By CRAIG POTTER
Zack Granite belts his first professional grand slam to move Rochester within 1 game of the wild card berth.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — When Zack Granite received his first-ever major league call up to the Minnesota Twins on July 8, he was leading the International League in batting with a .360 average.
Since he was optioned to Rochester on Aug. 5, Granite has struggled a bit at the plate.
“It’s been a little bit different, a little bit of an adjustment,” said Granite. “The strikes are a little bigger, but I’ve got to make an adjustment again. It’s the game of baseball, the game of adjustments. Every at bat I’m going to get a little bit better (to) where I was when I left.”
However, Granite could not have picked a better time to hit his first professional multi-run home run than Tuesday night.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be an out, but I didn’t know it would go out,” Granite said smiling.
Granite laced a grand slam over the right field fence to lift the Red Wings to a 6-2 victory over the Columbus Clippers before a paid crowd of 4,957 at Frontier Field.
“He (Jarrett Grube) went slider with the last pitch, work me away a little bit, so I figured he was going to throw me something inside so I was ready for it,” Granite said.
When asked when was his last grand slam, Granite replied, “Little league.
“All my home runs in pro ball have been solo shots, the majority of them leading off the game. I hit four last year and all were solo shots, and this is my fifth this year and the first four were solo shots.”
Red Wings manager Mike Quade added, “Granny hasn’t been on fire like he was when he left, but that was a pretty big swing.
“Nobody was going to put the ball in play like before he left, it’s impossible. It was on the heel of four or five foul balls. He kept himself alive and found a pitch he could drive. It will be great to see him heat it up the way he was when he left,” Quade added with a smile.
With the victory, the Red Wings (66-50) pulled to within one game of Lehigh Valley (67-49) for the wild card berth in the upcoming International League Governor’s Cup playoffs. The IronPigs lost their 6th straight game Tuesday night. Both teams have 26 games remaining.
However, in order to gain the wild card spot, the Wings MUST finish with a better record than the IronPigs as Lehigh Valley won the season series from Rochester (13-9).
The Clippers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Rochester starter Nik Turley. It began with a leadoff walk to Eric Gonzalez. Ronny Rodriguez and Nellie Rodriguez each contributed a RBI single.
After that, Turley allowed 3 more hits through the 5 innings he pitched. He also had 7 strikeouts.
“Turley did a real nice job,” said Quade. “We’re giving (Hector) Santiago an extra day rest on his rehab. We needed five (innings) or so. Turley had three days rest…and did a really nice job.”
The Wings tied the game in the third. Tommy Field started the rally with a one-out double. Granite walked and Mitch Graver laced a single to short-center field. Quade sent Field home, but he was an easy out at the plate.
“Always nice when you’re the third base coach and make a bad decision that the club can pick you up,” Quade said of sending Field home. “Once the game starts, the third base coach has got the toughest job. I can make up charts and make decisions as the manager…If I shut him down and we’ve got the bases loaded, somebody’s still got to come up big, but that cost us an out and at least a chance to have at least one run (more).”
However, Daniel Palka followed with a 2-run double to right to tie the game.
Rochester grabbed the lead in the fourth on singles by Matt Hague, J.B. Shuck, and Field to load the bases for Granite. He fouled off several pitches before getting a hold of one and driving it over the right field fence for the grand slam.
Reliever Luke Bard made his Triple-A debut and pitched 2 scoreless innings. Jake Reed hurled the final two innings, retiring 6 of the 7 batters he faced.
*NOTES – In roster moves, OF Ryan Strausborger was reinstated from the disabled list and released; and RHP Yohan Pino was reinstated from the disabled list and transferred to Double-A Chattanooga…Zack Granite’s grand slam was the second this season as Ben Paulsen hit one opening day in Syracuse. It was the first grand slam at Frontier Field by a Red Wing since Adam Brett Walker belted one also against the Chiefs on June 30 in Game 1 of a double header. Kennys Vargas also belted a grand slam at home last season, and it came against the Clippers…With the second inning hit, Matt Hague has reached base safely in his last 22 games, dating back to July 17…The series concludes Wednesday with a matinee starting at 1:35.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – www.redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Zack Granite interview – https://youtu.be/kEJ_tzpSW78
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/-ZJ55yNqcPI