All-around game sends RailRiders past Rochester
Jun. 15—MOOSIC — They got six scoreless innings from their starting pitcher, then three more spotless frames from the bullpen.
All but one batter in the lineup got on base and many worked long at-bats. Of their 11 hits, four went for extra bases and one left the yard.
On defense, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders committed no errors and came up with big plays when needed.
"That was obviously one of the better games, I think, we played all season long," RailRiders manager Doug Davis said.
Hayden Wesneski earned his first win in a month, Tim Locastro drove in three runs and Estevan Florial knocked in two more as the RailRiders welcomed first-place Rochester to town with a 7-0 win Tuesday night at PNC Field.
"(Wesneski) hung in there and made a lot of good pitches against a very good lineup," Davis said. "That's a lineup that's formidable. They're in first place. They hit. They pitch well. It was a complete game. Well defended and well pitched and we got some key hits when we needed to. We just, I think, kept the pressure on pretty much all night long and finally got a couple of big hits there later in the game."
Wesneski struck out just one over his six innings, but he was most happy with the zero in the walks column. In four starts since beating Syracuse on May 14, the right-hander had walked 12 batters in 16 innings.
That wasn't an issue against Rochester (35-26). He scattered hits in each of the first three innings, then after Andrew Stevenson's bloop double with two outs in the third, retired the final 10 batters he faced.
"This one felt good. This was a feel-good outing," Wesneski said. "I know there wasn't punchouts, but I would rather take one punchout no walks than a bunch of punchouts and a couple walks. Just to be able to pound the strike zone, I know I got behind a few times during the game, but I worked my way back. It was nice to give the team a chance to win today."
Wesneski didn't get the majority of the run support until his day on the mound was done. Derek Dietrich stroked an RBI single to center in the second inning to get the RailRiders (24-37) on the board, but even though they had base runners in every inning, couldn't get another run home until the sixth.
Rochester starting pitcher Sterling Sharp, who came into the game with a 6.99 ERA, got a key double play in the third inning with two on, stranded a two-out double by Dietrich in the fourth, then got some luck in the fifth inning when, with runners on second and third with one out, the RailRiders ran into an out at the plate on the contact play. Over five innings, Sharp allowed one run on seven hits, walked two and struck out four.
Given another chance in the sixth inning against reliever Matt Brill, the RailRiders finally capitalized.
Phillip Evans led off with a single, Dietrich worked a one-out walk for his third time on base and Max McDowell reached on a broken-bat, infield single to load the bases. Locastro worked a walk to score one run, then Florial drilled a two-run single the opposite way to make it 4-0. Florial also doubled to lead off the game, giving him an eight-game hitting streak, tying the longest of the season for a RailRiders hitter.
Oswald Peraza's sacrifice fly made it a four-run sixth inning, then in the eighth, Locastro tacked on two more by driving his first home run of the season out to deep left-center field.
SWB reliever Vinny Nittoli worked around back-to-back hits to start the seventh and retired the final six batters he faced, striking out two. Zach Greene got the ninth and ended things quickly, needing just 13 pitches in a three-up, three-down inning. He struck out a pair.
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