Cayden Wallace spent Saturday afternoon turning a pregame plan into Rochester’s offensive blueprint. He doubled home the game’s first run, scored the next one and delivered the swing that restored the Red Wings’ control in a 7-3 victory over the Buffalo Bisons at Sahlen Field.
Wallace finished 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, three RBIs and two runs scored. His biggest hit came in the fifth, after Yohendrick Piñango’s solo homer had cut Rochester’s lead to 3-1.
Liover Peguero reached on an error, and Trey Lipscomb followed with a one-out single. Wallace drove Grant Rogers’ next offering over center fielder Daz Cameron’s head and to the wall. Peguero and Lipscomb scored without a throw, pushing the lead back to four runs.
Wallace had spoken before the game about Rochester’s need to answer after being held to one run the previous night.
“Yeah, I mean, tips to the guy on the mound last night. He threw well. We didn’t respond very well, but we got a bounce back today. We got a good group of guys, so excited for today’s game.”
— Cayden Wallace, Red Wings Third Baseman
The response began immediately. Seaver King opened the game by driving a line shot off the right-field wall for a double. After Lipscomb’s groundout moved him to third, Wallace sent a grounder off third baseman Nick Goodwin’s glove and into foul territory for an RBI double.
Leandro Pineda’s single brought Wallace home for a 2-0 lead. Rochester added another run in the second when Maxwell Romero Jr. doubled and scored on Lipscomb’s two-out single. Lipscomb was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double, but Romero crossed the plate before the tag.
That gave starter Zak Kent room to work. Kent allowed one earned run over four innings, striking out three and walking one. Buffalo put two runners aboard in the first and again in the second, but did not score in either inning. Piñango supplied the lone damage against Kent in the fourth, pulling a line-drive homer off the top of the pavilion in right and toward the parking garage.
Wallace answered an inning later with his second double, a sharp drive that provided the game’s defining separation.
His approach against Rogers was also consistent with what he had outlined before the first pitch.
“Yeah, we’ve faced him a couple times since I’ve been here. He’s thrown pretty well against us at times. Sometimes we’ve got him. So, you know, you’ve got to respect him. He’s a good pitcher and just have to stick to our approaches and just take it one at a time and one inning at a time and just try to get to the bullpen.”
— Cayden Wallace, Red Wings Third Baseman
Rogers completed six innings, but Rochester charged him with four earned runs. The Red Wings added a run against Yondrei Rojas in the eighth after Wallace walked, stole second and advanced twice on groundouts.
Joe Glassey earned the win with a scoreless fifth. He surrendered a leadoff single, then struck out each of the next three hitters. Clayton Beeter, Max Kranick and Kyle Nicolas kept Buffalo scoreless through the eighth, extending the bullpen’s shutout work to four innings.
Rochester added useful insurance in the ninth. Sam Petersen lined a ball into the right-center gap and reached second after his helmet flew off on the turn. Romero followed with a ground-ball single through the middle, and Petersen scored for a 7-1 lead. Romero went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
Buffalo scored twice against Jake Bird in the bottom of the inning on Anthony Santander’s RBI double and Cameron’s sacrifice fly. Gus Varland recorded the final two outs, ending the game by striking out Piñango.
The Red Wings finished with 10 hits and no errors, and Wallace supplied the shape of the afternoon: an early jolt, a decisive answer and three runs driven in when Rochester needed to take care of its own business.
“We’ve got our eyes focused on winning this game and going to Memphis, and it definitely gives us something to play for, for sure.”
— Cayden Wallace, Red Wings Third Baseman