The minor league season closed out in April, and May has begun. The Rochester Red Wings on April 1st opened their home season with an Opening Day win over the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Shinnosuke Ogasawara started the game and notched his first win in Rochester with an explosive 10-1 win. Lehigh Valley won the rest of the games that first full week of baseball and has now won eight straight against Rochester.

Tuesday night started with high hopes. Cade Cavalli was going to start the game and start again on Sunday. The first inning went well. Cavalli struck out two batters, walked one, and retired the last batter on a fly ball to right. In the second inning, Garrett Stubbs hit a hard single in the middle, and then Buddy Kennedy was hit by a pitch. Oscar Mercado prepared the fans for what was coming the rest of the evening when he blasted a three-run homer. Cavalli did get the next three batters out, but every out was hit hard. Cade did not come out for the third inning and complained of a tired arm. When you are rehabbing, if you have an uneasy feeling, you are removed from the game at once. We heard today in Rochester that Cavalli will not start on Sunday, and his rehab has paused. The bullpen pitched the rest of the game, and after a scoreless third inning, the Iron Pigs scored in every inning the rest of the night for a 19-1 victory. The lone Red Wings’ highlight was Trey Lipscomb’s second home run of the year in the 4th inning. Rochester was 0-7 with RISP.

On Wednesday, it was Seth Shuman’s turn to take the mound, and it was his second start in AAA. Shuman’s pitching was spectacular. He pitched five shutout innings and gave up only one hit while walking two and striking out five. Daylen Lile made his first appearance in AAA Rochester and batted leadoff. He started the bottom of the first with a stand-up triple. However, he never scored and was stranded at third base. A glaring problem for Rochester has been hitting with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP). In the bottom of the second, Andrew Pinckney got his first of 2 hits and scored when Andrew Knizner hit a 2-out double down the left field line to give the Wings a 1-0 lead. An inning later, Brady House drilled his fifth “Brady Bomb” of the year over the left-center field fence.

Shuman pitched well through five innings to keep the International League’s first-place team off-balance by mixing his speed, changing the eye level of the batters, and locating his pitches with pinpoint precision. Shuman faced 19 batters and pounded the strike zone by throwing fifteen first-pitch strikes. Pat Weigel came in to pitch the 6th and 7th innings. Weigel gave up one hit and struck out five, for an excellent night of pitching. Konnor Pilkington pitched a scoreless 8th, giving up no hits, one walk, and striking out two. The Red Wings took a 2-0 lead into the 9th, and the three pitchers together combined for no runs, two hits, and 12 strikeouts. Jack Sinclair came in to close the game and to get his first save. It was not to be… After striking out the first batter, Kennedy hit a single. Josh Breaux hit a high fly ball that Lile lost in the lights and almost recovered, but the ball dropped for another hit. Rodolfo Castro singled, scoring the first run, and then Cade Fergus hit a three-run homer that gave the Iron Pigs a 4-2 lead and the win. It was a heartbreaking loss! In this game, Rochester was 1-13 RISP.

On Thursday, the Red Wings and Iron Pigs squared off for game three of the series. Andry Lara was pitching for the Wings. The Iron Pigs in the first had scored one run in the first with two outs when a fly ball was hit to left center, and the Red Wing outfielders miscommunicated, and the ball dropped between them, leading to a second run and a later third run in the inning. Lara had to leave the game due to injury with one and runners on second and third. Chase Solesky was summoned from the bullpen to take over for Lara. Solesky pitched 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on three hits while striking out 4. This is Solesky’s third good pitching effort in a row. Rob Hassell III led the offense, going 4-4 with the Wings’ only RBI. Pinckney had another multi-hit game, collecting two hits. In this game, Rochester was 1-6 with RISP.

In the first three games of this series, Rochester is 2-26 with RISP. That’s a batting average of .077. In Thursday’s game, the Red Wings had runners at first and third in the 3rd and 4th inning, and the bases loaded in the fifth with one out and never scored in those three innings. This needs to change!

Game four of the series is Friday at 6:05. Michael Soroka will be starting for Rochester.