Despite three home runs, late issues send Wings down in extra-inning defeat as team falls out of first

BY DAN GLICKMAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings began a 14-day, 13-game sprint on Tuesday with their series opener with the Worcester Red Sox. At the end of the home stand lies the conclusion of the first half of the International League season, and a potential ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2013.

The Red Wings entered the game with a half-game lead over the Memphis RedBirds (St. Louis Cardinals affiliate) and Nashville Sound (Milwaukee Brewers affiliate). It ended with them heading to extra innings after a second straight blown save by the usually-steady Eddy Yean, the International League saves leader and ultimately a 6-5 loss to knock the Wings out of first place.

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With the Wings entering up 4-1 thanks to earlier home runs by Robert Hassell III, Riley Adams, and Abimelec Ortiz, the Wings seemed headed to another win – although Eddy Yean had blown a save in Sunday’s extra-inning win at Lehigh Valley, he’d bounced back from similar bad days before.

But on Tuesday, it wasn’t to be.

Yean began the inning by getting Kristian Campbell to ground out, but the next batter, Allan Castro, hit a weak ball to the pitcher. Yean grabbed the ball and threw it to Yohandy Morales at first, but it the throw was off and took Morales off the bag, allowing Castro to reach safely. The television broadcast appeared to possibly show Morales staying on the base long enough to get Castro out, but there is no replay review in AAA baseball, so the call stood, with Yean given a fielding error for the bad toss.

“It’s just unfortunate,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. “He failed to field his position on that comebacker. I think that came back and haunted him.”

The 24-year-old Dominican righty seemed to initially steady, striking out Jason Delay to get it to two outs. But he then walked Tsung-Che Cheng to put two runners on base and bring the tying run to the plate.

That tying run was Worcester first baseman Matt Lloyd, who found a Yean sinker left too far up in the zone and deposited it over the left field fence to tie the game, 4-4.

A rain storm had been ongoing through the final innings, and picked up once the Red Wings failed to score in the bottom of the ninth. The umpires called for a rain delay, forcing both teams to wait just over an hour and a half before resuming the game. Then, in the top of the 10^th, one run scored for Worcester on a double-play before another got in on a Kristian Campbell single through the left side to make it 6-4.

The Red Wings tried to come back in the bottom half, with Riley Adams – having begun the inning as the “ghost runner” – scoring on a one-out groundout by Morales. Reliever Noah Song ultimately intentionally walked Abimelec Ortiz to put two men on, and then Brady House gave the ball a sharp ride to center that would have likely won the game for Rochester if not for a great running catch at the wall by Worcester outfielder Braiden Ward.

The Red Wings had lost to fall to 38-25, and with victories by Nashville and Memphis, they fell to third in the International League standings.

For most of the game, the Red Wings had been in command. While starting pitcher Chandler Champlain dueled with Jack Anderson across six innings with each starter doing well, the Red Wings had been able to get a lead in the fifth when Hassell III, jumped on a 1-0 90.9 MPH fastball from Anderson and sent it to left-center at 103.9 MPH before it clanked against the green railings above the fence for a solo home run to put the Wings up 1-0.

Worcester finally got to Champlain in the seventh inning, chasing him away with three straight batters reaching including an RBI single by Jason Delay to tie the game. The Californian ultimately ended the day with a no-decision, going six-plus innings with five hits, a walk, and an earned run while striking out two.

PJ Poulin came in and was able to escape with the help of a play at the plate by Morales to gun down Allan Castro, and then the Red Wings retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning on an Adams two-run shot to left. Ortiz added further insurance with at solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, but it ultimately wasn’t enough insurance given the events of the ninth and 10^th innings.

With 12 games left until the end of the first half, the Rochester manager believes the pennant race they find themselves in will not only help give the team a goal to strive for, but also better prepare them to one day play Major League Baseball.

“I told the guys before the series, in our advanced meetings, that I’m proud of the work they’ve put in to put (themselves) in in a position to play for meaningful baseball down the stretch,” says LeCroy. “This environment, the race to try to get in to first place, is only to going to help them become better big league players, because up in the big leagues it’s like this every night. Every pitch is magnified, every play that you don’t make or every big hit you get or every walk that happens on pitching or offense, it tends to be magnified.”

And although the Red Wings no longer are in first, LeCroy believes in his team, even if Tuesday was a loss:

“For them to come out here and battle the way they’ve battled all season, this should be a fun stretch,” he said. “It’s gonna be tough, you battle all the teams, and we’ve got to play pretty clean. Tonight, we had a shot, but we didn’t get enough.”

The two teams resume their series on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m., when the Red Wings send out lefty Jackson Kent (2-0, 5.27) against Worcester southpaw Jake Bennett (3-2, 1.60).