'Pigs, Wings hold unofficial HR derby
Dinger, tater, shot. Roundtripper, long ball, smash. Four bagger. Moon shot. However many entries exist in the Home Run thesaurus, the IronPigs and Red Wings apparently wanted more.The teams combined for 43 hits, including 15 homers, as Triple-A Lehigh Valley outslugged Rochester, 20-18, on Saturday afternoon at Frontier Field, where
Dinger, tater, shot. Roundtripper, long ball, smash. Four bagger. Moon shot. However many entries exist in the Home Run thesaurus, the IronPigs and Red Wings apparently wanted more.
The teams combined for 43 hits, including 15 homers, as Triple-A Lehigh Valley outslugged Rochester, 20-18, on Saturday afternoon at Frontier Field, where a 23 mph wind blew out toward left field.
Their three-hour, 55-minute slugfest smashed the ballpark's previous single-game record of eight combined homers. It matched the venue's single-game record for runs set on April 29, 2004, when a Buffalo Bisons team that included Grady Sizemore topped a Red Wings squad that featured Justin Morneau, 25-13.
Ten different hitters went yard, and only two of the 10 pitchers used avoided contributing to that total.
Lehigh Valley's Jan Hernandez struck first, launching a three-run jack to right field off Rochester starter
Gameday box score
On the second pitch of the inning,
A relative respite followed as the 3,983 in attendance did not witness a home run in the bottom of the sixth or the top of the seventh. How bland.
Twins No. 6 prospect Brent Rooker restarted the derby when he took
Someone had to supply the last blast, and Hernandez -- the one who hit the first -- became a contender when he tied the game with a solo swat in the ninth. But Rodriguez earned the honor when he crushed the game-winner, a three-run shot in the 10th off D.J. Baxendale (0-1). It proved too much to overcome, even when the Red Wings fired back with a run off
It was, of course, the IronPigs' best offensive showing in quite a while. The nine homers shattered the old franchise record of five. The 20 runs were their most since June 11, 2016. But the 18 runs allowed were the most surrendered since June 16, 2017.
Joe Bloss is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @jtbloss.