds, the 24-year-old Alabaman got hold of a Sean Boyle sweeper and sent the ball just over the left field fence into the Scranton bullpen to make it 2-0 with his 12th home run of the season- the most for any player currently on the Red Wings roster (Brady House, with 13 home runs, is currently with the Nationals).
“I think I’ve just been getting some good pitches, and I’m trying to get in good counts,” Pinckney said of his recent success. “I’m being aggressive and trying to get a good swing off. I think when you do swing at good pitches, good things happen.”
“He’s continued to improve and put his stuff in a good spot,” said LeCroy.
Pinckney ultimately finished the night going 2-for-4 with a home run and his 25th stolen base of the season. Tena was another major offensive contributor, doubling twice and working a walk as part of a 2-for-3 game. Morales drove in three runs.
An RBI single in the third from Andres Chaparro upped the lead to 3-0, which it remained for one inning before the four-run fourth burst the game open.
On the mound, Solesky earned the win to move to 5-5, striking out four while allowing two hits.
“I think the best thing I could do is just worry about putting the team in a position to win,” he said post-game.
Despite the low number of hits allowed, he did walk five, three of them with two outs.
“He was at times kind of effectively wild with the walks,” said LeCroy. “But the walks didn’t come back to haunt him at all.”
The closest that those walks came to “haunting” Solesky were in the first and fifth. In the opening inning, after getting Pereira and Jones out, Solesky walked the next two men, and then they both moved up one base on a wild pitch. Solesky was able to get former big leaguer Jeimer Candelario to ground out to end the inning before the damage was done.
In the fifth, a leadoff single by Andrew Velazquez was later followed by a one-out walk by Jones, putting two men on with one out. A mound visit ensued.
“[Pitching coach Rafael Chaves] came out for a mound visit and said to execute something down and away to get Flores to roll over.”
The pitch worked, as the Scranton catcher hit a 1-0 cutter to Nunez, who proceeded to turn what Solesky called an “unreal” double play Tena and Morales to end the inning without any damage done.
Seth Shuman, usually a starter, took over from there, striking out four over two hitless innings.LeCroy says Shuman, who has been crowded out from the starting rotation after recent roster moves, will likely work as a reliever for the foreseeable future.
Marquis Grissom Jr. and Zach Brzykcy went the rest of the way, with the lone blemish coming when Flores got hold of a Grissom changeup left a little too close to the center of the plate for a two-out solo home run in the seventh. By then, though, the Red Wings had a comfortable 7-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish en route to victory.
The Red Wings continue their series with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m., with left-hander Andrew Alvarez (0-7, 4.57) set to take the mound for Rochester. While right-hander Brendan Beck (2-0, 3.86) was listed as the probable starter for Scranton for Wednesday’s game in Tuesday’s game notes, it is instead expected to be a rehab start for New York Yankees right-hander and 2024 American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil.
A big crowd is likely- the large population of Yankees fans in the area helped bring Tuesday’s attendance to 9,003- but LeCroy says he and the Wings won’t be phased.
“Hopefully if he pitches, the stadium’s going to be good, I like when we’re going to be in a packed house,” he said. “If [Gil] comes out tomorrow and it’s a big crowd, we’ll do what we do, like we did when we faced Gerrit Cole.”
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