Rochester Wins a Thriller Over IronPigs Tuesday Night
In their first of a six-game set against Lehigh Valley Tuesday night, the Cocos Locos de Rochester won a back-and-forth thriller capped off by their eighth walk-off win of the season, 4-3. DH Travis Blankenhorn clubbed his 20th home run of the season in the win, and Dylan Crews singled
In their first of a six-game set against Lehigh Valley Tuesday night, the Cocos Locos de Rochester won a back-and-forth thriller capped off by their eighth walk-off win of the season, 4-3. DH Travis Blankenhorn clubbed his 20th home run of the season in the win, and Dylan Crews singled in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to nine consecutive games. RHP Brad Lord delivered 5.0 strong innings on the mound to start, and RHP Rico Garcia picked up his fifth win of the season with a hitless ninth.
In the top of the fourth, C Rafael Marchán roped a single to lead off the inning, and 3B Buddy Kennedy ripped a two-out double down the left-field line that allowed Marchán to score all the way from first and gave Lehigh Valley a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the fourth, C Drew Millas led off with a double off the top of the left field wall. Lefty slugger Travis Blankenhorn came to the plate and hammered a two-run home run over the right-center field fence, his 20th home run of the season. Rochester jumped out in front 2-1 after four innings of play.
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RF Carlos De La Cruz singled to center field in the top of the fifth, which brought CF Cal Stevenson to the plate. He turned on a 1-0 changeup and rifled it into the right field corner which brought in De La Cruz for the IronPigs second run of the game and tied the score at two apiece.
With one out in the top of the sixth, Buddy Kennedy crushed a solo home run to left field which made the score 3-2 in favor of Lehigh Valley. This was Kennedy’s 10th home run of the season and would put him just a triple shy of the cycle.
Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, 1B Joey Meneses smacked a double down the right field line to lead off the inning, his first extra-base hit with Rochester this season. PR Erick Mejia came in to run for Meneses at second base and PH Jake Alu came to the plate for his first plate appearance since May 12th at Scranton/WB. The Garden State native singled to center field on a hanging breaking ball driving in Mejia to even the score at 3-3. With two outs, 2B Darren Baker singled to left field which advanced the winning run to second base with Dylan Crews coming to the plate. The LSU product laced a sharp ground ball up the middle 112.6 MPH that was stopped by the shortstop, who flipped it offline to second base, which allowed Dunn to come around third and score the winning run for the Cocos Locos, who came away with a 4-3 victory.
Right-hander Brad Lord made his fifth start for Rochester on Tuesday night. The South Florida product pitched 5.0 innings and allowed two earned runs on six hits while walking one and striking out four. Next to take the mound was RHP Joan Adon. The right-hander threw 1.0 inning allowing one run, one hit, and had one strikeout. LHP Joe La Sorsa came in for relief and tossed a 1.0 scoreless inning allowing one hit and one strikeout, lowering his ERA to a team-best 2.11 (min. 15 games). RHP Adonis Medina came in to man the eighth as he threw 1.0 inning, allowed one hit and struck out one, which lowered his ERA to 3.32 on the season. RHP Rico Garcia came in to throw the ninth as he threw 1.0 inning, walking one and striking out two. Garcia would pick up his fifth win of the season.
Tuesday night’s Diamond Pro Player of the Game goes to DH Travis Blankenhorn. The former third-round pick went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI, and a run scored. The homer was his team leading 20th of the season, and makes him tied for second-most in the International League. After slugging 23 homers in 2023, Blankenhorn is the first Rochester hitter to post back-to-back 20-homer seasons since Garrett Jones in 2005 (24) and 2006 (21).
Rochester looks to string together wins on Wednesday afternoon in the second of their six-game series against the IronPigs. Lehigh-Valley RHP Mick Abel will make the start for the IronPigs. The first pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.
Find the box score attached here.
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