STAFF REPORTS
Alejandro De Aza hit two more home runs, and the Rochester Plates reached the .500 mark after a 5-3 win over the first place Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders Thursday afternoon at Frontier Field.
Rochester starting pitcher Kohl Stewart found himself in a jam early in the ballgame. During the top of the second Stewart was in a bases load, one out situation. Stewart escaped the jam by striking out one and getting an inning-ending groundball.
The Plates got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run off Scranton/Wilkes-Barrie starter Daniel Camarena. Alejandro De Aza smashed a ball to right field landing in the Plates bullpen for his third home run with the Plates this season, making it a 1-0 lead for the Plates. This was the second straight game with a home run for De Aza.
Stewart recorded another scoreless inning in the top of the fourth. The highlight of the inning was third baseman Caleb Hamilton who dove to his left to stop the ball and threw to second for a force out.
In the bottom of the fourth the Plates strung back to back hits to begin the inning. Ramon Florescame to the plate in his first at-bat as a Red Wing, and delivered a double to score De Aza from first base for a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth Stewart recorded a 1-2-3 inning and another highlight play from Hamilton occurred. Hamilton again dove to his left to stop the ball and recorded the out at first to end the inning.
De Aza hit a two-run home run to right field, hitting the Hoselton Chevrolet sign at the top of the right field sign stack, giving the Plates a 4-0 lead. It was De Aza’s second home run of the day and his third hit of the game.
Scranton/Wilkes Barre got on the board in the top of the sixth. Francisco Arcia hit a sacrifice fly making it a 4-1 Plates lead. Stewart’s day was over in the sixth, Jake Reed was called upon to close out the top half of the sixth with two outs. Reed struck out the only batter he faced in the inning getting the Plates out of the first and third jam.
Stewart finished with 5.2 innings pitched, allowing six hits, one earned run, two walks and two strikeouts. He threw 87 pitches, 55 for strikes.
Scranton called to the bullpen to begin the bottom of the seventh after Camarena pitched six innings, giving up 10 hits, four earned runs, one walk, and four strikeouts. 70 of his 106 pitches were for strikes.
Jake Cave hit a solo home run to the left field bullpen to give the Plates a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh. It was Cave’s seventh home run with the Plates this season, it also extended his RBI streak to five games.
Reed struggled to begin the top half of the eighth. He hit the first batter of the inning then walked the next batter. Rochester opted for the bullpen, Reed’s day was finished. Fernando Romero came on in relief with two runners on and nobody out. Romero surrendered a walk to load the bases, then got Erik Kratz to hit into a double play which allowed a run to score making it a 5-2 ballgame. Romero then threw a wild pitch to allow another run to score, cutting the Plates lead to 5-3.
The first two batters for Scranton reached base safely to begin the top half of the ninth. With one batter out, Romero threw a wild pitch to advance the runner to second and third. He recovered and struck out Clint Frazier to secure the second out of the ninth. Sam Clay came in to relieve Romero with both runners in scoring position. Clay walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. Clay was down in the count 3-1 but he got Kratz to fly out to right to end the ballgame.
