By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester wins a 4-game series from the IronPigs for the first time since 2013.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Red Wings won their ninth of 10 games Sunday afternoon with a 7-4 victory over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs before a paid crowd of 5,719 fans at Frontier Field.
After losing the first six games to LV this season, the Wings are now 4-7 against the IronPigs following winning three of the four games in this series.
“It’s good to beat those guys, finally,” said Matt Hague, who added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh with a home run.
Rochester starting pitcher Tim Melville struck out the side in the first inning, allowing only one runner on base via an error.
Zack Granite ignited the Wings in the home half with a leadoff, 337-foot home run off Jake Thompson. It was Granite’s third homer of the season.
“He’s the spark plug of the team,” said Red Wings manager Mike Quade.
“Quade gave me a compliment?” Granite asked with a smile when informed of the compliment. “That’s my job. I’m there to get on base.”
And Granite is doing just that as he currently leads the league in batting average (.358) and on-base percentage (.412). He also has recorded multiple hits in 17 of his last 23 games.
He is doing the job defensively in center field as well as he made a diving catch in the sixth inning to rob LV rookie Andrew Pullin, who earlier belted the 3-run homer.
“The wind was kind of crazy so I was playing a little back,” Granite said. “I saw he got jammed so I got a pretty good jump on it. I finally made a diving catch. My glove came off on the other one. The one before I scrapped up my whole arm. I was nice to get one under my belt.”
Mitch Garver crushed a double, followed by a single by J.B. Shuck to put Wings on the corners with no outs. Garver scored on a double play ball grounder by Hague to put the hosts up 2-0.
However, the lead was short-lived as a hit-by-pitch and a walk by Melville was followed by a three-run homer to Andrew Pullin and the IronPigs led 3-2.
“His command was not good and his breaking ball and soft game wasn’t very good the first couple of innings,” Quade said of Melville, who the Minnesota Twins signed June 13 and assigned him to the Wings. Melville made his major league debut last April with Cincinnati, but spent the bulk of the season with Triple-A Louisville.
“We’re just getting to know Tim and I was concerned,” Quade continued. “The fact that he regroup, his third, fourth, and fifth were really good.”
Melville got back into a groove in the third inning by striking out the first two batters. He walked Rhys Hoskins, then picked him off on the very next pitch. He went five innings, giving up four hits, walking two, and striking out six.
The Red Wings bunched four hits in the fourth to regain the lead. Hague extended his hitting streak to 13 with a leadoff double to center.
ByungHo Park followed with another double to score Hague, knotting the count at 3-3. Niko Goodrum singled home Park to put the Wings in front to stay. Leonardo Reginatto doubled in Goodrum with what proved to be the game-winning run at 5-3. It was the second straight game that Reginatto batted in the game-winning run.
Phil Hughes entered the game in the sixth for Rochester. He yielded a one-out homer to Nick Williams for the visitors final run of the contest.
Reliever Drew Rucinski retired the side in order in the seventh for the Wings.
Granite opened the bottom of the seventh inning with a single. Hague added two insurance runs with a 412-ft home run to increase the Wings lead to 7-4. It marked Hague’s sixth home run of the season.
“All sorts of contributions offensively but none bigger than the home run that Hague got,” Quade said.
Rucinski set down all six batters he faced, and Michael Tonkin worked the ninth for the Wings – striking out the side around one walk.
*NOTES – Phil Hughes, with the Red Wings on a rehab assignment from the Twins, pitched in relief on back-to-back days for the first time since Sept. 2009 while with the New York Yankees. He yielded 2 hits, including a solo home run, in his one inning of work…LHP Nik Turley was optioned to Rochester (on June 23) by the Twins…The Wings won 5 games in the homestand for the first time since winning 7-of-9 games last July…Rochester has the second best record in the IL when scoring first .771 (27-8). Lehigh Valley leads the league when scoring first with a 29-7 record (.801)…Mitch Garver has hit in 10 straight games with his first-inning double…The Red Wings begin a 4-game series in Buffalo starting Monday night. They do not return to Frontier Field until July 4 against Pawtucket.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Matt Hague interview – https://youtu.be/eq0hRplu8XQ
Zack Granite interview – https://youtu.be/V6U1tbykUIY
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/hBqgldXvOKU