IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Hens Homers Top Wings for Title

Published on September 16, 2006 under International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


The Toledo Mud Hens pounded out four home runs for the second straight game, beating the Red Wings 10-1 Saturday night in Toledo. The win gave the Mud Hens their second straight Governors Cup Championship. Andres Torres had three hits and scored the lone Rochester run. The game was played before a sellout crowd of 10,300.

The loss ended an up and down roller coaster of pride and exhilaration, disappointment and frustration for Red Wings fans the past two weeks during the playoffs. The club was in first place for much of the first half of the season, fell to second place while playing through key callups and injuries, then pulled it together to make an improbable playoff run that thrilled the team's fans.

The Red Wings, who were blanked 6-0 Friday while batting 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, had a leadoff single from Torres to open the game. Tommy Watkins popped up a bunt attempt, fielded by Toledo starting pitcher Corey Hamman for the first out. Quinton McCracken, who entered the game with a playoff-best 14 hits, grounded sharply into a double play.

Toledo chipped away at Wings starter Mike Smith in the first, getting three straight hits and a sacrifice fly after one out to take a 2-0 lead. The Hens got one of the best defensive plays of the series in the second inning, when Dustan Mohr made a leaping catch to rob Kevin West of an extra base hit with a runner on first.

Mike Hessman clubbed an 0-1 pitch from Smith over the wall in left in the bottom of the second, giving Toledo a 3-0 lead that brought pitching coach Stu Cliburn to the mound for a visit. But back-to-back homers by David Espinosa and Mohr made it a 6-0 game after just two innings. For Hessman, it was his fifth home run in 10 playoff games.

Rochester got a run back in the third inning, afer Torres hit a two-out double, and Watkins followed with a double on an 0-2 pitch from Hamman to make it 6-1 Toledo. Smith was pulled after two innings, his shortest outing of the season. Dave Gassner replaced Smith, and the Hens got a quick run back off Gassner to pull ahead 7-1.

More frustration for the Wings in the fourth, after Jones drew a leadoff walk and Tiffee ripped his second single of the night to start the inning. West worked Hamman for an eight-pitch at-bat, then grounded to shortstop Brent Dlugach. Dlugach flipped to second baseman Jack Hannahan for the force out, and Hannahan somehow got his throw off to first base despite being taken out of the play at second by Tiffee's hard slide. The throw to first nabbed West by a step to complete the double play. A two-run blast from Josh Phelps with two outs in the bottom of the fourth was the knockout punch to Rochester's title hopes and extended the Toledo lead to 9-1.

Lavale Speigner pitched three innings of one-hit relief for Rochester, striking out four. Toledo added an unearned run off Beau Kemp in the eighth inning for their final run.

NOTES: Tiffee also had three hits, and led all playoff batters with a total of 15 hits...Tiffee and LHP Glen Perkins were promoted to the Twins after the game...Twins General Manager Terry Ryan attended the game...Wings trainer Tony Leo will join the Minnesota Twins' big league staff for the remainder of the season...The Hens led the league with 152 home runs during the regular season, then added 22 home runs in 10 playoff games...Brian Barden hit a two-run homer in a five-run seventh inning as the Tucson Sidewinders completed a three-game sweep of the PCL Championship Series on Friday with a 6-3 victory over the Round Rock Express. Tucson, the top farm club of the Arizona Diamondbacks, will face Toledo Tuesday in the ! Bricktown Showdown Triple-A Championship Game in Oklahoma City.

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International League Stories from September 16, 2006


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