BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Sometimes, victory comes because you take advantage of the other side’s mistakes. So it was on Thursday night, when the Rochester Red Wings (39-27 in the second half, 84-55 overall) used walks and errors by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (37-27 in the second half, 74-64 overall) to tally up five runs in the fifth en route to a 7-3 victory that again put them in first place in the International League second half playoff race, all while starting pitcher Isaac Lyon continued his effective young stint in AAA.
“[Lyon] gave us a shot, and then we took advantage of two errors,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy, summing up the game. “It was a good ballgame for us, a big bounce back after last night.”
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After having been frustrated by Scranton right-hander Elmer Rodriguez the first four innings of the game, the Red Wings started the fifth with Max Romero Jr. and Liover Peguero each drawing a walk. Center fielder Sam Peterson came up and laid down a sacrifice bunt, aiming to move both runners up. He succeeded and then some, as Scranton third baseman Max Schumann sent the throw wild to first, allowing Petersen to reach safely and bringing Romero around to score to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.
While Rodriguez then recovered a bit by striking out Seaver King, he would only have himself to blame for what happened next: Trey Lipscomb hit a soft grounder to Rodriguez, and it appeared that Scranton would be able to pull off an inning-ending double play to escape. Rodriguez threw it well wide of second, however, allowing Peguero to score and up the lead to 2-0.
The flood gates opened: Buddy Kennedy doubled to left to score two more and make it 4-0, and then Cayden Wallace singled up the middle to bring home Kennedy. That chased away Rodriguez, who was replaced by Hayden Merda. Merda proceeded to walk the bases loaded, and although Rochester failed to score again in the inning, the team now held a 5-0 lead.
That the Red Wings had such a lead was partly due to good pitching on their end. On the mound, Rochester had sent out the right-hander Lyon for his third AAA start, a sharp contrast in experience with Scranton’s Rodriguez, who recently was sent down from the New York Yankees but who had been stellar during the AAA season, entering Thursday’s game with an 8-3 record and a 2.59 ERA.
The two starters proceeded to engage in a duel that left both offenses flummoxed in the early innings. Lyon in particular was effective, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out seven, including striking out the side in the fourth. He didn’t allow a runner to reach second until his fifth and final inning of work, when Scranton got men on first and second with two outs. Lyon was able to escape that jam by striking out Jarred Kelenic with his 68th and final pitch of the night.
“He did a really nice job, that is a tough lineup, especially for a young kid to come up and what he did tonight,” said LeCroy.
Lyon, in his three AAA starts, is now 2-0 with a 1.32 ERA.
“It’s been good so far,” the Utah-born Lyon said. “I try not to do anything too different, it’s just showing up every day, getting better. And when I do pitch, I find the zone.”
LeCroy noted that they couldn’t celebrate his first AAA win properly when he beat Syracuse last week, as it was the first game of a doubleheader where they lost the second game. So they made sure to celebrate his second on Thursday with a beer shower.
“It was great,” said Lyon.
Scranton wouldn’t go quietly after Lyon left and the Wings jumped to their 5-0 lead: Schuemann tripled to lead the sixth off against Ben Grable when Petersen lost the ball in the lights, starting a two-run rally for Scranton that eventually chased Grable and brought in Paxton Schultz, who walked the bases loaded before striking out Tyler Hardman and Duke Ellis in turn to escape with a 5-2 lead.
Rochester used a bases-loaded walk to Kennedy and a sacrifice fly by Cayden Wallace to get those two runs back in the bottom of the sixth, and while Scranton put a run across in the seventh against Max Kranick, the 7-3 lead for the Red Wings would hold after Kyle Nicolas (who struck out the side in the eighth) and Gus Varland (two strikeouts) handled the final innings.
In all, the Red Wings struck out 16 batters on the night, a season high.
The series continues on Friday at 6:05 p.m. Rochester has yet to announce a starter for what is expected to be a “bullpen game” for the Red Wings, but LeCroy said post-game it’s likely that rehabbing National DJ Herz will see about three or four innings of action. Scranton is expected to send out lefty Kyle Carr (0-2, 5.68).
“It’ll be another dogfight, I’m sure,” says LeCroy.
“And hopefully we come out on top.”
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