STAFF REPORTS
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — No-hit through six and shut out through seven frames, Rochester got a pair of solo home runs in the 9th inning from Miguel Sano and Willians Astudillo to beat Lehigh Valley 3-2 Wednesday night at Coca-Cola Park.
The win by the Red Wings (22-18) snapped a 10-game home winning streak for the IronPigs (25-18). The homers came off of Lehigh Valley closer Pedro Beato (0-1), who had converted his previous 27 save opportunities dating back to last season.
Rochester struggled to get any offense going against Tom Eshelman, who carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. The only baserunner to reach against him was Taylor Featherston, who reached on a two-out hit-by-pitch in the 3rd inning.
Red Wings starter Zack Littell had surrendered just one hit and one walk through four scoreless innings before Trevor Plouffe led off the 5th with a solo home run to open the scoring. The IronPigs would extend their lead to 2-0 on a Joey Meneses sacrifice fly in the 6th.
Nick Gordon, who was making his first Triple-A start, ended the no-hit bid by hitting a single to begin the 7th inning. Sano followed with a single to put two on with nobody out but the Wings would not score in the frame.
Littell was replaced by Nick Anderson, who struck out the side in the 7th. Littell was charged with two runs on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over 6.0 innings.
Eshelman started the 8th inning and served up the first of Astudillo’s home runs. Nick Bussfollowed with a single and Eshelman was taken out of the game. He allowed the one run on four hits while striking out two over 7.0+ innings.
Sano hit the first pitch of the 9th inning out to tie the game off Beato and Astudillo went deep with two outs to complete the rally.
John Curtiss (2-0) fired 2.0 scoreless innings to earn the win, though the IronPigs pushed the tying run to second base with one out and had the winning run on first base with two away.
Stephen Gonsalves starts for the Red Wings on Thursday as Rochester looks to split the four-game set.
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