By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester misses another opportunity to tie for the wild card berth.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings lost their second straight game to the Norfolk Tides on Friday night, 7-2, before a paid crowd of 9,697 at Frontier Field.
Rochester (67-52) remained one game behind Lehigh Valley (68-51) for the International League’s wild card spot. Each team has 23 games remaining in the regular season. The IronPigs own the tie-breaker, if they finish with identical records, as they won the series from the Red Wings, 13-9.
Starting pitchers David Hurlbut for Rochester and Tyler Wilson for Norfolk were locked in a pitchers’ duel through six innings.
The visitors from Tidewater, VA., secured their advantage with four runs in the eighth and tacked on two more runs in the ninth.
The Red Wings bullpen has given up at least one run in 8 of the last 11 games, and at least 2 runs in 3 of the last 5 games.
The Tides scored 4 runs in the eighth off Jake Reed.
“We’re a little thin in the bullpen,” Red Wings manager Mike Quade said. “Our most rested guy was Jake, and he’s had pretty good success against left-handers (6 Tides were lefties plus one switch hitter tonight)…He was flat, his slider was flat.
“If you can set up your rotation right, they wouldn’t see a right-hander from me…They’re playing well. This is not the Norfolk club we saw in May.”
The Wings scored their markers in the ninth against reliever Donnie Hart. Wilson (6-6) threw 8 complete innings, giving up just 2 hits while striking out 6 batters.
“We just couldn’t solve Wilson at all,” Quade said. “We hit a couple of line drives, and that’s it.”
Daniel Palka doubled home Zack Granite, who led off with a single, then eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Hague.
Thursdays are for the Plates in 2018
The Red Wings will become the Plates every Thursday home game in 2018, due to the overwhelming enthusiastic response of the Aug. 10 promotion, both in Rochester and nationwide.
Thursday night’s crowd of 13,281 was the fifth-largest baseball crowd and the third-largest regular season baseball crowd in Frontier Field history.
Rochester players and staff will wear Plates uniforms and hats for Thursday games at Frontier Field in 2018. More details will be announced after the season.
*NOTES – Matt Hague went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, ending his 24-game streak of reaching base safely at least once…Daniel Palka’s double extended his hitting streak to seven games…The series continues Saturday night at 7:05 pm, with a post-game fireworks show…Rochester is batting .206 (34-for-165) with runners in scoring positions in the last 19 games since July 23, which includes going 8-for-18 with RISP on Thursday when they stranded 17 runners in the 6-4, 12-inning loss to the Tides.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – www.redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/5DOFRq3bGFI