BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings returned to ESL Ballpark on Memorial Day for a rare Monday game in a rare position: the best team in the International League and one of the hottest teams in all of baseball. Thanks to two key swings in the ninth, that’s still true, as a game-tying home run by Trey Lipscomb and a walk-off three-run shot by Abimelec Ortiz sent Rochester to an 8-5 victory over the Syracuse Mets and its ninth straight victory – the longest such streak since 2022.
Down 5-4 heading to the bottom of the ninth in front of a season-high crowd of 10,565 fans, the Red Wings immediately tied the game on the first pitch of the inning when Lipscomb jumped on a 96 MPH fastball left low by Mets pitcher Dylan Ross, smashing it at 114.4 MPH over the left-center field fence for his ninth home run of the year. It was 5-5.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.
And then, a few batters later, with two men on and one out, came Ortiz. And with a three-two count, he found his pitch. The ball soared over the right field fence at 116.3 MPH – the hardest hit home run by a Red Wing since such statistics became available – as the crowd went wild and his teammates crowded home plate to mob him in victory.
He knew it. We knew it. Walk-off win courtesy of Abimelec Ortiz. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/p7vM8Ym2HI
— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) May 26, 2026
“I was just trying to put the ball in play,” he said post-game, through an interpreter. “I was looking for the right pitch, I was trying to be selected, expecting the right pitch… and it ended up happening.”
The three-run shot, Ortiz’s eighth on the season, was the finale of a game that seemed almost tailor-made to appeal to the large crowd. In fact, when Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy was asked post-game how he’d pitch the team to fans as summer unofficially begins, he simply began:
“Well, I mean… today! We’ve got a good baseball team that is playing well, leaving it all on the field every night, putting it all together – good team wins with great weather,” he said.
At 31-20, the Wings hold a game lead over Nashville and Memphis for the top spot in the IL and the lone playoff spot from the first half. They’ve now gone 17-4 in May.
Earlier in the game, the Wings had been as dominant as they’d been through most of the month. Aside from a single in the top of the first, Andry Lara kept the Mets off the basepaths in the early innings. And then, in the bottom of the third, the Red Wings jumped ahead – and quickly.
Seaver King, the No. 9 prospect in the Washington system and a recent call-up from AA, got to a Jack Weisenburger cutter on the first pitch of the inning and sent it into the right field bullpen to put the Wings up, 1-0.
King’s first homer as a wing 🤏 pic.twitter.com/hlGUzbqgLe
— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) May 25, 2026
King, who’d later hit a go-ahead single to give the Red Wings a 4-3 lead after a Syracuse rally, has adapted incredibly well to AAA since his callup on May 18, slashing .391/.444/.696 with nine RBI and a HR in his first six games in the International League.
“It’s been a pretty seamless transition,” said King post-game.
King has reached base safely in all 41 games he has played in this season between AA Harrisburg and Rochester, which he credits to how important it is for him to remain consistent.
“It’s just trying to help my team win anyway I can, not giving up an at-bat, fighting for each and every one,” he said.
Interestingly, the only player in affiliated baseball with a longer streak than King is Athletics’ Nick Kurtz, a Wake Forest teammate of King’s, who later on Monday reached base for his 48th straight game. And, yes, the two of them do keep tabs on each other:
“You see what he’s doing, so just being with him each and every day in college was huge for me,” said King. “I’m picking his brain, texting him when I’m feeling down or need a little something.”
Players like King are part of why the Red Wings have continued to excel even after the call-ups of key players like outfielder Dylan Crews, corner infielder Andres Chaparro, and starting pitcher Andrew Alvarez.
“He was a big pick for us, coming out of Wake Forest,” said LeCroy. “He’s a gamer, he knows how to play. He puts the ball in play, uses the whole field, and today was a good example of him. Both of his hits were to his backside, and he hit a big homer early and then got a big hit in the middle part of the ball game. They picked him for a reason, and I’m just glad he’s here with this mix of young talent that we have. He’s already made an impact, and I’m sure he’ll continue to do so.”
After King opened scoring, two more would score in the third, with Yohandy Morales and Ortiz each bringing in runs with a single and a double, respectively.
The Mets scraped their way back into it, taking advantage of a Lara error in the fourth to narrow the Red Wings lead to 3-1 and then tying it with a Eric Wagaman home run in the sixth. The Red Wings retook the lead with King’s two-out single in the bottom half, but a two-run eighth for Syracuse moved them ahead 5-4, forcing the Red Wings to stage their ninth-inning comeback for the win.
The International League has used a split-season format for the playoffs since shortly after Major League Baseball’s controversial takeover of the minors following the COVID-19 pandemic. The team with the best record, regardless of division for each half of the season gets a playoff spot, with the first-half winner hosting the second-half winner in a best-of-three series before the winner faces the champion of the Pacific Coast League in a winner-take-all game in Las Vegas. The final day of the first half this year will be July 21 – if the Wings can maintain their lead until then, they’ll clinch the squad’s first playoff appearance since 2013.
Regardless of whether they can hold on, though, their manager says the winning streak is bringing good feelings for the team that can only help going forward through the season.
“It’s fun when you win, it’s just good for the morale, it’s good for the organization, it’s good for the leadership,” says LeCroy. “The leadership that came in, they put together a really good team here, and hopefully they’ll continue to battle and play well.”
After a rare Tuesday day off, the Red Wings and Mets resume their series on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. Rochester expects to send out right-hander Riley Cornelio (5-1, 3.99) against Syracuse lefty Zach Thornton (0-0, 4.80).
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