LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The Rochester Red Wings scored three runs in the sixth inning to beat the Gwinnett Braves 5-3 Monday night at Coolray Field.
The win pulls the Red Wings (72-58) within 4.5 games of a wild card spot with 14 games to play after Lehigh Valley lost Monday. Rochester finishes the season with five games against the IronPigs.
The Braves (57-72) struck first as Sean Kazmar’s broken bat bloop single to center scored two runs against Andrew Albers (10-6). Tommy Field put the Wings on the board with a solo homer off Chris Ellis (4-5) in the fourth to make it 2-1 Gwinnett.
Byron Buxton opened the big sixth inning with a sharp infield single. Field was hit-by-pitch, Reynaldo Rodriguez walked to load the bases and Kennys Vargas followed with a walk to score a run and the Red Wings tied the game at 2-2 with just one ball put in play and nothing out of the infield. The Braves brought in Maikel Cleto to replace Ellis and he surrendered a sacrifice fly to Adam Brett Walker to give Rochester its first lead at 3-2. Logan Schafer followed with an RBI single to make it 4-2.
Gwinnett responded in the bottom half of the sixth after Albers recorded two quick outs. Back-to-back singles and an RBI double by Emerson Landoni made it 4-3 and put runners on second and third. The night was over for Albers as Jake Reed took over on the mound. Reed was able to induce a pop up to end the threat and strand both runners.
Albers struck out a season-high seven batters and allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk over 5.2 innings. He is now tied for third in the league with 10 wins.
John Ryan Murphy made it 5-3 with an RBI single in the eighth. Edward Mujica made his Wings debut with a scoreless bottom half of the inning.
The Braves tried to mount a rally in the ninth as Alex Wimmers walked two batters to put the tying run on base but Wimmers was able to notch a strikeout to earn his team-leading 11th save.