STAFF REPORTS
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders topped the Rochester Plates 6-2 on Thursday afternoon at Frontier Field, in front of a crowd of 7,187. The ballclub returns home to host Toledo (Tigers) and Charlotte (White Sox) starting on Tuesday.
Scranton wasted little time plating a pair of runs in the first inning against Rochester starting pitcher Chase De Jong, who was acquired from Seattle on Monday. After walking Ronald Torreyes, De Jong surrendered a two-run home run to Mike Ford to put the RailRiders ahead 2-0.
The Plates got a run back in the bottom half of the first after Taylor Motter and Willians Astudillo strung together a pair of doubles against Scranton starting pitcher Justus Sheffield. After Astudillo doubled home Motter, Mark Payton preserved the lead for Scranton after making a run saving catch, keeping the score at 2-1.
Rochester threatened in the second after Kennys Vargas and Edgar Corcino walked to begin the inning. A passed ball allowed the runners to move into scoring position but like the first inning, Sheffield worked out of the jam and retired the final two batters to end the inning.
A leadoff triple from Abiatal Avelino allowed Scranton to extend their lead in the fourth after Devyn Bolasky singled him home, making the score 3-1. Three batters later, Torreyes singled home Bolasky to extend the Scranton lead to 4-1. De Jong left the game with a pair of runners on base after just 3.2 innings. He allowed five runs on six hits while walking three and striking out four. He threw 79 pitches, 46 for strikes. DJ Baxendale came on to relieve De Jong and walked in a run (charged to De Jong), making the score 5-1.
In the sixth, Tyler Austin singled to end a streak of 12 consecutive batters retired by Sheffield, while also extending a hitting streak of his own to seven games. After loading the bases, Sheffield was removed from the game and replaced by David Sosebee who made his Triple-A debut. Sheffield went 5.2 innings allowing one run on three hits while walking four and striking out seven. He threw a season high 107 pitches, 61 for strikes. Sousbee got Corcino to ground out to end the threat.
Luke Bard came on to pitch in the seventh, replacing Baxendale who went 2.1 innings without allowing a hit.
After retiring the first batter in the eighth inning, Bard allowed three consecutive hits to Bolasky, Francisco Diaz, and Payton which extended the RailRiders lead to 6-1. Bard finished allowing the one run on three hits over two innings.
Astudillo got a run back for Rochester in the eighth after hitting his 10th home run of the season, cutting the Scranton lead to 6-2.
John Curtiss pitched the ninth inning for Rochester, allowing a single.
Winning pitcher: Sheffield (5-3)
Losing pitcher: De Jong (0-1)
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Losing pitcher: De Jong (0-1)
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Box Score: Click here for the box score and play-by-play narrative.
