RailRiders rally behind bullpen to take series
Aug. 7—MOOSIC — Unlike the last two games, when Rochester rallied from early deficits to steal wins from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, on Sunday, it was the Red Wings who grabbed an early lead.
Add in a couple of stellar double plays and it looked like Rochester might be able to steal a series split after the RailRiders won the first three games.
But Deivi García and the bullpen limited Rochester to one run after the third inning, Franchy Cordero's fly ball in the fifth had just enough juice to clear the wall in right and the RailRiders rallied for a 5-3 win over Rochester at PNC Field to take the series.
It's the first time Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has won four games in a series since the end of June, and it comes on the heels of losing five of six to Buffalo the previous week. They outscored the Red Wings, 31-24.
"It's something we wanted to do — after a tough week last week (in Buffalo), tried to come back and have a good game," said Cordero, whose two-run homer gave the RailRiders their first lead of the game. "We got the first three, they won the last two late in the game, so we tried to swing early and continue pushing to the end. I feel really good with the result this week."
The RailRiders elected to go with a bullpen day in the finale, and Rochester pushed across a run in the first inning against Zach Greene when Luis García doubled and Jake Noll singled him home. In the third inning, Paul Witt took advantage of some miscommunication in the SWB outfield and stretched a single into a double. With one out, García lifted a sacrifice fly off Ron Marinaccio to make it 2-0.
Deivi García pitched in the third game of the series and got just one out, giving up a couple of hits while walking three to let Rochester tie that game in the seventh before the RailRiders pulled out a win.
From his first pitch Sunday, manager Shelley Duncan could tell García was going to be different.
"First batter sets the tone for the whole thing, and first pitch sets the tone even more," Duncan said. "And he went at that dude with a fastball right over the plate to get ahead and then felt comfortable using all his pitches."
García dotted a 93.3-mph fastball on the outside corner to Jacob Nottingham before getting him to fly out to center to begin the fourth inning. It started a stretch of six up, six down for the righty, who struck out two.
"I was feeling really good," García said. "Really controlling my fastball. And mixing with the slider a little bit. I like that pitch. I want to throw it a little bit more."
Rochester managed just one hit from the fourth inning on, and it led to Witt's sacrifice fly in the seventh that momentarily cut the RailRiders' lead to one. Oswald Peraza bumped it back to two when he started the bottom of the inning with a rocket off the facing of the bridge in left field for his 13th home run of the season.
Aaron McGarity followed García with two innings of work, including a sixth inning where Cordero, with a slide in right field, and Everson Pereira, with a dive in center, contributed highlight reel-worthy catches on sinking line drives. Southpaw Anthony Misiewicz earned a two-inning save by striking out three of the seven batters he faced over the eighth and ninth innings.
The RailRiders threw six pitchers at the Red Wings, each with a different style and arm angle.
"As a hitter, that's tough," catcher Carlos Narvaez said. "Especially Graham (Johnson), the pitching coach, did a really good job today mixing Anthony, too. Because when you saw plenty of righties and then a lefty at the end, it's a huge change (to) the situation completely."
Early on, Rochester limited the RailRiders on offense. Starter Jackson Rutledge got help from his defense with double plays in three of the first four innings, and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the third with only one run coming home on a sacrifice fly by Andrés Chaparro.
Their go-ahead rally sparked with two outs in the fifth inning when Pereira launched a fly ball to deep left center that center fielder Cody Wilson lost in the sun at the last moment. Chaparro followed with a game-tying RBI single, then Cordero got enough of a slider from Rutledge to muscle it just over the wall in right field for a 4-2 lead on his ninth home run of the season.
"Was really proud the way it came out," Duncan said. "Four-and-two is a huge difference than three-and-three. They did it. And the bullpen, wonderful job."
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