By Craig Potter
The Irondequoit native plays first base for the first time in his career.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings twice pulled to within a run of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but the International League North Division leaders pulled away for a 12-7 victory on Friday night before 7,361 fans at Frontier Field.
Irondequoit native Cito Culver, who was called up to the RailRiders on Aug. 1, continued his fine hitting at Frontier Field with his first Triple-A home run, on the first pitch of the second inning off starter Jason Wheeler (9-4). The ball sailed over the center field fence.
“I didn’t think it was going to go out at first, but then I saw (Byron) Buxton on his run and I thought it had a chance,” Culver said. “I’m so happy about that.”
Culver played first base for the RailRiders, the first time in his career that he played that position.
“It was different,” Culver said. “I thought I was going a hundred miles per hour there on a couple of plays, trying to get to the base and make sure I wasn’t late getting there.”
Culver made a real nice stretch to get the speedy Wilfredo Tovar out at first in the second inning on a grounder to short.
The Red Wings should have gotten out of the first inning with no runs allowed, but first baseman Reynaldo Rodriguez was off the bag on the end of what should have been a double play. The RailRiders scored one run, then cashed in with a 3-run homer by Cesar Puello to take a 4-0 lead.
The Wings responded with 3 runs in the home half. Byron Buxton led off with a single. With two gone, Rodriguez drew a walk and Adam Brett Walker followed with his 23rd home run of the season, a 386-foot blast over the left field fence.
The RailRiders upped the lead to 7-3 on Donovan Solano’s 2-run homer in the third off starter Jason Wheeler.
Scranton put the game away with 3 runs in the seventh. Culver reached on an error as the third run of the rally crossed the plate. The visitors from Pennsylvania tacked on 2 more runs in the eighth on the combined eighth homer of the game, this one from Aaron Judge off reliever Neil Ramirez.
John Ryan Murphy belted a solo homer in the home half to account for the Wings final run.
*NOTES – In another roster move, Rochester LHP Pat Dean was recalled by the Minnesota Twins after Tommy Milone was placed on the DL. Dean was scheduled to be the starting pitcher for the Red Wings on Sunday…Lehigh Valley lost so the Red Wings remain 5.5 games behind the IronPigs for the Wild Card position…Byungho Park did not play as his status remains questionable…The Red Wings inducted 2 former players into the Hall of Fame in pregame ceremonies – Merv Rettenmund and Jason Bartlett, who was the first player to come through entirely in the Twins era.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Cito Culver interview – https://youtu.be/cey69fDwGbc