Rochester Red Wings hit well in April, but the pitching staff had a rough time
Didn’t we all figure that this was going to happen? After one of the mildest winters Rochester has ever seen, our region has received its comeuppance with what was a mostly miserable month of April.
No one could attest to that more than the Rochester Red Wings who saw their home opener at Innovative Field postponed four straight days at the start of the month, and by the time the calendar mercifully flipped to May, the Wings had endured seven rainouts plus one game that had to be suspended and completed the next day.
Bad weather isn’t why the Wings finished the month with a mundane 12-12 record, but it sure didn’t help.
“The weather, with our starting pitching, has been kind of crazy, but just something you got to fight through,” manager Matt LeCroy said prior to Wednesday night’s 2-1 victory over the Syracuse Mets which came on a walk-off solo homer by catcher Drew Millas in the bottom of the ninth.
Not only was LeCroy’s pitching staff all messed up - both starters and relievers - the offense suffered as well because he said the team actually took live batting practice on the field only six times in April. More and more, teams are doing their batting practice in the indoor cages off high velocity machines, or simply honing their swing by hitting off a tee, but having so little live BP surely hurt the Wings a little.
So did the nonstop transaction wire as the parent Nationals have made moves almost daily - this is nothing new - that affect the Wings and the fact that three position players who were expected to be fixtures in the lineup - Trey Lipscomb, Jacob Young and Alex Call - are all up with Washington right now hasn’t helped LeCroy’s ballclub.
“That’s three impact guys for us that we were counting on that are up in the big leagues, which is good,” he said, eluding to the primary mission of the Triple-A team. “That also gives opportunities for people to get to play here and show what they can do.”
Here’s a look at how the first month went for the Wings:
Offense: James Wood is the real deal
The Nationals’ No. 2 prospect reached Triple-A this season and the 21-year-old is off to quite a start as he’s slashing .326/.434/.484 for an OPS of .918. He also has nine RBI and has stolen eight bases.
“Offensively he’s in a good spot and he’s learning as we go along,” LeCroy said of the 6-foot-6 outfielder who was part of the trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres in 2022. “The last two series we played some really good pitching and he’s had his good moments and his bad moments, but he’ll continue to learn. He’s got a chance to be an impact player in the big leagues, but there are some things that he has to work on here.”
Travis Blankenhorn has been great. Last year’s Red Wings MVP when he hit 23 homers and drove in 75 has picked up where he left off. He was named International League Player of the Week for April 15-21, and he was just chosen as the Nationals’ organizational Player of the Month. He leads the team with seven homers and 21 RBI, and he’s slashing .300/.388/.612 for an OPS of 1.011.
Outfielder Darren Baker didn’t have a starting spot when the season began because of the makeup of the roster and various prospects needing to play, but with all the moves that have been made, Baker has taken full advantage of his opportunities and is hitting .343 with a .417 on-base, 12 RBI and 11 stolen bases.
“We weren’t quite sure how much playing time he’d get with the guys that we had here that came up, but he’s bought into that role,” LeCroy said. “Now he’s getting to play and he’s had a pretty good season at the leadoff spot.”
And first baseman Juan Yepez has brought a veteran presence to the order as he has four homers, 17 RBI and an OPS of .839.
Red Wings: For nearly 70 years, Silver Stadium was the Wrigley Field of Rochester
Pitching: There are some problems to work out
Yes, the weather hasn’t helped the staff get into a groove, but there have also been some terrible performances through the first month which is why the Wings rank dead last in the 20-team IL with a hideous 6.06 ERA and an equally terrible 1.698 WHIP.
“At the beginning of the season we didn’t make some plays that kind of hurt us a little bit in one-run ballgames,” LeCroy said. “But I think our pitching will settle down. We need to find that bridge in the fifth and sixth innings; we’ve struggled in that middle part of the game some with our pitching.”
Case in point was Tuesday against Syracuse. The Wings opened a 4-1 lead and though starter Jackson Rutledge gave up a tying three-run homer, he got through five innings (just the second time a Wings starter has done that) only to see the Mets score nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings to run away with a 13-5 victory.
Rutledge, Joan Adon, Thaddeus Ward and Spenser Watkins have combined to start 17 games and Ward’s 5.19 ERA is the best of the bunch.
Meanwhile, the bullpen has blown three saves, it has a cumulative 6.16 ERA, and it ranks 19th in the IL with just 95 strikeouts, though part of that is Rochester has played a league-low 24 games.
“We need to get a few (starters) to go deeper in a game and that will help our bullpen and get us to those guys that we’ve been using when we’re winning,” LeCroy said, speaking of relievers like Jacob Barnes and Rico Garcia who have combined for four saves and have finished 12 of the first 14 games.
The 34-year-old journeyman Barnes, who has 269 MLB appearances on his resume, has been outstanding as he has pitched eight innings and allowed one hit and no runs not allowed, while Garcia has a 2.25 ERA in 12 innings.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Red Wings:A look back at how the team fared in April
