IL1 Rochester Red Wings

Wings Win in 10

Published on September 1, 2008 under International League (IL1)
Rochester Red Wings News Release


Sunday 8/31/08 EXTRA SPECIAL: WINGS WIN IN TEN It was a tale of two ballgames on Sunday evening at Frontier Field, as the Red Wings overcame a sluggish start to push past the Bisons 5-4 in ten innings. Bobby Kielty hit a go-ahead home run in the 8th inning before Trevor Plouffe won it with a single in the 10th, completing another comeback for the resilient Rochester nine. Kielty knocked in two runs and was one of four Wings with a multi-hit game; Plouffe was 3-for-5. Starting pitcher Anthony Swarzak overcame early jitters to go for seven strong innings in his final start of year.

Swarzak came into the game with a 5-0 record and a sparkling 1.89 ERA. The young pitcher gave up some hard hit balls early, but managed to limit the damage to only three runs, thereby keeping the home team in the game going into the later frames. "I had a hard time getting loose early on," he commented after the game. "Around the third or fourth inning I started getting my arm out in front, and I had some great defensive plays behind me."

The visiting Bisons profited from some sloppy Red Wings fielding to score three early tallies. A passed ball in the first inning let one run across, and a throwing error by shortstop Sergio Santos in the second led to two more.

Swarzak went seven innings and allowed three runs on seven hits. He struck out two, walked none, hit a batter and had a wild pitch, all while throwing a season-high 109 pitches. He lowered his ERA to 1.80 in the process, after posting a mark of 5.67 in 20 starts at Double-A New Britain. "I don't really know why [I've had so much success in Rochester]," he admitted. "I've been throwing my fastball for strikes and getting ahead of hitters."

On the other side of the diamond, soft-tossing veteran John Halama had the Wings stymied for much of the night with a maddening array of breaking balls. Rochester got a run in the fourth inning, though, when Santos and Howie Clark doubled on consecutive pitches. Each of those two had a pair of hits in the ballgame- two doubles for Santos, a single and a double for Clark.

Rochester narrowed the margin to one run in the 6th when Kielty hit a bases loaded sacrifice fly, bringing Santos across the plate. In the following inning, they evened the score with some timely two-out hitting. Leadoff man Alejandro Machado laced a double into the left-center gap, and a hustling Jeff Christie scored all the way from first base to put the home team back on equal footing.

With the score still tied in the 8th and two men out, Kielty came through again. Facing Buffalo reliever Rich Rundles, the veteran smacked a 3-1 offering into the bullpen in left field to give the Wings their first lead of the evening. It was Kielty's second home run since joining the Wings on August 12.

Despite the euphoric mood at the park, however, the game was not yet decided. In his second inning of work, reliever Carmen Cali gave up a leadoff triple to Brad Snyder, who scored the tying run two batters later. Rochester was unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, and the Wings went to extra innings for the second consecutive night. After Garrett Jones and Luke Hughes reached base, they emerged victorious with Plouffe's game-winning single to right.

Julio DePaula (3-5) got the win in relief, while Jeff Stevens (0-3) took the loss for Buffalo. The Rochester bullpen was effective with the exception of the game-tying run in the ninth inning, especially given that the recently promoted Bobby Korecky was not available for the save situation.

Check out the Rochester Red Wings Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



International League Stories from September 1, 2008


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central