By CRAIG POTTER
Aaron Slegers hurls and Park and Garver homer to propel Rochester to a 3-2 victory over the Tides.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Coming down to the final three weeks of the regular season, the Rochester Red Wings kept pace with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs by edging the Norfolk Tides, 3-2, on Saturday night before a paid crowd of 10,129. The Wings trail the IronPigs by one game for the International League’s wild card berth. Both teams have 22 games remaining.
Right-hander Aaron Slegers did a masterful job on the mound against the predominately left-handed hitting Tides as he pitched 7.1 innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits while striking out 6 batters to earn his league-leading 13th win of the season.
The Tides scored a run in the first with two outs on a double and single.
“I think Slegers got hurt early in the game with his fastball,” said Red Wings manager Mike Quade.
“Some days it can kind of wake you up a little bit,” Slegers said. “I wasn’t too concern, I was throwing the ball over the plate. It was two straight hits off a first-pitch fastball, which I can live with in the first inning. I’m going to attack guys, not particularly in the first inning. I was okay with that.”
“A left-handed club like this will let you know that you better have a pretty good soft pitch, and his change-up and slider were really, really good,” Quade continued.” He used them as the game progressed in good situations.
“The development of his soft game is going to be huge. A big guy like that (6-foot-10, 245 lbs.) you’ve got to be able to get them out. This isn’t Minnesota yet. He’s been working on that all year. Tonight was a heck of a step.”
The right-hander’s off-speed stuff proved to be very effective.
“I think tonight was the best night for a change-up,” said Slegers. “That was really great to have a night like that with a change-up.
“They have a lot of lefties in the lineup so I knew before the game started that I was going to throw a lot of change-ups…It’s been a work-in-progress the majority of my career. Tonight was a huge stride forward with that pitch.”
ByungHo Park’s 2-run homer in the fourth, with Matt Hague on base via a walk, put the Red Wings in front to stay.
Matt Garver belted a 412-foot homer over the center field wall for a 3-1 advantage in the fifth. It was his 17th of the season, the most for a Red Wings catcher since 1999.
“Garver is having the best quiet season in the league,” said Quade. “The trade of (John Ryan) Murphy exposed him more to catching. He needs that and it hasn’t hurt him offensively.”
In the top of the sixth, Rochester centerfielder Zack Granite lost a ball in the twilight off the bat of Drew Dosch, who scampered around to third. He crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly to pull within a run.
“If not for twilight, maybe would have been a 2-run game,” Quade said.
However, Slegers and southpaw reliever Mason Melotakis only allowed one runner in scoring position after that. The save was Melotakis’s first of the season.
“Those two guys, to be able to finish and give us the win was huge,” Quade said.
*NOTES – On Thursday LHP Stephen Gonsalves became the 22nd different starting pitcher used by the Red Wings this season, most by any International League club…The Wings have used 38 different pitchers thus far this season, a club record…The Wings have had 147 transactions so far this season, 13 more than the 2016 total…Rochester has gone 20-28 (.417) against the 5 teams currently above .500 this season. Half of the Wings 22 games remaining in the regular season are against teams with records above .500…Rochester had owned Norfolk at home in the last 5 seasons entering 2017, going 16-3 at Frontier Field. The Wings are 1-2 in this series, which ends with a Sunday matinee at 1:35. The Wings have not lost a series to the Tides at home since 2002.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – www.redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Aaron Slegers interview – https://youtu.be/7XFpoQLZHMA
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/GsJYvLutRWs