Rochester Bats Explode To Power Red Wings Past Omaha
The Rochester Red Wings opened up their six-game series against Omaha with a huge night on offense, with a home run each from 2B Jack Dunn, 1B Joey Meneses, C Drew Millas, and 3B Brady House. On the mound, RHP Amos Willingham, LHP Tim Cate, and RHP Luis Reyes combined
The Rochester Red Wings opened up their six-game series against Omaha with a huge night on offense, with a home run each from 2B Jack Dunn, 1B Joey Meneses, C Drew Millas, and 3B Brady House. On the mound, RHP Amos Willingham, LHP Tim Cate, and RHP Luis Reyes combined to throw 3.0 scoreless innings in relief of RHP Kyle Luckham, who earned his first Triple-A win. Defensively, the Wings turned three double plays to extend their lead in the International League in that category to 91.
CF Dylan Crews kicked off the night for Rochester in the bottom of the first, when he pulled an 0-1 four-seamer through the left-field gap for a lead-off single. After back-to-back flyouts, Joey Meneses homered for the third time since joining Rochester on July 9th, giving the Red Wings an early 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third, the Rochester offense got back to work with a lead-off single from Drew Millas who advanced to second due to a throwing error. The next batter, Meneses recorded his second hit of the night, a line drive to center field that allowed Millas to score from second for the 3-0 lead. Brady House tacked on two more runs during the following at-bat with his second home run with the Wings and first at Innovative Field, a 420-foot bomb to give Rochester a 5-0 lead over Omaha.
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Omaha answered in the top of the fourth frame, led off by a single from CF Drew Waters via a hard-hit grounder up the middle. With one out and one on, DH Tyler Gentry recorded a base hit of his own with a grounder into right field to put runners on the corners. Following the second out of the frame, LF Nelson Velázquez launched his third home run of 2024 to cut into the Rochester lead, 5-3.
After a fielding error allowed Millas to reach first base for the second time in the contest, Meneses worked a four-pitch walk to give Rochester two base runners with no outs in the bottom of the fifth. During the following plate appearance, Omaha committed an obstruction error on a stolen base attempt, which put two runners in scoring position with still no outs. The following batter, House, slapped a 1-1 sweeper to center field for a single that was immediately followed by a fielding error, which brought both runners around to score to balloon the Rochester lead to 7-3. After a pop-out, RF Stone Garrett drove a ball deep enough to left field to score House from third and extend the Rochester advantage to 8-3. Rochester kept the inning alive with back-to-back two-out walks, leading to a double from Crews which plated the runner on second to build the lead to six runs.
After the first two batters of the sixth inning worked walks, House chopped a four-seamer back to the pitcher who committed the fourth defensive error for Omaha. With this error, the runner on second came all the way around to expand the deficit to 10-3 in favor of the Red Wings. DH Carter Kieboomthen flew out to left field but gave Meneses enough time to score from third to make the score 11-3. With still only one out in the inning, Jack Dunn drove a 2-2 fastball over the wall in center field for a two-run shot, his seventh homer of the season, to give Rochester a 13-3 advantage.
1B Nick Pratto led off the top of the seventh for Omaha with a double to right field on an 0-2 curveball. With the help of a wild pitch during the following at-bat, Pratto advanced to third. Following a strikeout, SS Cam Devanney grounded out to short but allowed the runner to cross the plate to fight back to a 13-4 score.
Crews recorded his third hit of the contest to lead off the bottom of the seventh for the Wings. Following a strikeout, Millas pulled the first pitch he saw in the at-bat down the first base line and into the bullpen in right field for his seventh home run of the season to pour onto the Rochester edge, 15-4.
The score remained the same into the ninth inning, where the Storm Chasers attempted to stage a comeback despite the nine-run deficit. RHP Luis Reyesstruck out one batter and induced a pop-out to the final batter to ensure the 15-4 win for the Red Wings.
Right-hander Kyle Luckham took the mound first on Tuesday Night, making his second start with the Red Wings. The Arizona State alum tossed 5.0 innings and tallied four strikeouts and just one walk, on five hits and three earned runs. Amos Willingham entered the game to start the sixth frame for the Wings, making his 36th appearance of the season. The Georgia native turned in 1.0 inning with one strikeout and one hit in the appearance. RHP Ty Tice entered in relief in the seventh and allowed one hit and one earned run in his 1.0 inning appearance, as well as striking out two Omaha batters. Tim Cate appeared in the top of the eighth and threw a scoreless 1.0 inning, striking out one batter, walking one, and giving up one hit. Luis Reyes received the task of the final inning during which he went one, two, three to seal the Rochester victory with two strikeouts.
The Diamond Pro Player of the Game goes to 3B Brady House on Tuesday Night. The former first-round draft pick finished the contest 2-for-4 with a home run, four RBI, three runs scored, and a walk. The 420-foot shot marks his first at Innovative Field and is tied for the 16th-farthest home run hit by a Red Wing this season.
The Red Wings look to make it three consecutive wins in a Wednesday matinée against Omaha. RHP Jackson Rutledge is slated to make the start for Rochester, against Storm Chasers southpaw LHP Noah Cameron. First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m.
Find the box score attached here.
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