Wings beat IronPigs in wild 16-inning game
ALLENTOWN, PA - Nate Hanson drove in Eric Farris with a one-out single in the 16th inning and the Rochester bullpen allowed five hits and six walks with 19 strikeouts in 10.1 scoreless innings as the Red Wings beat the Lehigh Valley IronPigs 6-5 Friday night at Coca-Cola Park.
The Red Wings (44-37) won despite having 29 consecutive batters retired from the fourth inning until Reynaldo Rodriguez walked to lead off the 15th. A perfect game consists of "only" 27 straight.
The game was played in 4 hours, 29 minutes and featured 263 pitches thrown by Rochester and 203 by Lehigh Valley. The Red Wings struck out 23 batters in 16.0 innings while the IronPigs (34-49) finished 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 14 men on base - 10 in extra innings.
Jose Berrios and Severino Gonzalez were the game starters and each allowed five runs. Berrios, making his first Triple-A start of the season, was charged with four earned on eight hits and a walk while striking out four in 5.2 innings. All of Gonzalez's runs were earned on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 7.0 innings. He surrendered two home runs.
Oswaldo Arcia hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Wings a 2-0 lead before the Pigs tied the game with two in the third. Rochester used a two-run homer from Eric Fryer as part of a three-run fourth inning to take a three-run advantage before Lehigh Valley scored twice in the fifth and once in the sixth to tie the game 5-5. That score would remain until the 16th.
The IronPigs had their chances in extras. In the 11th against A.J. Achter, the Pigs put a runner on second with one out before an intentional walk and back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning. Lehigh Valley had a runner on second with two outs in the 12th against Achter but couldn't push across the winning run and with Logan Darnell (2-0) on the bump to begin the 13th, the Pigs once again put a runner on second with less than two outs but failed to score. The IronPigs had a runner on second with two outs in the 14th but a strikeout ended the frame.
Rochester loaded the bases with two outs in the 15th inning but due to an ejection of Jose Martinez in the ninth inning and several double switches later in the game, Darnell had to bat for himself. He grounded into a force out, becoming the first Red Wings pitcher to hit since Chris Daigle struck out in the eighth inning on June 12, 2008 vs. Durham. Pitchers Mariano Gomez and Danny Graves also hit because the Red Wings did not have enough players to start a designated hitter.
Farris singled off of Chris Leroux (1-3) to begin the 16th and James Beresford dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move him to second base. Leroux then went 3-0 to Hanson before a 3-2 groundball single up the middle scored Farris.
Lehigh Valley had the tying run at third base with two outs before Darnell struck out Aaron Altherr looking on three pitches to end the game.
Lost in the madness was the dominant outing of Michael Tonkin who worked 3.0 perfect innings while striking out eight of the nine batters he faced including the first six. No Red Wing had more than one hit while Lehigh Valley's Tyler Henson went 4-for-8 with three doubles in defeat.
The same two teams will play each other Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in Rochester.