Sports stats

IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Blackburn Blanks Bats

June 14, 2007 - International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


Nick Blackburn pitched his second straight complete game shutout, boosting the Red Wings to a 2-0 win over the Louisville Bats Thursday night at Frontier Field, in the opener of an eight-game homestand for the Wings. Blackburn held the Bats to only six hits over nine shutout innings, striking out five without allowing a walk.

Blackburn, coming off a pair of wins in which he gave up a total of eight hits and one unearned run in 17 innings, allowed a one-out first inning single to Pedro Lopez. The next batter, Joey Votto, drilled a long fly that was headed over the fence and into the Red Wings bullpen, but Garrett Jones raced to the wall and made a leaping catch to take away a home run. Blackburn struck out the next hitter to end the inning, and continued to handle the Louisville lineup. After seven innings, Blackburn had allowed just four hits without walks while fanning four Louisville hitters.

In the second against left starter Mike Gosling, the Wings scraped together a run for an early 1-0 lead. Tommy Watkins beat out an infield hit with one out, stole second base, and moved to third base on a single by Gil Velazquez. With Denard Span batting, the Wings tried a double steal; Watkins scampered home when catcher Ryan Jorgensen threw to second to try to throw out Velazquez, who got hung up between first and second on the play. Velazquez eluded a tag and made it back to first safely.

Gosling limited the Wings to a pair of hits through seven innings, racking up seven strikeouts with just two walks. After surrendering a double to Alexi Casilla with one out, Gosling was replaced by lefty Brian Shackelford. Casilla seized on opportunity to score on a slow ground ball to third base off the bat of Glenn Williams and slid under the tag of the catcher on a close play to score the second run of the game.

Blackburn took the mound in the bottom of the ninth and pitched around a lead-off hit and a double to finish his complete game gem. Votto's double actually fell in when Watkins and Denard Span lost the ball in the lights, but Watkins alertly picked up the ball and threw a strike to third to nab Jeff Keppinger for the second out. Blackburn has won his last three starts for the Wings pitching 26 innings, striking out 15 and allowing only a single unearned run without walking a batter.

NOTES: LHP Carmen Cali was optioned to Rochester from Minnesota Thursday, after the Twins activated LHP Dennys Reyes from the DL. Cali was 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in seven games for the Twins. Cali allowed just three hits in 5.1 innings of work. To make room for Cali the Red Wings optioned LHP Jose Mijares to Double-A New Britain. Mijares was 0-1 with a 6.23 ERA in five games for the Red Wings... With his home run in Louisville on Tuesday, Williams has now homered in all 14 International League ballparks. Jones has hit a home run in every IL Park except for Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium...Twins OF Josh Rabe (DL, right shoulder) had successful shoulder surgery Thursday and could return before the end of the season...The Challenger Baseball World Series will be conducted this Saturday June 16 at 9 a.m. at Frontier Field, with over 200 players representing squads from Fai! rport, Greece, Webster, Batavia, and the Finger Lakes little league programs. Challenger Baseball brings together boys and girls ages 6-18 who are mentally and/or physically challenged. Manager Stan Cliburn, catcher Matthew LeCroy, Williams, Spikes, and members of the Red Wings front office will be on hand for the festivities, which are free and open to the public...Double-A New Britain INF Luke Hughes was named Eastern League Player of the Week on Monday, after going 13-20 (.650) with five doubles, home run 3 RBI and scored six runs. It is the second straight week that a Rock Cats player has won the award (SS Trevor Plouffe last week). The Rock Cats are the only Eastern League club undefeated in double headers (6-0) and extra innings (4-0) entering play Thursday.

Vote for your favorite Red Wings with the Triple-A All-Star Game Fan Balloting, and enter the "Make Yourself a Triple-A All-Star" Sweepstakes now in our International League section

Check out the Rochester Red Wings Statistics



International League Stories from June 14, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Rochester Red Wings Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central