Wings Wallop 'Riders in Home Finale
September 2, 2015 - International League (IL1) - Rochester Red Wings News Release
Aaron Hicks had four hits and Danny Ortiz hit two home runs, backing a strong start by Taylor Rogers in an 8-1 Rochester Red Wings win over the first place Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Wednesday night at Frontier Field. The Wings win, in front of a crowd of 10,069, prevented the RailRiders from clinching the International League North Division title.
The Red Wings will return home to open the 2016 season on Saturday, April 9.
Rogers came out looking to rebound from a rough outing against Syracuse on August 28, in which he pitched less than three innings, and surrendered six earned runs. A strong outing would help to keep the Red Wings' faint playoff hopes alive, and end the final homestand of the season on a positive note.
Hicks got the Wings started off on a good note, beating out an infield hit. The base hit extended his hitting streak to six games. RailRiders RHP Kyle Haynes balked, advancing Hicks to second. In the same at-bat, Haynes threw a wild pitch, which allowed Hicks to reach third. James Beresford took advantage of the early Scranton mistakes and grounded out to score Hicks, giving the Wings the early lead.
Ortiz kept the scoring going in the second, launching his fifteenth home run of the season deep to right. The Wings led 2-0 after the second.
After keeping the RailRiders at bay in the early going, Rogers got rattled in the third. He allowed a leadoff triple to Cito Culver, and two batters later Culver scored on a groundout which cut the Wings lead in half.
The Wings continued to swing their bats in the third. They managed to load the bases with no outs after Carlos Paulino and Hicks knocked back-to-back base hits, followed by a Beresford walk. Reynaldo Rodriguez capitalized on the situation, hitting a deep sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Paulino to score easily. The Rodriguez RBI was his 78th of the season, setting a new career high for the Wings first baseman. The Wings found themselves back up by two at the end of the third.
On a night with post-game fireworks planned, Ortiz continued to set off some of his own, hitting his second home run in as many at-bats in the fourth inning. The hard-hit ball to right field was his sixteenth of the season, placing him in the team lead.
Haynes was through after five innings, allowing six hits, four earned runs, and a walk with three strikeouts. Haynes threw 81 pitches, 47 for strikes.
Rogers cruised through the first six innings, then walked clean-up hitter Aaron Judge to open the seventh. Rogers struck out Jake Cave, the sixth strikeout of the game for Rogers. Gregorio Petit reached on an infield hit when shortstop Argenis Diaz made a slick fielding play in the hole, then made a wild throw into right field. The play put runners at second and third with one out. Rogers notched a strikeout, and a groundout stranded the runners.
The Wings put runners at second and third with none out in the bottom of the seventh, taking advantage of a similar throwing error situation. Diaz singled, then moved to third when shortstop Gregorio Petit threw the ball away trying to force Diaz at second base on a ball hit by Doug Bernier. Paulino lashed a single to score Diaz, and Hicks followed with a line drive home run down the right field line that made the score 8-1.
Rogers left the game after a very solid outing, pitching seven innings, surrendering six hits, one run, and one walk, while striking out seven. He threw 98 pitches, 66 for strikes.
Rogers was replaced by Loek van Mil, a 7' 1" righty making his Red Wings debut after being signed by the Twins on July 29. Van Mil came on strong in his first inning of relief, retiring all three batters he faced in a nine-pitch eighth inning. In the ninth, a double play sealed the win for Rogers (10-12) and the Wings.
NOTES: Logan Darnell (Most Civic-Minded), Mark Hamburger (Most Popular), and Reynaldo Rodriguez (Team MVP) were each honored pregame, winning fan-voted awards...Hamburger sang the National Anthem before the game.
9/3 @PAW 7:05pm LHP Logan Darnell (5-1, 2.84) vs. LHP Edwin Escobar (2-3, 5.36)
9/4 @PAW 7:05pm LHP Pat Dean (11-11, 2.91) vs. RHP Shawn Haviland (5-9, 4.30)
9/5 @LHV 6:55pm RHP Jose Berrios (5-2, 2.67) vs. LHP Anothony Vasquez (8-7, 4.14)
9/6 @LHV 1:35pm RHP Michael Bowden (10-5, 2.68) vs. Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez (0-1, 15.00)
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