By Craig Potter
Rochester pulls within 2.5 games of the IronPigs for the Wild Card berth.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings blanked the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 1-0, on Thursday night in a must-win situation to keep their International League playoff hopes alive before 6,894 fans at Frontier Field.
A saying that Red Wings manager Mike Quade often hears is, “Sometimes you’ve got to throw a shutout to win,” he related with a smile. “Never more appropriate than tonight.”
Tommy Field provided the lone run with a homer in the fifth inning.
“I hit it pretty well,” Field said when asked if he thought it would go out when he hit it. “It’s pretty big territory out there (in left field) so I thought I’d at least get a triple out of it.”
“Tommy Field has hit some big home runs for us, obviously given the circumstances, none bigger than this one,” Quade said.
Nick Greenwood, Buddy Boshers, and Edward Mujica combined to shut out the IronPigs on 5 hits. Greenwood went 7 innings, scattering 4 hits and striking out 5 batters.
“What a job Greenwood has done,” Quade said. “He’s just been fabulous.”
“I was just trying to put us in a position to win,” Greenwood said. “My off-speed pitches were effective today, pretty good change-up and slider. I mixed and matched them to get them off my fastball.
“My goal is to go nine innings every time…All the pitches are kind of working right now, take it one day at a time.”
Boshers threw 1.2 innings, walking two in the ninth, along with a single, that filled the bases with two outs.
Mujica came on to earn his 25th save with a strikeout to end the game against his former teammates. Mujica played the first half of the season with Lehigh Valley up until the all-star break. He led the league in saves at the time, was out for a month and returned to the league with the Wings, and still held the lead in saves.
The two teams go at it on Friday night, the scheduled final regualar season home game for Rochester. They then are schedule to go to Lehigh Valley to complete the 5-game series with 3 games in Allentown, PA.
The Red Wings must win the remaining 4 games in order to capture the Wild Card playoff berth.
*NOTES – In a roster move, OF Tanner English was transferred from Single-A Ft. Myers to the Red Wings on Thursday to play center field after Byron Buxton was called up by Minnesota Twins during Wednesday night’s game against Syracuse…The final 3 games of the regular season are slated to be played in Allentown, PA. against the IronPigs on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. However, if rain from Hurricane Hermine should prevent the series from being completed in Allentown, as the hurricane is projected to be off the Northeast coast over the weekend, then those remaining game(s) may be played in Rochester with Lehigh Valley as the home team.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Nick Greenwood interview – https://youtu.be/7920hYgJDdQ
Tommy Field interview – https://youtu.be/2GeLEqZOesk
Manager Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/S7dVF046zRM