IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Wings Stop The Skid

Published on May 10, 2008 under International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


Howie Clark's RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh inning helped the Rochester Red Wings edge the Buffalo Bisons, 3-2, on Saturday night at Frontier Field. The win snapped the season-high seven-game losing streak for the Wings.

"I met with the guys before the game and told them to pay more attention to the details," Red Wings' manager Stan Cliburn said. "As tough as things were going for us, we needed a win like this."

Randy Ruiz helped start that trend as he got the Red Wings (15-22) on the board with a laser beam solo home run in the second inning to left-center field.

The Bisons, on the other hand, were held hitless by Wings starter Francisco Liriano until the fourth inning. But Buffalo's woes didn't last long.

In the top of the fifth inning, Former Red Wing Jason Tyner dragged a bunt down the third base line. It was picked up by Liriano, but he overthrew Garrett Jones. Tyner advanced to second on the Red Wings 42nd error of the year and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. In the next at-bat, Wyatt Toregas doubled to left, scoring Tyner and knotting the score at 1.

Toregas scored three batters later when Danny Sandoval drilled the ball back up the middle, giving the Bisons a 2-1 advantage.

The Wings got right back into the game in the sixth inning when Ruiz hit a one-out sacrifice fly to deep right to score Darnell McDonald, tying the game at 2.

Reliever Ricky Barrett came in to pitch the seventh in relief of Liriano. Liriano finished the game pitching six innings, allowed two runs on five hits and struck out five.

"It was good to see him leaving the mound with a smile on his face," Cliburn said. "He's slowly starting to get a rhythm and showing that he's a true warrior out there."

Rochester snatched the lead in the seventh when, after Jose Morales reached on a single, Clark hit a ball deep into right-center. After reaching third easily, Clark was thrown out at home giving the Wings their first out of the inning. The Morales run gave the Wings the 3-2 lead.

After Rochester tacked on the run, the deal was sealed. Barrett ended up pitching two scoreless innings while only allowing one hit. In the ninth, Cliburn put in Danny Graves, who is the all-time saves leader for Cincinnati Reds (182). After he hit Aaron Herr with a pitch, Graves earned his first Red Wings save.

"It was nice to see Graves as a part of our team," Cliburn said. "I see him coming in and showing some veteran leadership for this team."

The two-time all-star will get another chance to show his stuff on Monday when he starts against the Bisons (16-20) in the final game of the series.

Graves will start for the Wings Monday against the Bisons...Before the game, Red Wings infielder Alexi Casilla was told that he was called up to the Minnesota Twins and pulled from the lineup...Chris Basak replaced him in the line-up...Tommy Watkins came up slowly in his second inning at-bat after he legged out an infield hit and dove for first...He stayed in the field but was replaced by Howie Clark for his next at-bat in the fifth inning because he jammed his left thumb and couldn't hold a bat.

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International League Stories from May 10, 2008


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