Greenwood spins gem for Red Wings

Nick Greenwood's one bad pitch ended one really good night for the hurler.

The Twins left-hander carried a no-hitter into the seventh Saturday night as Triple-A Rochester outlasted Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 5-4, in 11 innings at PNC Field.

Greenwood cruised through six innings, allowing just one baserunner on a one-out walk to Kyle Higashioka in the second. The 28-year-old southpaw retired 16 straight after that before former Red Wing Chris Parmelee ended the no-hit bid with a two-out double in the seventh. Higashioka followed with a two-run homer to break up the shutout.

"I got ahead, 1-2, the call was for a slider. It was just one of those right when it came out of my hand I knew it was gonna be trouble," Greenwood said. "I kind of just hung the pitch. I'm gonna be kicking myself a little while with that pitch, but that's baseball."

Greenwood walked Yankees top prospect Clint Frazier before retiring Jake Cave on a inning-ending groundout on which shortstop Wilfredo Tovar made a diving play.

"The home run happened and then I walked the next guy," Greenwood said. "Lefty coming up, 0-0 fastball and hit a chopper over me and Wilfredo make a sliding play. Great play to pick me up. Unfortunate that the inning spiraled away from me there, but I would have been mad if I hadn't been able to finish the inning."

The Connecticut native ended up allowing two runs on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts over seven innings.

"I think I was able to get ahead early with my fastball," Greenwood said. "Kind of makes it a little easier when you're ahead in the count. Pretty good sinker, so I got a pretty good amount of ground balls."

Saturday was Greenwood's sixth straight start of at least seven innings, a point of pride for the University of Rhode Island product.

"Obviously, my plan is to go nine innings every time," he said. "We have a short 'pen, so I just try to help them out. I know what it's like to be a bullpen guy when you're down a guy. Last couple of starts have been working out in keeping my pitch count down, getting quick outs and early strikes."

Alan Busenitz took over in the eighth and gave up two runs on three hits and a walk while fanning one in one inning. Jake Reed (1-1) allowed one hit over the next two frames to get the win before Edward Mujica worked around a pair of hits by striking out three in the 11th for his 24th save.

Byron Buxton extended his home run streak to four games with a solo shot in the sixth for the Red Wings.

"He has a great swing. He has ridiculous power," Greenwood said. "He's kind of in the zone right now and he's a great player. He's fun to watch. He made a really nice play for me in the outfield. It's a ball that I think is normally a double and he ran it down. He can do pretty much everything."

Tovar finished 2-for-4 and drove in the go-ahead run in the 11th, while Twins No. 15 prospect Adam Walker contributed two hits and an RBI for Rochester.

Parmelee was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for the RailRiders.