The Rochester Red Wings completed a doubleheader sweep of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Saturday at Frontier Field. Rochester cruised to a 9-2 victory in Game 1 and then followed that with a 7-6 victory in extra innings.
In the first game, Sterling Sharp got the ball for the Red Wings and surrendered a pair of runs on four hits over three innings. Carson Teel, Sam Clay, and Carl Edwards Jr. combined for four scoreless innings in relief.
Joey Meneses crushed his sixth home run of the season over the wall in left-center to put Rochester up 1-0 in the second inning.
The RailRiders scored a pair of runs in the third to take the lead. Oswald Peraza and Estevan Florial smacked back-to-back RBI doubles. In the bottom half of the frame, the Red Wings quickly regained the lead. Luis Garcia launched a game-tying sacrifice fly to left and Jake Noll followed that with an RBI single to center.
Rochester extended its lead in the fourth. Cole Freeman drilled an RBI double and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.
The Red Wings added three more in the sixth to increase its lead. Garcia worked a bases-loaded walk, Meneses drove in a run with a groundout, and Andrew Stevenson capped off the scoring with a run-scoring single to center.
In the second game, Logan Verrett got the start for Rochester and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits over 4.2 innings while walking one and striking out four. The bullpen combined to allow two runs (one earned) over 5.1 innings.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre opened the scoring in the second inning after Jose Peraza lined an RBI single to center.
Joey Meneses put the Red Wings on the board in the third with a run-scoring infield single. Richard Urena followed that with an RBI groundout to put Rochester on top, 2-1.
However, Rochester’s lead didn’t last long as Phillip Evans belted a two-run home run over the left-field wall in the fourth to make it 3-2.
The RailRiders plated two more runs in the fifth to increase their lead to 5-2. Ronald Guzman smoked an RBI single to left and Rob Brantly smashed an RBI double to center. In the bottom half of the inning, the Red Wings tied the game. Urena and Tres Barrera each brought home a run with an RBI single.
Armando Alvarez hammered an RBI single to center in the ninth to put Scranton/Wilkes-Barre back in the lead. However, once again Rochester tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. Urena smoked an RBI single to left to make it a 7-7 game.
In the 10th, Josh Palacios grounded one through the right side for a walk-off single and the Red Wings completed the doubleheader sweep.
The two teams will wrap up the six-game series on Sunday afternoon. The first pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].