Rochester sets franchise home run record on Zander Wiel’s blast.
By Nick Sciarratta and Chad Raychel / Rochester Red Wings
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings hit a franchise record 155th home run in a season Wednesday ight at Frontier Field. The historic long ball came off the bat of Zander Wiel, who hit a 427-foot two-out solo homer in the 2nd inning off Gwinnett’s Kyle Wright on Wednesday at Frontier Field. It was the team’s 155th homer of the year, breaking the previous mark of 154 set in 1959.
Rochester is the third International League team to set a franchise record for home runs in a season in 2019. Gwinnett has shattered its previous high of 123, breaking the record on June 28. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre broke its previous record of 164 on July 17. Several other IL teams are on pace to break their home run record including Columbus, which entered Wednesday tied for its franchise record with a league-high 182 homers this season.
The Red Wings, however, lost the game as the Stripers tallied 4 runs in the 8th to post a 4-3 triumph.
Rochester started out the game in historical fashion against Gwinnett starter Kyle Wright. In the bottom of the second, Wiel clobbered the team’s franchise record setting 155th home run of the season to get the Wings out to a 1-0 lead.
Wings starter Lewis Thorpe got off to a very strong start striking out the first four batters he faced and not allowing a hit until the fifth. His outing ended after throwing 6.0 innings, while only allowing one hit, no runs, and striking out seven. 46 of his 69 pitches were for strikes.
Wright finished with a line of 6.0 innings, five hits, one earned run and six strikeouts. He threw 94 pitches, 63 for strikes.
The Wings were able to plate an insurance run in the the bottom of the seventh against Gwinnett reliver Chad Sobotka. Ivan DeJesus Jr. led off the inning with his second single of the night in his Red Wings debut. In the next at bat, Caleb Hamilton ripped a double into the right-center gap, bringing in DeJesus Jr. from first and giving Rochester a 2-0 lead.
Fernando Romero came on in relief in the seventh and pitched a scoreless inning, but was replaced in the eighth by Jeremy Bleich after walking the first two batters of the inning. Bleich entered the game and immediately gave up a single to Andres Blanco, bringing in Ryan LaMarre from second. After the next two batters struck out, Pedro Florimon hit a two RBI triple to give Gwinnett the lead. Bleich threw a wild pitch, allowing Florimon to cross the plate and put the Stripers out in front by a score of 4-2.
Jake Reed entered the game to pitch in the ninth and gave up two hits but did not allow a run to score.
Rochester began to mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. After Drew Maggi and Ramon Flores both walked to get on base, Brandon Barnes dunked a single over the first baseman’s head, bring in Maggi from second and allowing Flores to advance to third. The lead was cut to 4-3 but the comeback fell short with the tying run on third.
Rochester out-hit Gwinnett 9-5.
*NOTES — The series continues Thursday night at 7:05 pm with a Plates “bobble fork” giveaway…RHP Kohl Stewert was recalled by Minnesota on Wednesday…INF Drew Maggi extended his on-base streak to 37 games with single in the bottom of the fifth inning.