IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Wings Tame Bulls 6-3 in Durham

Published on May 20, 2016 under International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


Durham, N.C. - The Rochester Red Wings got a quality start from Jason Wheeler and big nights at the plate from Max Kepler and Adam Brett Walker as they took game one against the Durham Bulls 6-3 on Thursday night.

Wheeler delivered his fourth quality start in five outings. Kepler hit his first Triple-A homer in the fifth inning and wound up a single short of the cycle. Walker belted a pair of solo homers for his fifth and sixth long balls of the season.

Kepler got the scoring started for the Red Wings (23-18) in the top of the first. He laced his IL leading sixth triple of the season to deep center to score James Beresford followed by an RBI liner from Kennys Vargas to make it 2-0 after the first frame.

Vargas' streak of four consecutive games with a homer and five straight multi-hit games came to a close but he did extend his streak of games with an RBI to eight games.

Rochester added another run in the second. Adam Brett Walker belted his first homer since May 4, his fifth of the season, that gave the Wings a 3-0 lead after two innings.

Wheeler (2-1) was sharp for the Wings. He faced just three batters over the minimum through the first six innings. He picked up the win by going 6.2 innings of shutout baseball with four hits, a walk and six strikeouts.

Bulls' (17-25) starter Justin Marks (1-4) took the loss after giving up four runs on seven hits with a walk and four strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work.

The Wings tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh. Walker lifted his second homer of the game, a solo shot to left center. Three batters later Kepler doubled on a fly ball to right that scored Beresford who walked the at-bat prior to make it 6-0 Wings.

Durham broke through in the bottom of the eighth. Dayron Varona had a two-RBI double off of Dan Runzler followed by a Nick Franklin RBI single that made it 6-3.

J.T. Chargois came on and got the last out of the eighth and induced a ground ball double play in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his first Triple-A save.

Kepler finished the game 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored as he finished a single short of the cycle. Walker was the other Wing to record a multi-hit game as he finished 2-for-4 with the pair of solo homers.

Rochester has now won three straight games and 12 of their last 15.

The Messenger Post Media Pics of the Day: check out photo galleries from each home game.

Next Up: Rochester continues their four-game set with Durham at 7:05 Friday with Logan Darnell on the mound.

Next Home Game: Tuesday, May 24 vs. Indianapolis (Pirates), 7:05 p.m.

Tickets: Order tickets online, anytime at RedWingsBaseball.com/Tickets or call 423-WING (9464) to charge by phone, Mon-Fri. 9 am-5 pm and weekend game days starting at 10 a.m.

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International League Stories from May 20, 2016


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