STAFF REPORTS
Pitcher Randy Dobnak celebrated his promotion from Double-A with six strikeouts in 6.0 scoreless innings, and Wilin Rosario‘s three home runs paced a 22-hit attack as the Rochester Red Wings thrashed the Norfolk Tides 16-3 Tuesday night at Frontier Field. The series continues Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m., with the highly anticipated Uncle Phil bobble head giveaway and another $1 Wednesday, with $1 Zweigle’s hot dogs, peanuts, chips, and Cracker Jack.
Wings starter Randy Dobnak cruised through the top of the first inning, recording two strikeouts looking.
In the bottom half of the first, Drew Maggi led off with his sixth homer of the year – a solo shot that just scraped over the left field wall, giving Rochester a 1-0 lead. Maggi became first Wing since John Andreoli on April 20 against Lehigh Valley to lead the game off with a homer; the hit extended Maggi’s on-base streak to 26 games.
After Dobnak got out of runners on first and third with one out in the top of the second, Rochester continued to hit off Tides starter Tyler Herb.
Tomas Telis started the inning with his first triple of the season. Alejandro De Aza knocked Telis in with sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead. Ronald Torreyes and Jimmy Kerrigan followed De Aza with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with one out. Maggi continued the hit parade with a single to left to bring in Torreyes, making the score 3-0. Kerrigan scored from third on a pick off throwing error by Herb, extending Rochester’s lead to 4-0. Nick Gordon hit a single to right, taking a wide round around first. The turn confused the Norfolk defense, who focused on Gordon but did not notice Maggi on third. Gordon was eventually tagged out on a 9-3-6-3-5-6 relay that allowed Maggi to score the fifth Rochester run. Jaylin Davis continued the two-out rally with the fifth consecutive single of the inning. Rochester’s offensive explosion was capped off with Wilin Rosario‘s 11th homer of the season, a 404-foot shot off the left field scoreboard to give the Wings a 7-0 lead.
Norfolk made a call to the bullpen in the bottom of the fourth, bringing in Matt Wotherspoon. Herb finished with 3.0 innings pitched, giving up 10 hits and seven earned runs on 68 pitches, 44 for strikes.
The pitching change did not phase the Wings offense, as Kerrigan started the inning with a double. Maggi knocked Kerrigan in with his third hit of the night for an 8-0. After Gordon lined out to shortstop, Davis recorded his third hit of the evening on a single. Rosario knocked Maggi in with an RBI double, and Zander Wiel capped the three-run inning with a sacrifice fly to left, extending Rochester’s lead to 10-0.
Dobnak had another quick inning in the top of the fifth, recording a 1-2-3 inning after a fielding error.
Maggi’s hot night continued in the bottom of the fifth, recording his third single of the night to plate Torreyes, who recorded a double with one out, making the score 11-0 Rochester.
Dobnak ran into some trouble in the top of the sixth, giving up back-to-back singles. The defense flashed their leather after the singles, as Maggi caught a Jace Peterson line drive to second and fired to Gordon at second to pick off DJ Stewart, securing the double play. Wiel shut the door with a vertical leap on a chopper to first, scraping the bag to secure the third out of the inning.
Rochester’s offense continued in the bottom of the sixth. After Davis led the inning off with a double, Rosario cleaned the bases with his second homer of the night and 12th of the year to deep center field, 13-0.
In the top of the seventh, Cody Allen came in to relieve Dobnak. Dobnak had a tremedous outing in his second career start at Frontier Field, throwing 6.0 innings and giving up only four hits. He walked two and struck out six while throwing 87 pitches, 54 for strikes.
In the top of the eighth, the Wings brought in Sam Clay on the mound. Allen finished with 1.0 inning of shutout ball, recording one strikeout.
The Tides scored one run in the top of the eighth off Clay on an RBI groundout by DJ Stewart, 13-1.
Rochester’s offensive continued in the bottom of the eighth as Rosario hit his third two-run homer of the night, making the score 15-1. After consecutive strikeouts, De Aza recorded a two-out single. Torreyes followed De Aza with his third hit of the night on an RBI double to produce a 16-1 lead. .
Preston Guilmet came in to relieve Clay before the bottom of the ninth. Clay’s outing consisted of one hit and one earned run over 1.0 innings of relief in his first relief appearance at Frontier Field. With one out, Rochester’s own Christopher Bostick hit a two-run homer to end the scoring for the night.