Errors haunt Wings

BY JONATHAN SKUZA

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings (4-3, 49-31) fell to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (3-4, 38-44) 6-4 Tuesday night after some defensive errors and an insurance run.

”We didn’t do much offensively after the fourth inning,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “I thought we had good momentum after the first inning and we just didn’t capitalize on it.”

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Going into the fourth inning of Tuesday’s contest, Rochester and Lehigh Valley were deadlocked at four after both teams traded runs through the first third of the ballgame. However, the IronPigs would capitalize on an unusual play. Dylan Carlson led off the inning with a grounder that looked routine, until it was missed handled and thrown away allowing him to advance to second. Carlson then proceeded to take third after another throw sailed into the outfield on the same play. The official score came out to three errors on one sequence.

“We got sloppy with those three errors on the one play,” LeCroy said. “I had never seen that until tonight.”

Keaton Anthony would drive in Carlson later in the inning to give Lehigh Valley a lead they never gave back. Carlson would add salt to the wound with an insurance solo homer in the eighth to all but seal the victory for the IronPigs Tuesday evening.

After the three error inning, Rochester settled down defensively and set 12 straight Lehigh Valley hitters down in order before giving up the long ball in the eighth.

Unfortunately, the Red Wing offense couldn’t get much going during the same span while only trailing one run. They grounded into one inning ending double play and were set down in order times between the fifth inning and then end of the ballgame.

”We hit some balls good, just right at people,” LeCroy said. “A couple ground ball double plays hurt us, but I thought our bats were okay.”

Early in the ballgame, the Red Wings offense came out of the gate hot. After falling behind 1-0 in the first, they responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Yohandy Morales kicked it off with a near miss home run that led to an RBI double that scored Seaver King from first. Harry Ford tacked on two more runs on with a two RBI base hit that was get to him to second on the throw in from the outfield.

“It was great,” LeCroy said. “We answered. They got some soft hits off of us, and then we bounced back and scored three. I felt really good about it. We just didn’t add on.”

Ford continued his solid night with another RBI base hit in the third inning to finish off the night with three runs driven in for Rochester.

”I think he is starting to swing the bat well,” LeCroy said about Ford. “He’s having good at-bats. He is using the whole field. He had a good series down in Charlotte. Hopefully, he can stay hot.”

Despite the offensive explosion early on from Rochester, Lehigh Valley was able to respond every time, leading to them being able to edge out Rochester in the end.

”We scored some runs early, but we couldn’t keep them from scoring and the one run late put us in a hole,” LeCroy said.

The Rochester Red Wings and Lehigh Valley IronPigs will continue their series on Wednesday with first pitch lasted at 6:45 p.m. as righty Andry Lara (2-4, 4.45) will take the mound for Rochester and right-hander Brian Keller (0-1, 3.10) will toe the slab for Lehigh Valley.