Wings Rally to Win
April 29, 2008 - International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release
Darnell McDonald collected a single, double and triple in his last three at-bats, and the Red Wings rallied from an early deficit to top the Pawtucket Red Sox, 9-3, Tuesday night at Frontier Field. The two teams conclude the series with a 12:05 pm start Wednesday afternoon.
In his sixth start, Wings pitcher Brian Duensing had his worst first inning of the season allowing three runs and a walk. Before Tuesday, Duensing had not allowed any walks or earned runs during the first inning. After having a slow start, Duensing struck out all three batters in the second and cruised through the rest of his outing.
Duensing was helped out by fine defensive plays from McDonald, with a sliding catch in the third inning; and a double play turn by Howie Clark in the fifth.
The Wings couldn't muster much offense against Pawtucket starter Michael Tejera, with just two hits through five innings. With two outs, Chris Basak walked in the bottom of the fifth. Alexi Casilla hit a line drive to right field for a single while Basak hustled to third. Eli Whiteside flied out to right field to end the inning, leaving Casilla and Basak on base.
With the score 3-0 after five innings, Jason Pridie hit a one-out single in the Rochester sixth. McDonald hit a double to deep right field, allowing Pridie to score the Wings' first run. Randy Ruiz hit a single to move McDonald to third. Clark's hit to shallow left center advanced Ruiz to second and scored McDonald, cutting the lead to 3-2.
In the top of the seventh, Philip Humber came in to pitch for the Red Wings and notched a one-two-three inning, in his first relief appearance of the season and first-ever minor league relief stint.
Casilla lead off the bottom of the seventh with a single. Whiteside singled to center field, moving Casilla to third. Denard Span singled to right field which allowed Casilla to score, tying up the game at 3-3. Pridie hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Whiteside with the go ahead run. McDonald got his second hit of the night, and Pawtucket brought in reliever Craig Hansen. Hansen hit the first batter he faced, Ruiz; then Clark hit a sacrifice fly to right field allowing Span to score and boosting the Red Wings' lead to 5-3.
Julio DePaula started the eighth inning and gave up a couple of singles; with one out and two on, Tim Lahey relieved DePaula. Lahey caught Sandy Madera looking for the second out, then fanned Chris Carter to strand the tying runs on base.
Rochester added another run in the eighth against Hansen, with Pridie drilling a single which scored Basak. It was the first run charged to Hansen this season. The Wings added two more runs charged to Hansen, on a triple by McDonald and a single by Ruiz.
Lahey struck out four in 1 2/3 innings to record his second save, and Humber picked up the win to make his record 1-3.
International League Stories from April 29, 2008
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