Late Rally Lifts IronPigs Over Red Wings
Lehigh Valley rallied to score six runs in the eighth to beat the Rochester Red Wings Thursday afternoon, 11-4. CF Dylan Crews roped two doubles and walked once to lead the offense, and LF Stone Garrett launched his third home run in the month of July. DH Travis Blankenhorn also
Lehigh Valley rallied to score six runs in the eighth to beat the Rochester Red Wings Thursday afternoon, 11-4. CF Dylan Crews roped two doubles and walked once to lead the offense, and LF Stone Garrett launched his third home run in the month of July. DH Travis Blankenhorn also added a pair of hits and walks and has now collected an extra-base hit in five consecutive games.
An induced groundout to CF Cal Stevenson began the game in the top of the first, which brought DH Buddy Kennedy to the plate with one away. He promptly sent a 2-2 pitch into the visiting bullpen over the left field fence, giving the IronPigs a quick 1-0 lead. This was his second home run, and fourth extra-base hit through the first three games of the series.
Rochester responded with a solo homer of their own in the bottom of the second, this time off the bat of Stone Garrett that sailed over the left-center field fence to tie the game at one. His third homer of the season was also his 650th Minor League hit, came off the bat at 107.4 MPH and traveled 384 feet, the eighth-hardest hit home run by a Red Wing this season.
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After a scoreless third frame, Lehigh Valley 3B Rodolfo Castro launched the third solo home run of the game to put the IronPigs back in front in the fourth. Both of his hits across his first four games with Lehigh Valley have left the yard.
Cal Stevenson led off the top half of the fifth with a hard line drive up the middle for a single. Two batters later, LF Kody Clemens tripled down the right field line that allowed Stevenson to score all the way from first base and gave Lehigh Valley a two-run advantage. 1B Darick Hall then dribbled a ground ball up the middle that scooted into center field for another single, which allowed Clemens to cross the plate and push the IronPigs lead to three runs.
Rochester pitching held Lehigh Valley scoreless in the top of the sixth, and the offense went to work in the bottom half. 3B Brady House laced a single up the middle with one out and moved to second on a walk to Travis Blankenhorn. Following a mound visit, 1B Joey Meneses roped a double over the outstretched glove of Cal Stevenson in the right-center field gap that brought House around to score and moved Blankenhorn to third. Stone Garrett then hit into a fielder’s choice that resulted in an out at home plate, and left runners on first and second with two outs. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, and SS Jack Dunn came through muscling a single over second base to trim the lead to one. Lehigh Valley recorded the final out in the following at-bat, keeping the score at 4-3 headed to the seventh.
2B Erick Mejia dropped down a bunt and hustled out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the seventh. A wild pitch moved him up to second, and Crews worked a walk to put a pair of runners on base. RF Alex Call drew a walk of his own to load the bases for Brady House, who tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center field. Blankenhorn walked for the second time in the contest to reload the bases, but Rochester was unable to take the lead and left all three runners stranded.
Lehigh Valley answered immediately and pulled away in the visiting half of the eighth. With one out, former Red Wing RF David Dahl singled and promptly moved into scoring position with his third stolen base of the season. The following at-bat, SS Scott Kingery unloaded on a full count sinker and drove it 415 feet over the pitch clock in center field to give the IronPigs the lead once again. 2B Jim Haley followed up the homer with a single and a stolen base of his own to immediately put a runner back into scoring position, and he came around to score on a single from C Cody Roberts to make the score 7-4. Two more walks loaded the bases once again, and Darick Hall promptly cleared them with a double into the left-center field gap to blow the game open, 10-4.
Rochester failed to cross the plate in the bottom of the eighth, and Scott Kingery launched his second home run of the day with one out to give the IronPigs an 11-4 advantage. Down to their last three outs and facing a seven-run deficit, Rochester failed to cross the plate despite a hit from Travis Blankenhorn. Lehigh Valley now holds a 2-1 series lead heading to the final three games of the weekend.
RHP Jackson Rutledge made his 18th start of the season with the Red Wings this afternoon. The right-hander delivered 5.0 full innings and allowed four earned on six hits while striking out and walking three apiece. RHP Eduardo Salazar took over in the sixth and turned in 1.1 scoreless innings on one hit with two strikeouts and one walk. RHP Orlando Ribalta came on with one out in the seventh, and tossed 1.0 inning of work, allowing five runs on four hits, with one walk, and one strikeout. RHP Ty Tice came on in relief for the second-straight night, and logged 1.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, with one walk and strikeout apiece.
Diamond Pro Player of the Game honors go to CF Dylan Crews. The highly touted prospect went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, his first game with a pair of two baggers since June 4 with Double-A Harrisburg. His first came off the bat at 110.5 MPH and the second was 107.4 MPH, the second time this season he’s logged at least two hits with an exit velocity of at least 105 MPH.
Rochester looks to bounce back and even the series Friday night against the IronPigs. RHP Thaddeus Ward is scheduled to make the start for the Red Wings, against Lehigh Valley RHP Nick Nelson. The first pitch is set for 6:45 p.m.
Find the box score attached here.
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