Braves Defeat Wings, 5-2
May 31, 2007 - International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release
The Richmond Braves scored twice in both the sixth and seventh innings, breaking a 1-1 tie to defeat the Red Wings 5-2 Wednesday night at Frontier Field. Gil Velazquez drove in the only Rochester run, scoring Trent Oeltjen on a squeeze play in the third inning. The Wings were held to three hits by three Richmond pitchers.
The contest saw a matchup of lefty Dave Gassner, coming off a complete game shutout win on Saturday, against Richmond right-hander Blaine Boyer. A reliever making his first start since May 2005, Boyer recorded two saves against the Wings during the series in Richmond earlier this month.
In the Richmond third, Wes Timmons led off with a double into the left field corner, and was bunted over to third by Gregor Blanco. Timmons scored on a groundball to the right side by J.C. Holt, and the Braves led 1-0.
In the bottom of the third, Oeltjen led off and was hit on the knee by a Boyer pitch. It was the ninth time Oeltjen has been hit by a pitch this season, tops in the International League. Although Oeltjen limped to first base, Boyer kept Oeltjen close and tried to pick him off first base twice. But Oeltjen stole second anyway, then moved to third on Doug Deeds' grounder to to the right side. On the first pitch to Velazquez, Oeltjen broke for home and Velazquez put down a perfect squeeze bunt up the first base line. Velazquez almost was safe at first after Boyer slipped while fielding the bunt; Velazquez was out by a step, and Oeltjen's run tied the game at 1-1.
The Braves got to Gassner in the sixth inning, when Graham Koonce and Carlos Mendez hit RBI singles to put the R-Braves back up 3-1. In the seventh, Blanco's RBI sacrifice fly and a squeeze play bunt hit by J.C. Holt boosted the Braves' lead to 5-1.
Gassner ended his night after 6 1/3 innings, having allowed nine hits and five runs (four earned). Julio DePaula, just down from Minnesota, struck out three in 1 2/3 innings. Brian Bass finished up with a scoreless inning.
Rochester picked up a run in the ninth against Rich Scalamandre, on Garrett Jones' RBI double.
NOTES: Catcher Jose Morales (back) and third baseman Matt Moses (neck) are out of the lineup. The Wings will get a player from Double-A New Britain Friday, expected to be catcher Korey Feiner... The Red Wings bullpen has done a great job the last five games; in 14 2/3 innings of work, the relievers have allowed just one run on five hits while walking six and striking out 11....From TwinsBaseball.com - Justin Morneau ranks amo! ngst the top three vote-getters for AL first basemen in All-Star Game balloting. After getting off to a bit of a slow start in '07, Morneau has turned things up a notch over the past few weeks. Morneau now ranks near the top of many offensive categories in the American League, including second in home runs (15), fifth in RBIs (39) and fifth in slugging percentage (.587). Currently in the midst of a season-high 10-game hitting streak, Morneau is hitting .312 with nine homers and 24 RBIs in the month of May.
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