Wilin Rosario has a big day at the ‘Plate’ for Rochester.
By Nick Sciarratta and Ben DiCrasto / Rochester Red Wings
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings (Plates) beat the Columbus Clippers 6-2 Thursday afternoon at Frontier Field. The teams played in rainy condtions that persisted for most of the game.
Harvard Graduate Sean Poppen took the mound for the Plates on a rainy afternoon in Rochester.
The Plates struck first in the bottom half of the first inning, scoring three runs against Clippers starter Shao-Ching Chiang. Following back to back singles from Luis Arraez and Nick Gordon to start the inning, Willians Astudillo hit a sacrifice fly to center to put Rochester ahead 1-0. Wilin Rosario increased the lead to 3-0 later in the inning with his two RBI drive landing just short of the wall in left-center field.
After a scoreless second inning, Rosario came through once again in the third with a runner in scoring position. His line drive down the left field line was enough to score Astudillo from second, pushing Rochester’s lead to 4-0.
Ryan Flaherty answered back for Columbus in the fourth inning, hitting an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-1.
Following back to back one-out singles by Jake Cave and Brent Rooker, Chiang was replaced on the mound for the Clippers in the fifth inning. His day concluded having pitched 4.1 innings with nine hits, five runs, one walk, and six strikeouts on 98 pitches, 58 for strikes. Rosario tacked on his third RBI hit of the night, doubling and scoring Cave. Rooker tried to score from first on Rosario’s hit but was thrown out at the plate, keeping the score 5-1.
Columbus’ Daniel Johnson hit a leadoff triple in the top of the sixth and scored on a groundball. Rochester’s lead was 5-2 through six and a half innings.
Astudillo continued his hot hitting in the bottom half of the sixth inning, putting the Plates ahead 6-2 after driving home Drew Maggi on a line drive single to center.
Plates relief pitcher Jake Reed came on to begin the seventh inning, replacing Poppen who threw an exceptional game. Poppen pitched 6.0 innings with a line of five hits, two runs, one of which were earned, one walk, nine strikeouts, 57 strikes on 91 pitches.
Reed allowed one hit and struck out three in his two scoreless relief innings. Reed has allowed just one earned run over his past five outings (10 innings pitched).
Preston Guilmet pitched the ninth inning, setting down the side in order with a big assist from Maggi – who made a diving snag to take away a hit from Eric Haase. Maggi threw to first base from his knees after the stop, getting Haase for the game’s final out.
Rosario was 4-for-4 with 4 RBI for the Plates, who out-hit the Clippers 14-6.
*NOTES — INF Nick Gordon extended his hit streak to 11 games and on base streak to 18 games with his first inning single…INF Drew Maggi was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run score, but saw his six-game hitting streak end…C Wynston Sawyer’s on-base streak ended at 11 games…The Charlotte Knights come to town to open a 3-game set on Friday night, Star Wars Night at the ballpark with post-game fireworks.