Lord Leads Red Wings Over WooSox In Pitchers Duel
The Rochester Red Wings bounced back and won the fifth game of their six-game set in Worcester Saturday night, 4-3. RHP Brad Lord secured his second Triple-A win and tossed 5.2 strong innings to keep the WooSox offense at bay. RHP Rico Garcia recorded a five-out save for his 15th
The Rochester Red Wings bounced back and won the fifth game of their six-game set in Worcester Saturday night, 4-3. RHP Brad Lord secured his second Triple-A win and tossed 5.2 strong innings to keep the WooSox offense at bay. RHP Rico Garcia recorded a five-out save for his 15th of the season, most by any Red Wing over the last two seasons and second-most in the International League in 2024. Offensively, RF Travis Blankenhorn continued his power surge and crushed his third homer of the series and LF Stone Garrett picked up his fourth multi-hit game in the month of July.
1B Niko Kavadas kicked off the offense in the second inning for Worcester Friday night with a double 369 feet that careened off the top of the wall in right-center field and put a runner in scoring position. The next at-bat, LF Matthew Lugo homered off RHP Brad Lord’s 90.8 MPH sinker, a 410-foot shot that put the first runs on the board and gave Worcester a 2-0 lead.
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Rochester logged their second hit of the game when 1B Joey Meneses blooped a fly ball behind first base for a single. Stone Garrett continued the momentum with a ground ball to right field for a single that moved Meneses to second. After a pitching change, CF Jackson Cluff shot a ball 403 feet to center field for a double that allowed Meneses to score and put the Red Wings on the board. Two batters after the double, SS Erick Mejia cleared the bases with a two-run single to right field that gave Rochester their first lead of the night, 3-2.
Pitching on both sides kept the score at 3-2 until the eighth when Travis Blankenhorn stepped up to the plate and launched an 80.3 MPH sweeper 427 feet over the center field fence for his 19th home run of the season, and 10th at Polar Park since the ballpark opened in 2021. The contest went to the bottom half of the eighth with the Red Wings in front by a pair of runs.
The WooSox responded with a solo homer of their own in the ensuing half inning, this time off the bat of 1B Niko Kavadas, who sent a sinker flying beyond the wall in right field to pull Worcester within a run.
After a scoreless top half of the ninth, Worcester came to the plate in the bottom half down a run. A pair of strikeouts and a groundout eliminated any chance of a comeback, and Rochester came away with a narrow 4-3 win heading into the finale Sunday afternoon.
Florida native Brad Lord made his fourth Triple-A start in the contest. The right-hander tossed 5.2 innings and allowed six hits on two earned while walking one and striking out four. Lord has now lowered his ERA to 4.35 (10 ER/20.2 IP) in four starts since being promoted from Double-A Harrisburg and has allowed two or fewer runs in three of those outings. LHP Joe La Sorsa came in for relief in the bottom of the sixth stranding the inherited runner on second base. La Sorsa threw 1.2 innings and allowed one hit, one run, and one walk. The southpaw lowered his ERA to a Red Wing best 2.28 (min. 20.0 IP). Rico Garcia followed La Sorsa and entered in the bottom of the eighth inning with one out. He threw the final 1.2. innings, and allowed one hit and struck out three to seal the win. He struck out three of the six batters he faced and picked up his 15th save of the season, which is good for second most in the International League. Garcia has now recorded a save in 15-out-of-16 (93.75%) opportunities this season.
Saturday night’s Diamond Pro Player of the Game goes to RHP Rico Garcia. The right-hander picked up his 15th save of the season and held WooSox hitters to just one hit while striking out two across the final 1.1 frames to preserve a one-run victory. He is now one of eight Red Wings since 2000 to log at least 15 saves in a season, and the first since Jordan Weems in 2022 (16).
Rochester looks to pick up their third consecutive series victory tomorrow afternoon in the series finale. The Red Wings will send LHP DJ Herz to the mound for his first start with Rochester since May 30, and he will toe the rubber against Worcester RHP Brad Keller. The first pitch is set for 1:05 p.m.
Find the box score attached here.
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