Park, Wings top Tides

ROCHESTER — Byung Ho Park homered and knocked in three runs, helping the Rochester Red Wings to a 6-2 win over the Norfolk Tides Thursday night at Frontier Field. The win helped the Wings keep pace with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Lehigh Valley in the International League North and wild card races.

The teams meet again Friday night at 6:05 p.m., with an appearance by Bills Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas and the annual RPO/fireworks post-game event. Complete promotions details below….

In the bottom of the first inning with two outs, Jorge Polanco notched his 13th double of the season off Tides’ starter Mike Wright. Daniel Palka struck out swinging to wrap up the inning, stranding Polanco on second base.

After a hitless first inning, the Tides struck back in the top of the second inning. Christian Walker led off by blasting a home run to left-center field against Red Wings’ starter Pat Dean. With one out, Tommy Field made an impressive barehanded catch and threw to first base in order to secure the second out of the inning. With two outs, it looked as if the Red Wings were going to close out the inning with a routine popout to third base; however, an apparent miscommunication between Wilfredo Tovar and Field resulted in a base hit for the Tides. Dean was able to maintain his composure, and he struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Red Wings answered with a home run of their own in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, Field launched a 416 ft. home run to center field to tie up the game, 1-1. The home run was Field’s sixth of the season.

With one out in the bottom of the third inning, Darin Mastroianni started the momentum for Rochester with a single. Next up, James Beresford answered with a single of his own which allowed Mastroianni to advance to third base. During Jorge Polanco’s at-bat, he popped up to shallow left-center; however, no catch was made and Mastroianni scored the go-ahead run. The hit extended Polanco’s hitting streak to six games. The luck continued for the Red Wings when Palka hit a grounder that looked like it would turn into a double play, but a fielding error by Trey Mancini allowed Beresford to score. With two outs and runners on first and second base, Park notched a single of his own to drive in the Red Wings’ fourth run of the game. Entering the fourth inning , Rochester led 4-1 with six hits after three innings.

Tovar led off in the bottom of the fourth inning, and he was thrown out in a controversial play at third base. Tovar easily would have secured a double; however, his attempt for a triple resulted in the first out of the inning. Mastroianni obtained his second hit of the game, but the hit did not lead to any runs in the inning.

In the top of the fifth inning with one out, Michael Almanzar hit a double for the Tides. Despite the double, Norfolk was not able to make a comeback due to Dean’s pitching prowess. Dariel Alvarez struck out looking to end the inning, and he was ejected from the game for arguing the call. Through five innings, Dean had struck out seven batters .

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Adam Brett Walker was hit by a pitch with two outs. Park took advantage of the opportunity and hit his first home run of the season, and extended the Red Wings’ lead to 6-1 .

After giving up a hit to start off the top of the sixth inning, Dean was relieved by D.J. Baxendale. Baxendale quickly found himself in a runners on second and third base with no outs situation. Baxendale struck out L.J. Hoes for the first out of the inning, but a groundout enabled the Tides to notch their second run of the game. The run prompted another Rochester pitching change, and Ryan O’Rourke was brought in to relieve Baxendale. O’Rourke forced Mike Yastrzemski to pop out for the final out of the inning. Rochester led 6-2 going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

Dean (3-5) pitched five innings and allowed five hits, two runs, no walks, seven strikeouts and one home run. He threw 91 pitches, 62 for strikes.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Edgar Olmos entered the game to relieve Wright. Tovar wasted no time, and hit a double to start off the inning.

Wright (1-1) threw five innings with nine hits, six runs, four earned runs, no walks, four strikeouts and two home runs. He threw 87 pitches, 56 for strikes.

J.T. Chargois pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth innings, and Marcus Walden worked the ninth inning for the Wings. Walden set down the side in order, running his scoreless inning streak to 13.1 innings.


NOTES: 
Darin Mastroianni had two hits and has now hit in nine of his last 10 games…Jorge Polanco extended his hitting streak to six games…D.J. Baxendale extended his scoreless streak to 8.1 innings since being promoted to Triple-A.

Source: RochesterRedWings.com.