BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Infielder Liover Peguero is the newest member of the Rochester Red Wings. A 25-year-old infielder from the Dominican, the righty has played in 96 games over four years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and began the season in Lehigh Valley for the Phillies organization.
On Friday night in Rochester, the second baseman made a good first impression to his new home crowd, hitting a two-run single with two outs in the seventh to give the Red Wings a 3-2 lead en route to a 5-2 victory over the Charlotte Knights.
Peguero had only arrived in Rochester around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, and wasn’t officially activated on the Red Wings roster until earlier on Friday.
“It’s been amazing since I got here, so also a lot of credit for the guys here, too,” he said. “It was a long, long day yesterday, but I’m here now, so that’s what matters.”
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.
What also mattered was Peguero’s liner up the middle on a 2-2 fastball from Charlotte’s Tyler Davis, which brought in Sam Peterson and Trey Lipscomb for the go-ahead runs. With additional insurance coming later off a eighth-inning two-run double from Lipscomb, the Red Wings cut their deficit in the second-half International League standings to three games behind the Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate) and also gained ground on several teams standing between them and Indianapolis.
Peguero is expected to move around the infield a bit, says Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy. He’ll also provide another bat:
“We’ve lost some – we lost [Christian Franklin], we lost Abimelec [Ortiz], and he was out there. We did our research on him, dug into his makeup, and everybody was all set for him to be on this team,” said LeCroy. “He’s a good fit.”
Besides Peguero’s key two-RBI single, it was Lipscomb who provided much of the Red Wings’ offense, going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI as well as a run. Seaver King went 2-for-4, leading off the bottom of the first with a rocket home run to left with a 107.9 MPH escape velocity to give the Wings an early 1-0 lead.
The MVP of the game, as LeCroy saw it, was the starting pitcher, however: Chandler Champlain. The arguable ace of the depleted Red Wings’ staff went six innings of five-hit ball, walking one and striking out five. The lone blemishes came from an RBI single by Mario Camilletti in the third and an Andy Weber home run in the fifth that for a time put Charlotte ahead 2-1.
“To have a guy like Champ go out and do what he did, to give our bullpen a rest, that was something that was much needed,” he said. “I’m really proud of him and what he did for our team tonight, that game’s all on Champ.”
The seventh inning made the difference, however, with Lipscomb leading off with a single and then later moving to second on a one-out Petersen single through the right side. Both runners moved up on a Cayden Wallace groundout, bringing up Peguero for his big hit.
Three Red Wings relievers held the Knights to three innings of scoreless ball, with Cole Henry earning the relief win for 1.1 innings of work to move to 2-0 in AAA this season. Henry became the first Red Wing to strike out four men in an inning since Logan Verrett in 2022 when he did so in the seventh: he was able to strike out four due to a passed ball swinging strike to Camiletti that allowed him to reach first. Andry Lara threw a scoreless two-thirds, while Gus Varland recorded the save – his second as a Red Wing.
The two squads continue their series on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. Rochester will use a bullpen game, while Charlotte expects to send out right-hander David Sandlin (1-0, 2.40).
Leave a Reply