The Force was with the Rochester Red Wings (34-21) on Saturday night, defeating the Syracuse Mets (28-27) 5-3, giving Rochester their fourth consecutive series win for the first time since 2019. The win came on the back of an offensive strike from both DH Abimelec Ortiz and SS Seaver King, who registered three hits and an RBI apiece. The victory maintained the Red Wings position atop the International League standings as they continued their quest for a first-half title.
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After both teams traded zeroes through the first two innings, Rochester took a 1-0 lead in the third inning courtesy of a 417-foot blast off the bat of Seaver King for his second Triple-A homer.
After three scoreless innings, the Red Wings tripled their lead in the sixth. LF Andrew Pinckney singled to lead off the inning and then advanced to third on a double laced off the right field fence by RF Joey Wiemer. CF Robert Hassell III advanced Wiemer to third and brought Pinckney across the plate on a slow jam shot in the infield to make it a two-run advantage for the Wings. 2B Trey Lipscomb capped off the bottom half of the frame with a sacrifice fly to score Wiemer to make it a three-run Red Wings lead.
With Syracuse still scoreless, the Wings looked for an offensive implosion coming to bat in the following inning. King singled for his third hit of the game to lead off the inning, which was followed by a low liner to center field from 1B Yohandy Morales. The single skipped by the Syracuse center fielder and trickled back just short of the warning track, allowing King to score easily and Morales to track around to third base. Ortiz joined King in the three-hit club by powering a single up the middle to score YoYo and make it 5-0 Rochester.
In the top half of the eighth, Syracuse struck back. 1B Ryan Clifford led off the inning with a single, and 3B Andy Ibañez kept the line moving with a hit of his own to make it first and second with no outs. Then there was an abrupt disturbance in the force at the plate. After a pair of walks on nine pitches to Hernandez and Pache, the Mets cut the lead to four and forced a Rochester pitching change. Syracuse would add another courtesy of a wild pitch and another walk to make it 5-2 Rochester. RHP Eddy Yean came on to put out the fire and strand the bases loaded.
The Mets had one last push in the top of the ninth following a homer via 2B Christian Arroyo, but LHP Zach Penrod and company shut down the late surge from Syracuse and sealed their 34th win of the season with a final score of 5-2.
RHP Luis Perales started his ninth game of the season on Saturday. The former Worcester Red Sox put in 3.0 scoreless innings of work, allowing two hits and throwing two strikeouts. RHP Trevor Gott replaced Perales early in the fourth. The Kentucky native allowed two hits, no runs, and threw two strikeouts in 2.0 innings. Gott is now 3-0 on the season. RHP Jack Sinclair took the mound in the sixth inning. The Central Florida alum allowed two hits on seven batters faced, and threw 17 strikes out of his 28 pitches in 1.2 innings. Southpaw PJ Poulin replaced Sincalir in the seventh, marking his second appearance for Rochester this season. The former Colorado Rockies arm allowed one run on two hits in 0.1 inning. In an effort to slow a late Syracuse surge, Eddy Yean was summoned to the mound in the eighth. In 1.0 inning, the Dominican Republic-born righty threw two strikeouts on four batters faced. Left-hander Zach Penrod replaced Yean in the ninth. The southpaw picked up his third save of the season in 1.0 inning. Penrod allowed a homer in the ninth before closing the game out to seal the victory.
The Rochester Red Wings Player of the Game is SS Seaver King. In his ninth appearance for Rochester this season, the Wake Forest alum logged three hits, scoring two runs in the process, including his second Triple-A home run of the season. The 23-year-old from Georgia now has 12 hits and 10 RBI through his first nine games as a Red Wing, batting .343 with a .400 OBP.
The Red Wings will look to make it three in a row and take five of six against Syracuse in their series finale Sunday afternoon. Rochester will send RHP Andry Lara to the hill; opposing him will be RHP Jack Weisenburger. The first pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m.
Find the box score attached HERE.
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