By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester scores 5 runs early and holds on for a 6-4 victory over Pawtucket.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Red Wings tallied 5 runs in the first two innings, then had to hold on to beat the Pawtucket Red Sox, 6-4, Friday night before a paid crowd of 8,117 fans at Frontier Field.
The victory kept the Red Wings lead over Lehigh Valley for the wild card playoff spot at 2 games, with 3 games remaining for both teams. The IronPigs hold the tie-breaker as they won the season series, 13-9.
“I’d definitely rather be in our situation than the other way,” said Matt Hague.
The Red Wings play host to Pawtucket again Saturday at 6:05 pm, with fireworks after the game.
The Red Wings jumped out in front in the bottom of the first inning off PawSox starting pitcher Brian Johnson. ByungHo Park smacked a 2-run homer over the left field fence for the early 2-0 margin. It was Park’s 14th home run of the campaign.
Rochester increased its advantage in the second when Hague, hitting in the leadoff spot for just the third time in his professional career, laced a double down the left field line scoring Leonardo Reginatto and J.B. Shuck. Rookie Levi Michael added a sacrifice fly to score Tommy Field for the 5-0 advantage.
“He was 1-for-4 (actually 1-for-5) his first game but he was quick to point out that we were 1-0 with him in the leadoff spot,” Quade said of Hague batting first.
Quade chose to bat Hague leadoff occasionally when the other team started a left-hander, which was the case Friday with Brian Johnson of Pawtucket.
“I look at numbers and matchups,” Quade said. “We don’t run, we don’t steal a lot of bases, so what’s the difference.
“Plus, when the lineup turns over later in the game, there’s Matt Hague coming up.”
The PawSox got on the scoreboard in the top of the third off Rochester starter Aaron Slegers. Back-to-back singles set the stage for Brian Bogusevic’s 3-run homer.
The Wings tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. Singles by Field and Hague, and a walk to Michael loaded the bases with Wings. With one out, Park launched a sacrifice fly to plate Field with the sixth run.
On the play, pinch-runner Engelb Vielma, running for Hague, advanced around third when the throw got away from the catcher. However, on his attempt to get back to the bag, he hurt an ankle deciding whether to slide or not, and was tagged out. Vielma was helped off the field with an apparent injury.
Quade said the injury did not appear to be too serious, even though Vielma needed help from trainer Larry Bennese and Quade to get to the dugout.
Ryan Walker, just up from Double-A Chattanooga, made his Triple-A debut in Vielma’s place defensively.
“It kind of goes with what the organization has,” Hague said. “We lose some guys and guys step in and fill a role. We’ve seen that all year.”
Slegers hurled 6.2 innings in improving his record to 15-4. He allowed 3 runs on 6 hits. He walked one and struck out 10 for the second consecutive start. Slegers is the first Red Wings right-hander to win 15 games since Mike Parrott won 15 games in 1977.
Mason Melotakis finished up the seventh inning, and Dietrich Enns pitched two innings as part of his rehab assignment from the Minnesota Twins. Enns struck out three and allowed a home run to Matt Dominguez that made the score 6-4. Alex Wimmers came on with two outs and one on in the ninth inning to record the final two outs.
“It’s just our nature not to do much easily,” Quade said.
*NOTES – Minnesota Twins recalled LHP Buddy Boshers, RHP Nik Turley, and selected the contract of Niko Goodrum from Rochester Red Wings…The Red Wings added 1B Jonathan Rodriguez and INF Ryan Walker from Double-A Chattanooga and RHP Michael Kohn from Single-A Ft. Myers…Rochester is 56-15 when scoring first and leads the International League with a .789 percentage when scoring the first run this season. The Wings, however, have dropped 5 of their last 14 games when scoring first…Aaron Slegers became the first Red Wings pitcher to win 8 straight games in the Twins era (since 2003) and the first since at least 1996. The last Wing to win 7 straight starts was Francisco Liriano from June 25-July 27, 2008. Slegers has not lost since June 8… Daniel Palka extended his hitting-streak to 7 games with a double…The temperature at game time (59 degrees) tonight was colder than game time on opening day in April (60 degrees).
Links
Rochester Red Wings – www.redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Matt Hague interview – https://youtu.be/8y9FqSOA0gQ
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/BxSzs70GSv0