By: Liam Hoffmann
ROCHESTER, NY-- The Rochester Red Wings struggled on both sides of the ball in their 10-0 loss to the Scranton Wilkes/Barre RailRiders Tuesday night. Rochester managed only two hits in the game, while a second-inning grand slam by Scranton Wilkes/Barre's Oswald Peraza gave them an assertive 5-0 lead that generated momentum that carried through all nine innings. In all, eight of the RailRiders' ten runs were scored with two outs.
"You play 150 games and you're going to have games where you don't really have much of a shot, you've got to learn to flush a loss," Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. "You respect the loss, but you've got to learn how to flush it."
Riley Adams extended his hitting streak to five with his second-inning single. Darren Baker added a double in the eighth and alongside him was Alex Call as the only Red Wings to get into scoring position. Finally, Jack Dunn was the lone Red Wing to reach base twice with his two walks.
Jackson Rutledge was the Wings' starter and allowed nine earned runs including the homer on nine hits across 4.2 innings. Nine surrendered runs was the most by Rutledge since April 23. He also had four strikeouts and three walks. In relief, T.J. Zeuch let in another home run.
"Rut (Rutledge) was battling, but he made too many mistakes towards the middle of the plate in spots where they did damage," LeCroy said.
The RailRiders' lead ballooned from one run to five in the second inning from Peraza's grand slam. TJ Rumfield led off with a single before Rutledge struck out the next two. Rutledge then walked two batters and loaded the bases for Peraza, who had no home runs in AAA on the season before his grand slam.
"Peraza is one of the best minor league players that I've seen coming up," LeCroy said. "He elevated a breaking ball, gets a grand slam so we're down in a hole."
In the fifth inning, they tacked on four more runs behind six hits including four straight RBI singles. All four runs were let on base by Rutledge, but his day ended when Zeuch relieved him with two outs. Zeuch pitched through the final two scored runs before getting out number three and settling the score at 9-0.
To start the game, RailRiders' Jorbit Vivas and Peraza both got on base which gave Jasson Domínguez runners on the corners. Domínguez's RBI-fielder's choice scored Vivas to put Scranton Wilkes/Barre up 1-0 early on.
On the fourth pitch of the seventh, Rumfield hit a solo home run for the last run of the game that made the score 10-0.
The two sides have an early start tomorrow with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. Andrew Alvarez (0-1, 20.25) is expected to make his second career AAA start for Rochester. Josh Maciejewski (1-1, 4.50) is probable to start for the RailRiders.