Red Wings Game Notes
April 12, 2014 - International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release
Rochester Red Wings @ Lehigh Valley IronPigs - Coca-Cola Park, Allentown, PA
Game 1: RHP Alex Meyer (0-0, 3.60) vs. RHP Sean O'Sullivan (0-1, 9.00)
Game 2: RHP Yohan Pino (1-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Mike Nesseth (0-1, 5.79)
LET'S PLAY TWO!: After the Red Wings' fourth postponement in the first nine days of the season on Friday night, the Wings and Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Phillies) will play a doubleheader Saturday from Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA with first pitch of Game One set for 5:35 p.m. This will be Rochester's second twinbill of the season after the Red Wings swept Scranton/WB on Tuesday. This will also be the second doubleheader for Lehigh Valley, who split their twinbill against Buffalo on Wednesday night. After an 0-2 start to the seaon, the Red Wings have rattled off four straight wins including a 4-2 victory in Game One of this series on Thursday. Meanwhile, the IronPigs (3-5) have dropped 3 of their last 4 at home after opening the season with a four-game series split against Pawtucket in Rhode Island. The Red Wings return to Frontier Field on Monday to begin a four-game set with the Paw Sox.
TONKIN RECALLED; ACHTER PROMOTED : RHP Michael Tonkin was officially recalled by the Minnesota Twins on Saturday after the Twins placed OF Josh Willingham on the disabled list. Tonkin, who was on the Twins Opening Day roster before being optioned on April 4, tossed 4.2 scoreless innings with a save over three appearances with the Red Wings. Tonkin joins Chris Herrmann and Darin Mastroianni as 2014 Red Wings to be promoted to Minnesota in the first 10 days of the season...Taking Tonkin's spot on the Wings' roster will be RHP A.J. Achter who began the year at Double-A (6.1 scoreless IP in 3 games) despite a 2013 campaign in which he posted a combined 2.54 ERA (17 ER/60.1 IP) and a .205 (45-220) batting average against in 41 appearances between New Britain and Rochester.
ON THE OFFENSIVE : After a 12-hit night Thursday, the Red Wings raised their IL-best team batting average to .321 through the first six games of the season. After collecting just 6 hits on Opening Day in Buffalo, the Red Wings have pounded out 13, 11, 12, 15 and 12 hits, respectively, over their last five games. Over the last four games, the Wings are batting .385 (50-130) while scoring 22 runs in just 29 trips to the plate. After having just four extra-base hits through their first four games, the Wings have now collected nine extra-base hits - all doubles - in their last two games.
- Despite playing in a league low 6 games the Wings' 69 hits are 3rd most in the IL.
WHO'S HOT: 2B James Beresford (0-for-1; K) had his 5-game hit streak snapped Thursday, but he's still 9-for-21 on the year with a double, 4 runs & 3 RBI...Since July 1, 2013, he's hitting .330 (58-176) over 50 regular season games with Rochester...3B Deibinson Romero (3-for-4; 2B, RBI, BB) has a hit in each of the first 6 games of the season for the Wings and his batting .381 on the year (8-for-21; 3 RBI)...Dating back to 2013, Romero has a 17-game on-base streak with Rochester (.397 OPB)...OF Wilkin Ramirez (2-for-2; 2 2B, R, 2 BB) has strung together three straight multi-hit games going 6-for-10 with 3 doubles, 3 runs and 2 RBI...RHP Yohan Pino earned his first win Wednesday in relief and has thrown 4.1 scoreless innings to begin 2014...INF Doug Bernier is 5-for-14 (.357) with the Wings' only home run and a team-leading 4 RBI in just 4 games.
2013 vs. LEHIGH VALLEY : The Wings finished 10-6 against the IronPigs in 2013 -- their best record against Lehigh Valley since going 11-5 against them in 2008. Over the previous four seasons, the Wings had been just 26-38 vs. the IronPigs. Lehigh Valley won 3 of the first 4 games and 2 of the last 3 game against the Red Wings last season, but in the middle Rochester won 8 of 9 including a 4-game sweep May 27-30 at Frontier Field. The Wings entered that series 20-30 on the season but used the sweep to springboard them to a 57-37 mark the rest of the way.
- The Red Wings had two pitchers take no-hitters deep into games against LHV in 2013. Kyle Gibson had a no-hitter broken up on a Steve Susdorf 2-out double in the 8th inning on May 19 and Liam Hendriks has his perfect game spoiled on a leadoff double by Freddy Galvis in the 7th inning on July 25.
FOR STARTERS: With the exception of Scott Diamond (0-1, 14.40 ERA), Red Wings starters have pitched well this season. The rotation is a combined 1-1, with a 4.13 ERA (24.0 IP/11 ER), but if you take out Diamond's two outings (8 ER in 5.0 IP), the other four (Meyer, May, Johnson, Darnell) have allowed just 3 earned runs in 19.0 innings (1.42 ERA). Diamond figures to get things sorted out as he was the most proven pitcher in the Wings rotation at the start of the year with 58 career Major League starts. The rest of the rotation entered the year with one career Big League start (Kris Johnson).
- GAME 1 : The Wings will send RHP Alex Meyer to the bump in Game One making his 2nd Triple-A start and first on the road. Meyer's Triple-A debut was the Wings' Home Opener on Sunday where he allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on three hits over 5.0 innings against Buffalo. The Twins top pitching prospect walked just one while striking out 6.
- GAME 2 : RHP Yohan Pino will make the Game 2 start - his first of the season after making 16 starts for Louisville a season ago going 4-5, 3.26 ERA as starter. His best start came 7/25/13 @ SYR when he tossed a 2-hit, 9.0-inn shutout.
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