IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Rochester Red Wings Notes

Published on April 29, 2013 under International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


Buffalo Bisons (16-6) @ Rochester Red Wings (9-15)

Frontier Field - Rochester, N.Y. - 7:05 p.m.

RHP Miguel Batista (1-0, 4.00) vs. RHP Virgil Vasquez (2-1, 4.43)

TODAY'S GAME: The Red Wings seek to start a new winning streak on Monday after their season-high 4 game streak was snapped Sunday in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Bisons. First pitch from Frontier Field is set for 7:05 p.m. tonight. Despite the loss, the Wings are still 7-4 in their last 11 games after starting the year 2-11 -- the worst start for a Red Wings team since at least 1940. Still, they haven't been able to gain much ground as the first-place Bisons have now won 12 of their last 14 games and sit 3.0 games clear of Pawtucket atop the IL North. Buffalo is a remarkable 10-2 on the road this season... Rochester and Buffalo will wrap the 4-game set with an 11:35 a.m. game on Tuesday, before the Wings will hit the road for an 8-game trip in Columbus (May 2-5) and Toledo (May 6-9).

GETTING RELIEF: Since allowing 11 runs over a 2-game span from 4/22-4/23 the Red Wings relief corps has been much improved. If you take out Caleb Thielbar's 5-run, 0.1 inning outing on 4/25, the Red Wings bullpen has gone 2-0 with 3 saves and a 0.52 ERA (1 ER/17.1 IP) over the last 5 games... Even if you add Thielbar's outing, the Wings bullpen has still posted a respectable 3.06 ERA over the last 5 games. The bullpen's ERA has dipped nearly a full run over that span from 7.83 on 4/23 to 6.85 entering play tonight. 9 of the 11 relief appearances (82%) over the last 5 games have been scoreless compared to just 45% (25 of 56) the first 19 games of the season.

-The trio of Daniel Turpen, Tyler Robertson & Tim Wood have led the way tossing a combined 11.2 scoreless innings over the last 5 games.

FOR STARTERS: RHP Virgil Vasquez gets the nod for the Wings tonight in game 3 of the series. The last time Vasquez faced Buffalo he surrendered 4 solo home runs in 6 innings but still won his first game of the season on April 7 at Frontier Field. In his last 2 starts, Vasquez has surrendered just 3 ER in 10.1 IP lowering his ERA from 6.30 after his 4/13 start to 4.43 entering tonight's outing... In 4 career starts vs. the Bisons, Vasquez is 2-2 with a 6.45 ERA (16 ER/22.1 IP) and has allowed 33 hits (6 homers) but only surrendered 2 walks.

-Vasquez's 6 home runs allowed this season is tied for the most in the International League.

LET'S MAKE IT 6: Tonight Clete Thomas and Joe Benson will each have a shot to extend their hitting streaks to a team-high 6 games. Thomas and Benson are the 6th and 7th different Red Wings players to record a 5-game hitting streak this season. The previous 5 (Herrmann, Bernier, Bigley, Farris and Colabello) all failed to extend their streaks to 6 games... Last season, the longest Wings hitting streak was 15 games turned in by Chris Parmelee from 7/18-8/5

-Thomas is hitting .444 (8-for-18) with a home run, 3 runs scored and 3 RBI over his 5-game streak

-Benson is batting .368 (7-for-19) with a double, 2 triples, a home run, 6 runs scored and 2 RBI over his streak... In his previous 10 games prior to the streak Benson was just 6-for-37 (.162) w/ 0 extra-base hits and 0 RBI

10-WIN APRIL?: The Red Wings need to win one of their next 2 games against Buffalo to record their first 10-win April since 2008 -- it would be quite an accomplishment considering they were 2-11 on April 17. After winning 10-plus games in April for 7 straight years (2002-08), Rochester hasn't reached the 10-win mark in the last four seasons going a combined 34-51 in the first month of the season. Since 1980, the most April wins for the Wings was 17 in 1997 -- they started that season 0-3 and ended as Governors' Cup champions.

COMING UP BIG: Red Wings outfielder Evan Bigley went 3-for-4 with a double on Sunday. In 11 games with Rochester since his April 17 promotion from Double-A, Bigley is hitting .394 (13-for-33) with a .512 on-base percentage... Bigley started the year 1-for-22 (.045) in his first 5 games of the year with New Britain but has since gone 20-for-57 (.351) in his last 17 games between New Britain and Rochester.

-Bigley has 4 multi-hit games with ROC, only Chris Colabello (6) and Clete Thomas (5) have more multi-hit efforts.

DELIVERING IN THE CLUTCH: Yesterday the Wings left 10 men on base as they have struggled to get the big hit so far this season... With runners on base Rochester is hitting .215 (79-for-368), with the bases loaded the Wings are 5-for-27 (.185), with RISP the Red Wings are hitting .180 (39-for-180) and with RISP & 2-out the Wings are hitting just .098 (9-for-92)... Comparatively, Buffalo is batting .360 with the bases loaded, .299 with RISP and .356 with RISP & 2 outs.

-The Red Wings rank last in the IL w/ RISP and w/ RISP & 2 outs, 13th w/ runners on base and 11th w/ the bases loaded

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