With the Red Wings down to their final four outs, Leandro Pineda ripped a two-strike line drive inside the left-field line and watched it roll into the corner. Andrew Pinckney followed with a full-count double into right-center, racing into second as Pineda scored. Cortland Lawson finished the job, shooting a ground ball up the middle and bringing Pinckney home from second.
Three consecutive two-out hits had turned a season on its head. Rochester went from trailing to celebrating a 3-2 victory over the Memphis Redbirds and the International League championship Thursday night at AutoZone Park.
Pinckney supplied the tying double. Lawson, a midgame injury replacement, delivered the hit that decided it.
The rally came one inning after Memphis had moved ahead for the first time. Ramon Mendoza lifted a double to right against Clayton Beeter, and Bligh Madris followed with a line drive down the right-field line that sent Mendoza home. Madris reached second standing, and the Red Wings suddenly were six outs from the end of their season.
Matt LeCroy had tried to prepare his players for precisely that sort of tension. Before the game, Rochester’s manager reminded them how uncommon the opportunity was.
“And I told him today, man, you don’t get to play many games like this in your career. Just enjoy it.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager
Enjoyment required endurance. Rochester outhit Memphis 12-3 but repeatedly failed to turn traffic into runs, leaving the Redbirds close enough to seize the lead with their only two-hit inning.
The Red Wings struck first, just as LeCroy had hoped. Seaver King walked to open the game, advanced to second on Trey Lipscomb’s single and reached third on a double play. Riley Adams then lined a two-out single into left, giving Rochester a 1-0 lead.
“You want to score first. You know, hopefully we can come out and have good at-bats in the first, like we did the first game.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager
More chances followed. King and Lipscomb opened the third with a single and a double, but neither scored. Rochester collected three more hits in the fifth and again came away empty, with Lipscomb caught stealing home to end the inning.
Memphis finally broke through against Jake Bird in the bottom of the fifth. Zach Levenson turned on a pitch and launched it high and deep toward left-center, erasing Rochester’s lead with his second homer of the series. It was the Redbirds’ first hit of the night.
That reflected how well Rochester’s bullpen game worked. Zak Kent opened with three scoreless innings, striking out three and walking one. Max Kranick handled the fourth, and Joe Glassey finished the fifth after Levenson’s home run. Erick Mejia struck out all three batters he faced in the sixth.
LeCroy had described the approach in simple terms before the winner-take-all game.
“So all hands on deck, you know, this is what you play for, and hopefully we can come out on top.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager
All eight Rochester pitchers were needed. Six did not allow an earned run, and the last two protected the lead created by Pineda, Pinckney and Lawson.
Kyle Nicolas worked around two walks in a scoreless eighth, striking out two before retiring Mendoza on a fly ball to right with two aboard. Eddy Yean made the ninth much quieter. Madris grounded out to Lawson, Chase Davis flew out to Pinckney, and Levenson grounded to Lawson for the final out and Yean’s save.
The Red Wings finished with no errors behind that patchwork pitching plan. Lipscomb went 3-for-5 with a double, while Pineda went 2-for-4 and scored the tying run.
But the championship belonged to Rochester’s final three hits of the eighth: Pineda into the corner, Pinckney into the gap and Lawson straight through the middle.