Wynston Sawyer’s grand slam keys a 5-run 7th inning to propel Rochester to a 7-3 win over Buffalo.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Wynston Sawyer hit a grand slam as part of a five-run Rochester seventh inning that gave the Red Wings a 7-3 victory over the Bisons, Monday night at Coca-Cola Field. The defeat snapped the Herd’s five-game winning streak.
Sawyer’s slam, his first home run of the season, made quick work of an early 2-0 Bisons lead. In his first inning of relief for starter Sam Gaviglio, Taylor Guerrieri hit both Brock Stassi and Taylor Featherston with pitches before allowing a single to James Ramsey to load the bases. Two pitches later, Sawyer lifted a 1-0 fastball high into sky and beyond the wall in left field.
Rochester scored again in the big seventh inning when Leonardo Reginatto tripled home Jimmy Kerrigan. The Thruway rival also added a run in the eight and another in the ninth, with Kerrigan hitting his first home run of the season in the ninth.
Rochester starter Myles Jaye hurled 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, walking 1 and striking out 2 in earning his first Triple-A win of the season in 3 decisions.
Gaviglio, meanwhile, remains snake-bitten to begin the 2018 season. With six more innings of shutout baseball, the righty has a 1.86 ERA after five starts but no victories to show for it. He added six more strikeouts to his total Monday without issuing a walk. All five hits he allowed were singles, and he erased two of those runners with doubleplays.
Buffalo got on the board first in the fourth inning when Dwight Smith Jr. singled and scored on a groundout from Rowdy Tellez. Ian Parmley singled and scored on Darnell Sweeney’s sacrifice fly in the fifth to give the Bisons a 2-0 advantage. Their third run of the game came in the eighth inning on an RBI-single from Smith Jr.
Buffalo will look to get back to their winning ways on Tuesday night with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch against the Red Wings.
*NOTES — Jake Cave has hit in 6 of 7 May games while batting .379 (11-for-29) with 3 doubles, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored while walking twice and striking out 4 times. He has hit in 9 of his last 11 since April 25 and reached safely in 12 straight games since Game 2 on April 23.