BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A hanging cutter from Matt Krook was turned into a towering eighth-inning two-run home run by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (38-27 in the second half, 75-64 overall) second baseman Marco Luciano to send the Rochester Red Wings (39-28 in the second half, 84-56 overall) down in defeat, 5-3, on Friday.
“They took advantage of a bad pitch there late with the two-run home run,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy post-game. “They got the big hit, and we didn’t.”
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The homer, Luciano’s 15th of the season, silenced an ESL Ballpark crowd of 8,229. The Red Wings were unable to mount any comeback over the final two innings,
The loss sends the two squads into a near-tie for the International League second half playoff race, but if the season were to end now it would be Scranton advancing due to having a slightly better winning percentage. There are eight games left to play, including two with Scranton.
“It was what you’d expect,” said LeCroy. “It’s a dog fight every night, and tonight was no different.”
Indeed, the game was a tight back-and-forth affair. DJ Herz, a 2024 Red Wing working his way back from a Tommy John surgery in 2025, took the mound for his fourth rehab start for Rochester. The left-hander was effective across 4.1 innings before he left on a strict 65-pitch count, striking out five, giving up two hits, and walking two. The lone major blemish came in the second, when Yanquiel Fernandez doubled in the game’s first run to put Scranton up 1-0.
The Red Wings answered back in the third with a well-executed hit and run. Seaver King had drawn a walk, and took off on a pitch from Danny Watson with one out. Trey Lipscomb swung and connected, sending it to left field even as King started to round second. Left-fielder Jarred Kelenic made an error, allowing King to score all the way from first to tie the game at one. An inning later, the Wings took the 2-1 lead when Cayden Wallace scored on a soft groundout by Leandro Pineda.
But in the top of the fifth, after Herz hit his pitch count, he was replaced by Holden Powell, who immediately struggled, walking the first two men he faced and then giving up a Kelenic single that found a hole in the right side of the infield to tie the game at one. Joe Glassey came in, and while he successfully got the next two men out, one of those outs was a successful sacrifice bunt by Max Schuemann to put the RailRiders ahead 3-2.
Rochester struck back in the bottom of the sixth when Cayden Wallace hit a one-out solo-shot to right off a high fastball from Xavier Rivas, tying it at 3-3. It was the first Red Wings home run of the series, Wallace’s 11th at AAA, and 29th of the season overall (split between AA and AAA). However, it was also one of the few times Rochester had gotten to the left-handed Yankees farmhand, who ultimately went five relief innings while allowing three hits and two earned runs while striking out five to pick up his first AAA win.
Ultimately, that helped keep the game tied until the eighth, when the RailRiders broke through against Krook: first with a blooping single by J.C. Escarra, and then Luciano’s 421-foot home run. The Red Wings never recovered.
“Tomorrow’s a new day, it should be another fun game, but [while] these games are fun, they stink when you lose,” said LeCroy.
That new day happens when the two teams continue their series on Saturday at 6:05 p.m., when Rochester righty Chandler Champlain (8-5, 3.68) faces Scranton right-hander Adam Kloffenstein (4-11, 4.89). Champlain has arguably been the ace of the Red Wings’ season.
“I’m looking forward to him going out there and pitching,” said LeCroy. “I know he’s looking forward to it.”
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