Rochester Red Wings losing streak now at franchise-record 17 games: How it happened

During the nine-year period between 2011 and 2019, the Washington Nationals existed for one reason: To win a World Series.

No matter what it was going to take, just like it is for World Series or bust teams like the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox, winning the ring was all that mattered.

UPDATE:Red Wings losing streak reaches 18 and this loss was 'one of the toughest games'

Every year in that stretch, the Nationals finished either first or second in the NL East, and after making the playoffs four times without ever advancing to the NL Championship Series, it finally all came together in 2019 when Washington got hot at just the right time and went on to win the championship.

However, there was a price to be paid for that monumental victory and they’ve been paying for it ever since, both by the Nationals who are now the worst team in MLB, and their poorly stocked farm system which is headed by the Rochester Red Wings who haven’t won a game in three weeks.

Reasons for Red Wings losing streak run deep

There are many reasons why the Red Wings will open a six-game series at Frontier Field Tuesday night against Norfolk in the throes of an unfathomable franchise-record 17-game losing streak.

A lack of timely hitting, too many poor pitching performances, blown leads early, and blown leads late. Anything you can think of, really, has gone wrong for this team. They have been outscored 109-62; five of the losses were by one run; and in 11 games the Wings never held a lead.

More:CJ Abrams, top prospect in Juan Soto trade, to play in Rochester; 3 Red Wings called up

As a result, a team that was once 35-19 and leading the International League East Division by 3.5 games on June 5, has gone 12-39 since to fall to 47-58 and 12 games back.

Taking all of that into account, the bottom line is this: Once the Nationals began calling up the Wings’ best players, the lack of depth in the farm system that was needed to back fill the Red Wings roster simply isn’t ready for Triple-A, or is just not talented enough.

“The people that we had to give away (in trades) to get that World Series, these were big players,” Wings manager Matt LeCroy said Monday, naming star pitchers Lucas Giolito, Robbie Ray and Nick Pivetta among others. He didn’t mention others such as Blake Treinen, Reynaldo Lopez, Dane Dunning, Jesus Lazardo, Taylor Guilbeau, and Sheldon Neuse who were also used as trade chips along the way in the 20-teens.

It worked out great for the Nationals, but it gutted the prospect pipeline and Baseball America ranked Washington’s farm system 24th in 2019, 28th in 2020, 30th in 2021, and 26th this season.

“To win a World Series is what it's all about,” said LeCroy, who wasn’t looking for excuses. “Ultimately, that’s all that matters, and that’s the way it should be. But we lost some depth at the Double-A and Triple-A level.”

How the Red Wings losing streak began

The Wings’ problems began on a disastrous trip to St. Paul, Minnesota where they lost all six games in that series by a cumulative 44-18, and they have never recovered. That losing streak eventually reached eight which knocked them out of first place, and a couple weeks later they had another terrible series where they dropped five of six at home to Worcester.

Still, on the morning of July 16 they were 47-41 and tied for first. They haven’t won since.

It is staggering to comprehend this losing streak. It began with two losses at Frontier to Omaha leading into the All-Star break, and when they returned, they were swept three straight in Buffalo and now were four games in arrears.

Then came the calamity: A six-game home sweep at the hands of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, followed by a six-game road sweep at Columbus, bringing us to Tuesday night, 17 losses in tow, and any hopes for a playoff berth - something that hasn’t happened in Rochester since 2013 - essentially shattered.

“It's hard to explain,” LeCroy said. “You would think you would be able to grab a win here or there considering how many games we've been in. We really only had one game out of this stretch where we didn't really have a shot (a 12-5 loss to S/WB, though there was also a 9-2 loss to the Rail Raiders and a 13-7 loss to Omaha).

“It would be easy to sit here and scream and yell at these guys, but we talk and I’m trying to keep them at ease. I know they’re trying their best to be really good and be better. They grind and they work every day and they prepare and they play together as a group, but it’s just a weird stretch of games where we have to play perfectly to win and we’re not playing perfect.”

Home debut of CJ Abrams happens Tuesday for Rochester Red Wings

The hope for LeCroy is that last week’s titantic trade of Juan Soto will start to rebuild the farm system because the Nationals received some of San Diego’s best prospect talent.

“You trade away your best player, you get a lot of players for him, a lot of really good athletes,” LeCroy said. One of those is shortstop C.J. Abrams who will make his Frontier Field debut Tuesday.

Despite the gruesome losing streak, while the mood is obviously not great in the clubhouse, what LeCroy loves about his revolving door team is that no matter who is here, the attitude is not defeatist.

“I feel really good about the clubhouse; they pull for each other, there’s energy, there’s life, they want this to happen and as a manager you’re just trying to get them to relax and go out and play the way we know we can play,” LeCroy said.

“I want to win more than anybody in the world. I want to do it for the Red Wings, I want to do it for Naomi (Silver) and for our organization. We had a really good team (early) and we lost some players. But we have to deal with that and guys gotta go out and keep continuing to fight and hopefully get on a nice little roll.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Red Wings 17-game losing streak sets franchise record