For seven innings, Rochester’s patchwork pitching plan carried a two-run lead and the Red Wings to the edge of a Triple-A championship. The bullpen that had become their strength finally gave way, first in the eighth and decisively when Alek Thomas cleared the bases in the 10th.
Thomas attacked Clayton Beeter’s first pitch and lined it into the left-center-field gap, sending all three runners home as the ball rolled to the wall. That swing put Oklahoma City ahead for good in a 5-3 victory Saturday at Las Vegas Ballpark.
Rochester entered the eighth leading 2-0, backed by seven scoreless innings from five pitchers. Manager Matt LeCroy had explained before the game how thoroughly the shape of his pitching staff had changed over the course of the season.
“But going in, we thought our rotation was going to be our biggest strength. Next thing you know, our bullpen ends up becoming that.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager
Eddy Yean walked James Tibbs III to begin the eighth, and Mike Sirota followed with a ground-ball single through the right side that brought Tibbs home. After Thomas sacrificed Sirota to second, Ryan Fitzgerald drove a sharp line toward the left-center-field wall. Sirota scored easily on the double, erasing the lead Rochester had protected since the second inning.
Yean was charged with two earned runs in two-thirds of an inning and a blown save. Kyle Nicolas stopped the rally and worked through the ninth, but Rochester could not cash in after putting runners at first and second with one out in the bottom of that inning.
The game moved to the 10th with De Paula starting at second for Oklahoma City. Beeter walked Tibbs and Sirota, bringing Thomas up with the bases loaded and nobody out. Thomas sent the first pitch into the gap, scoring De Paula, Tibbs and Sirota for a 5-2 lead. Beeter took the loss after allowing two earned runs and two walks without recording an out.
The Red Wings answered only once. Cayden Wallace opened the bottom of the 10th with an infield single, moving automatic runner Trey Lipscomb to third, but Riley Adams grounded into a double play that scored Lipscomb while emptying the bases. Leandro Pineda struck out to end it.
The late reversal spoiled an afternoon that had started with Pineda delivering once again. Wallace drew a two-out walk in the first and reached third on Adams’ sharp single before Pineda rolled a base hit through the right side. Wallace scored, and Rochester had its first lead.
Pineda finished 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI, another contribution from a player LeCroy viewed as essential to the Red Wings’ second-half run.
“I mean, I look at Pineda and what he’s done in the second half for us. I really feel like if Pineda don’t do what he did, then we may not be in the situation we’re in now.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager
Liover Peguero stretched the lead in the second with the game’s loudest swing. His drive climbed high toward left field, stayed fair and sailed well beyond the fence for a solo home run. Peguero went 2-for-4, and the 2-0 advantage held through seven.
Jack Cebert opened with two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out two. Jarlin Susana added two scoreless innings, and Joe Glassey, Max Kranick and Erick Mejia each handled one before Oklahoma City finally broke through against Yean.
The loss ended Rochester’s bid to add the Triple-A crown to the International League championship it had already secured, its first since 1997. That accomplishment, LeCroy said before the finale, belonged as much to Rochester as it did to the team.
“They’re passionate about winning, and we had a rough stretch over the last five years, and we talk about it all the time in spring training. It would be neat to really bring a championship back to Rochester, and we went out and did it.”
— Matt LeCroy, Red Wings Manager