BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings have, in recent days, been a high-scoring team. They’d scored five or more runs in eight of their last 10 games heading into Saturday’s contest. However, the trend didn’t continue, as the Red Wings (34-22 in the second half, 79-50 overall) bats fell largely silent in a 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Bisons (29-26 in the second half, 64-66 overall).
“We just offensively could never really get back anything,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy, postgame. “We got to bounce back tomorrow.”
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The Red Wings were held to seven hits and left nine men on base in the loss, the team’s first since the opening game of the series on Tuesday. Every member of the lineup struck out at least once, with the team ultimately striking out 15 times. The lone run for Rochester came in the third, when catcher Max Romero Jr. led off with a home run – his eighth at AAA – into the home bullpen in right field on the first pitch of the inning to make it 4-1.
By then, the Bisons had already scored enough to win. The game started poorly for Rochester. Left-hander Jared Simpson, who has been arguably the most effective “opener” during Red Wings’ bullpen games this season and who came into the game with a 1.02 ERA, had by far the worst outing of his Rochester career. The Iowan went 1.1 innings while allowing six hits and four earned runs, three of them coming off a first-inning line drive home run into the left field bullpen by Buffalo left fielder Davis Schneider. Simpson also walked a man and hit another with a pitch in the second inning before being pulled. By the end of his outing, his ERA had grown to 2.84.
“It was the toughest one he’s had so far, he’s been really good, and I know he’ll bounce back,” said LeCroy of Simpson. “He just didn’t seem to put the ball where he needed to put it, and when he made a mistake, they made him pay for it.”
While the succession of pitchers that came after – Andry Lara, Ben Grable, Jack Sinclair, Jake Bird, and Connor Van Scoyoc – allowed only two runs to Buffalo (an Ismael Munguia single in the seventh off Sinclair and a ninth-inning RBI double by Yohendrick Pinango off Van Scoyoc), the four-run first was all that the Blue Jays’ AAA affiliate needed.
Rochester did have some opportunities, most notably in the bottom of the fourth, when a single by Trey Lipscomb and a walk by Leandro Pineda placed men at first and second with one out. However, the Buffalo starter, Austin Mazoras, was replaced by Ricky Tiedemann, who was able to escape the inning by striking out Sam Peterson and then forcing a groundout by Romero.
The Red Wings would struggle the rest of the way after that to even put the ball in play, recording two hits the remainder of the game, helping ensure the Red Wings would finish with just one run on the night.
The two squads complete their series on Sunday at 1:05 p.m., with Rochester sending out right-hander Zak Kent (5-0, 4.40) against a Buffalo pitcher who has yet to be announced. The Red Wings remain tied for first place in the second half with the Indianapolis Indians, who fell 7-4 to Columbus on Saturday. A win on Sunday would also bring about a series win for Rochester, who currently lead the six-game set, 3-2.
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