Red Wings win series final

BY MIKE ROSE

Rochester, NY — The Rochester Red Wings (5-1, 43-36) have made comebacks a habit of late and they did it again as they came back to defeat the Indianapolis Indians (1-5, 34-45) 12-8. In the up-and-down affair, the Red Wings had to work their way out of an 8-4 hole in the fourth inning. This was the Red Wings’ fifth comeback win in the series.

“I think that’s kind of been the identity of our team this season,” Red Wings SS Jackson Cluff said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. I think we just have the mentality that any time we get a lead, we’re going to try to have a good shot and fight our way back in the game. We obviously have some guys at the top of our lineup that can change the game here or there with a shot. So we just tried to fight and keep ourselves in the game.”

Cluff was the man who changed the game today, going 2-for-2 with five RBIs. The five RBIs were a professional career high for the Red Wings SS, surpassing his performance of four RBIs earlier this month on June 4.

The game started off back and forth as both offenses played skewed numbers early on. Rochester opened the scoring with a solo home run by Riley Adams in the first inning. The Indians didn’t take long to respond as Dylan Shockley hit his first Triple-A home run, a three-run shot that made it 3-1 for the Indians. The back and forth continued in the second half of the inning as Cluff hit a three-run home run just over the right field wall to put the Red Wings back in the lead. Cluff wasn’t sure at first if the ball would travel the necessary distance.

“I just wanted to get the ball to the outfield and get a sacrifice fly or hopefully an extra-base hit, so I was just trying to look for a ball, and luckily he threw me a changeup on the first pitch and I was able to get the ball out,” Cluff said. “I think the wind helped a little bit. I didn’t think I was going to hit it right off the bat, but I knew it was going to do the job to get the run in. I was hoping maybe it would hit the wall, and before I knew it, it was over.”

Malcolm Nunez scored on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to tie the game before Seth Beer hit Indianapolis’ second three-run home run of the day to make it 7-4. Red Wings starter Josiah Gray managed to get out of the inning without further injury, but that meant the end of his day. The Nationals’ 2023 representative on the National League All-Star team made his second start in rehab but was unable to build on his success from Tuesday. He pitched six innings with one run in Tuesday’s win. On Sunday, he allowed seven earned runs on six hits, including the two three-run blasts.

Although Gray dug them a deep hole, the Red Wings fought back. After Indianapolis scored another goal in the fourth inning to extend their lead, the Red Wings responded in the second half. After a base hit by Juan Yepez, Trey Lipscomb hit an RBI double into the left field corner to make the score 8-5. Then in the sixth inning it was Cluff again who got lucky with a fly ball into right field that Ji Hwan Bae misjudged and led to an RBI triple. In the seventh inning, things finally went downhill for the Indians.

Dylan Crews opened the inning with a single, followed by Adams working a walk with one out. Travis Blankenhorn was then hit to load the bases so Carter Kieboom could hit a two-run single and tie the game. With the bases loaded again, Cluff faced Indianapolis pitcher Ryder Ryan with a chance to give the Red Wings the lead.

“Luckily, I saw Ryder earlier in the week, so I had a pretty good idea of ​​how he was going to attack me,” Cluff said. “I was just trying to look for a fastball because I wanted to get him to locate his offspeed, and he wasn’t doing that at that point.”

Four pitches later, Ryan walked the decisive run to complete the Red Wings’ comeback. Rochester scored three more runs in the eighth inning to finally decide the game. The Rochester bats benefited from a strong performance by the bullpen to relieve Gray.

After Joe La Sorsa allowed a run in the fourth inning, he, along with Eduardo Salazar, Joan Adon and Rico Garcia, managed a shutout for Indianapolis from the fifth inning to the end.

“When you lose your starter pretty early, you start worrying about how you’re going to replace him, and then you start thinking about the next couple of days because we’re done,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “But our bullpen did a good job of keeping the game on track.”

The Red Wings finished their first series of the second half with five wins in six games and have won seven of eight games since the end of the last series against Syracuse. They currently sit atop the International League standings.

“There’s a lot of good things about this series, but for me it was a must-win so we can carry the momentum into Buffalo,” LeCroy said. “Hopefully we can all keep playing together. As a group, they pull for each other and hold each other accountable, and it’s been really fun to watch.”

Rochester will join the entire International League in a split series next week starting Monday. The Red Wings will head to Buffalo to play three games against the Bisons before returning home for three games as the league works around the July 4 holiday this week. Brad Lord (1-0, 3.60) is scheduled to make his second Triple-A start for the Red Wings, while Buffalo is expected to play a bullpen game, the opening game of which has not yet been announced. First pitch from Sahlen Field is set for 6:35 p.m.