The Rochester Red Wings cruised past the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 11-2, at Coca-Cola Park on Thursday night. Rochester has now won two of the first three games of this six-game series.
Cory Abbott made his seventh start of the season for Rochester and surrendered a pair of runs on one hit over 4 1/3 innings.
The Red Wings jumped out to an early lead in the second inning as Taylor Gushue smacked a solo home run over the left-field wall.
In the third, Nick Banks hammered one off the center-field wall for a two-run double, making it 3-0.
Ildemaro Vargas grounded one down the left-field line in the fourth for a run-scoring double. Then, Joey Meneses grounded one through the right side for an RBI single, increasing the lead to 5-0.
Rochester plated four more runs in the fifth on a couple of two-run home runs from Banks and Josh Palacios. In the home half of the frame, Chris Sharpe put Lehigh Valley on the board with an RBI groundout. Dalton Guthrie followed that with a run-scoring single to right to cut the Red Wings’ lead to 9-2.
In the eighth, Vargas launched a solo home run over the left-field wall to make it 10-2. Jake Noll capped off the scoring in the game with a sacrifice fly to right field.
Matt Brill, Matt Cronin, Curtis Taylor, Luis Avilan, and Francisco Perez all had scoreless outings out of the bullpen.
The Red Wings will go for their third consecutive win on Friday night with veteran pitcher Anibal Sanchez on the mound. The first pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].