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Red Wings recover, split double-header with Buffalo

April 17, 2026 by Dan Glickman Leave a Comment

Andres Chaparro gets congratulations at home plate from Abimelec Ortiz during Rochester’s five-run first inning in game two of Friday’s double-header. (Photo: JOE TERRITO/Rochester Red Wings)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A lot can change in a half-inning. After the first-half inning of the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, the Rochester Red Wings were not in a good place. Less than an hour before, Buffalo Bisons first baseman Charles McAdoo had put the first game of the double-header out of reach, 6-3, with a three-run home run in the seventh and final inning. Now, McAdoo had just done it again, smacking a three-run shot over the left field fence to make it 3-0 to start game two.

“The [first] game got away from us,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “And then we came out and gave up another three-run homer [to McAdoo], which is very strange to happen in two games.”

However, just as quickly as the game had initially shifted against the Red Wings, it quickly shifted back, as five straight Red Wings reached base safely, culminating in back-to-back home runs for Andres Chaparro and Yohandy Morales to put the Wings up 5-3 – a lead they’d never relinquish.

The rally started with two one-out walks, first by Robert Hassell III and then by Dylan Crews against Buffalo starter Grant Rogers. Up came Abimelec Ortiz, who laced a fly ball to left that fell in safely. Hassell and Crews scored to cut the Buffalo lead to 3-2.

Then came the two straight home runs. The first was courtesy of Chaparro, who jumped on the first pitch he saw from Rogers – a 91.9 mph sinker in – and turned around on it sent it over the left-field wall. The Red Wings had taken the lead, 4-3, on Chaparro third AAA home run of the season.

“It’s important to always go out and stay aggressive, especially when the team is down,” said Chaparro through Red Wings third base coach Mario Lisson. “When the team is down, you still go out there trying to compete and stay aggressive, and obviously the home run turned the momentum for us.”

“Yoyo” Morales followed. Rogers worked a 1-2 count against the right-handed hitter, but then hung a slider near the center of the zone, allowing Morales to smack the ball at 102.1 MPH to the opposite field and over the yellow line in right for his second home run of the year. Now it was 5-3 Red Wings.

They’d hold the lead the rest of the way. Chandler Champlain, making a spot start, went four total innings and didn’t allow another hit after the first. Jack Sinclair, Jackson Rutledge, and Julian Fernandez each handled an inning after that in the seven-inning game, with only Rutledge allowing a hit – which ended up being for nothing when Rutledge forced a double-play to end the inning.

The game two victory represented a bounce-back from a 6-2 game one loss that saw the Red Wings leave seven runners on base while going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Falling behind early on a Rafael Lantigua home run to make it 3-0, the Wings scraped back runs on a second-inning double by Christian Franklin and a sixth-inning solo shot from Trey Lipscomb, but McAdoo’s three-run bomb put the game out of reach for good in the seventh.

Still, the win in game two put the Red Wings back to 10-9 on the season three games back of the first-half leading Memphis Redbirds and one game back for the IL East-leading Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

“I liked how we bounced back,” said LeCroy. “We flushed [game one], came back out, and got it done in the second game.”

The Red Wings and Bisons continue their series on Saturday, when Rochester expects to send out Andry Lara against Buffalo right-hander CJ Van Eyk (1-1, 3.21).

“It’ll be a quick turnaround, but hopefully the momentum will stay in our direction,” says LeCroy.

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, Pine Pieces, Red Wings, WNY Sports

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