By CRAIG POTTER
Rochester beats the RailRiders, 8-1, in a dominating pitching performance by Nik Turley.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The first 10 outs Rochester Red Wings pitcher Nik Turley recorded against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were all by strikeout as he had a career high with 15 in the International League game.
“My slider was on tonight; I threw that often,” Turley said.
As the game went on the weather conditions deteriorated as mist turned into a steady, and sometimes, hard rain.
“It’s stuff you can’t control so you just try to forget about it,” said Turley.
Turley’s batterymate, Mitch Garver, belted a 3-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning allowing Turley to gain the win.
“I was looking for a ball over the middle of the plate that I could handle,” Garver said.
Turley added, “We were going crazy. He hit it into the wind. I was out of the game so it was lucky timing (to get the win).”
Turley, who was recalled from Double-A Chattanooga on Tuesday, had thrown 105 pitches as he scattered 4 hits and walked 1 in going 6 innings.
“He put up those kinds of numbers in Double-A,” said Red Wings manager Mike Quade. “Stupid numbers, that’s what we call them (like first 10 outs by strikeout). Those haven’t been on display in his appearances here. His soft game, breaking ball and slider, haven’t been as good as Double-A…He came out throwing his stuff for strikes early. The only down time is the high pitch count for strikeouts…He was great and that’s kind of what we were expecting.”
In the bottom of the sixth, Zack Granite led off with a double. J.B. Shuck drew a walk and Garver smacked the homer over the left field fence.
“He’s so good discipline-wise at the plate,” Quade said of Garver. “He hit a ball early in the game down the third base line that (Tyler) Wade made an unbelievable play on for a double play.”
The Wings tacked on 3 unearned runs in the seventh as the RailRiders committed two errors. Leonardo Reginatto, Bengie Gonzalez, and Granite scored the runs.
Rochester completed the scoring in the eighth on a RBI double by John Ryan Murphy and a groundout by Gonzalez.
“If you’re going to play on a night like this, it’s better to win than to lose,” Quade said with a smile.
*NOTES – Zach Granite extended his hitting streak to six games, with five straight multi-hit games…On Tuesday the Wings sent RHP Ryan Eades to Double-A Chattanooga…ByungHo Park was a late addition to the lineup, replacing Kennys Vargas at first base…Irondequoit native Cito Culver played first base and batted eighth for the RailRiders Tuesday, and went 1-for-4…The series concludes with a Wednesday matinee starting at 12:35.
Links
Rochester Red Wings – redwingsbaseball.com
Videos
Nik Turley interview – https://youtu.be/dK1qPheSY3g
Mitch Garver interview – https://youtu.be/BangrVhXFLQ
Mike Quade interview – https://youtu.be/BNxc4NTaCQE