SYRACUSE – The double play ball was Nick Greenwood’s friend on Thursday night. The lefty induced four double play ground balls that helped him weave in and out of trouble as the Rochester Red Wings evaded the sweep against the Syracuse Chiefs with a 5-3 win on Thursday night.
Daniel Palka and Logan Schafer each had solo homers in the win.
Palka’s long ball came in the first inning off Chiefs’ (53-65) starter A.J. Cole. The ‘Cuse right-hander fell to 8-8 on the season but fanned 10 Wings over 7.1 innings while giving up three runs on seven hits.
Schafer led off the top half of the seventh frame with a solo shot pulled to right that made it 2-0 Rochester heading to the home half of the inning.
Greenwood was solid for the Wings (66-53). The southpaw notched the win as he gave up a pair of runs on eight hits with four punchouts in seven innings.
Greenwood (4-2) allowed a hit in six of seven innings pitched with the lone perfect frame coming in the second. However, he managed to induce the aforementioned four double play ground balls.
Greenwood has now produced 15 ground ball double plays in just 50.1 innings pitched for Rochester this season.
Syracuse finally broke through in the seventh. Matt den Dekker singled on a grounder up the middle that plated a pair of runs to tie the game 2-2.
The Wings tacked on one run in the eighth to break the tie and plated two more in the ninth.
Byron Buxton singled on a liner to left to lead off the eighth and would be sacrificed over by Tommy Field. After a Palka single, Reynaldo Rodriguez faced a runners on the corners at-bat with one out and grounded out to second but managed to beat out the double play attempt by a step allowing Buxton to score from third.
In the ninth it was recent Chattanooga call-ups that came through with the insurance runs. Mitch Garver doubled to deep center that scored Schafer, who led off with a single, all the way from first. Two batters later Leonardo Reginatto singled to left to plate Garver and make it 5-2.
After a quick eighth from Sean Burnett it was Pat Light who was called upon for the save in the ninth.
Light surrendered back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and den Dekker took advantage as he slapped a single to right to plate his third RBI of the night, which brought the winning run to the plate with one out.
Light got Jason Martinson down on strikes for the second out of the inning bringing up Zach Collier. A wild pitch moved the runners over but Light got Collier swinging through to end the game while picking up his ninth save.
Schafer wound up going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and the solo homer. Palka and Rodriguez were the other Wings to have multi-hit games as they each had two. Seven of nine batters in the order had at least one hit on the night.
From RochesterRedWings.com.
