Upstate Update

Written by: Justin Murphy on 10th June 2009

Upstate Update | read this item

We’re catching up with the Red Wings here after a week’s absence, and things have not looked bright in the meantime. After winning a series in Lehigh Valley to move to 25-24, the Wings came back to New York for an eight-game homestand and proceeded to stink up the joint, losing five consecutive matches to Gwinnett and Syracuse.

On June 3, Rochester kicked off their set with the Triple-A Braves, and the latter wasted no time in roughing up starter Brian Duensing. He allowed four runs in the first inning and exited after eight runs in four frames. Offensively, the Wings managed only four hits: three singles and a David Winfree home run.

The following night, the batters were back up to speed, but the pitching had regressed, and Rochester was pounded again, this time 12-5. Starter Jason Jones was touched for eight runs in three innings, and Juan Morillo surrendered three more in one inning of relief. The Braves’ top four hitters, including recently demoted Jordan Schafer, went 10-16 with nine runs and six RBIs. Rochester’s Brock Peterson had three hits, and Steve Tolleson banged out his first Triple-A home run. Winfree singled and scored, but also committed a three-run error in the first inning.

Trying to tie the series up on Friday night in front of 10,000+ fans, the Wings instead let a pair of leads slip away, and lost after a four run Braves rally in the seventh. Rochester put up three runs in the first inning, but allowed Gwinnett to tie the score at four in the third inning with a cluster of hits off Kevin Mulvey. In the sixth, Winfree doubled home Justin Huber, and was in turn plated by Drew Butera to recapture the lead. Rob Delaney, however, got battered in the seventh inning, in particular by Reid Gorecki‘s second homer of the game.

Tolleson had three hits, and Butera and Jose Morales had a pair each. Mulvey lasted six innings, struck out six and walked the same amount. Delaney, in his second International League appearance, took the loss. In the series, the Wings were outscored 34-17, with 11 of those runs being surrendered by the bullpen.

At that point, Gwinnett mercifully vacated the visitors’ clubhouse, and was replaced by Syracuse. Any hopes of a quick turnaround, however, were quashed in the first inning on Saturday, when spot starter Bobby Keppel put his team in a hole by allowing two early runs. The Wings came back in their half of the frame with a pair of their own, courtesy of a Trevor Plouffe double, but the Chiefs regained the lead in the second on a Corey Patterson base hit, and that one run proved to be the difference in a 3-2 loss.

The Red Wings had a glorious opportunity in the eighth inning, with the bases loaded and none out, but Morales and Huber struck out and Matt Macri flied out. Again in the ninth, there were two men aboard and just one out, but Tommy Watkins and Jason Pridie failed to convert, and the game was over. Jim Mandelaro managed to convey some of his slowly building frustration at his Extra Bases blog.

Perhaps fatigued from their showing the previous night, the Wings were positively mauled in the second game of the series, losing 11-4. Phillip Humber gave up six runs in the first three innings, and the bullpen allowed five more. Winfree and Tolleson stayed hot, collecting five hits between them, and Pridie rapped out three of his own.

And, finally, to end with some good news, the Wings won the last two of their four with Syracuse, and the last two of the eight-game homestand. On June 8, Brian Duensing gave the home team a much-needed quality start, lasting eight innings and allowing three runs. The Wings tied the game at 3 in the ninth on a Jason Pridie sac fly, and won it in the 11th on an RBI single from Morales. Rochester also loaded the bases in the tenth, but Huber was cut down at the plate for the third out. The team had 15 hits to Syracuse’s four, but stranded 12 men and were just 3-11 with runners in scoring position.

The following day, Rochester again went into extra innings, and again emerged victorious. This time, Jason Jones set the Chiefs out to a 7-1 lead early, but the Red Wings responded with a big rally in the fourth inning, capped by a three-run homer from Macri; they eventually tied it at seven in the seventh inning on a Winfree hit.

Syracuse reclaimed the lead off Armando Gabino, but Plouffe drove in Tolleson in the eighth, and Pridie hit an RBI double in the bottom of the tenth for the victory, which was credited to Morillo after a pair of scoreless innings. Macri collected four hits.

Tolleson, only recently called up from New Britain, has reached base in all of his last ten games, and is hitting .333 in that stretch.Winfree is 7-13 in the last three games, and Macri may be breaking out of an extended slump. Rochester’s biggest problem continues to be the pitching; the staff is second-to-last in the International League with a 1.45 WHIP. Minus his one poor appearance, Delaney will hopefully bolster the problematic bullpen, as will a demotion (Anthony Swarzak? Francisco Liriano?) from Minnesota after Glen Perkins comes off the DL. Last week, the group took another hit when Mike Gosling exercised an out clause in his contract and became a free agent.

Luke Hughes finally played again last week after sitting out 15 games with an oblique strain, then promptly exited once more after tweaking it. He may not be back in the lineup anytime soon, which could in turn persuade Minnesota to promote Danny Valencia from Double-A. The Red Wings are currently 28-29, six games behind first place Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. This week, they’ll hit the road for four games in Toledo (25-34) and four more in Columbus (30-29).

Topics: Anthony Swarzak, Armando Gabino, Bobby Keppel, Brian Duensing, Brock Peterson, Corey Patterson, Danny Valencia, David Winfree, Drew Butera, Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins, Jason Jones, Jason Pridie, jordan schafer, Jose Morales, Juan Morillo, Justin Huber, Kevin Mulvey, Luke Hughes, Matt Macri, Mike Gosling, Minnesota Twins, Phillip Humber, Reid Gorecki, Rob Delaney, Rochester Red Wings, Steve Tolleson, Tommy Watkins, Trevor Plouffe, Upstate Update