Seabold Dazzles in Series Finale, WooSox Fall 7-4
WORCESTER, M.A. — The Rochester Red Wings (24-12) came up with five late runs to complete a series sweep against the Worcester Red Sox (15-21), a 7-4 win in ten innings for the road team at Polar Park on Sunday afternoon. On the mound, WooSox starter Connor Seabold delivered a
WORCESTER, M.A. — The Rochester Red Wings (24-12) came up with five late runs to complete a series sweep against the Worcester Red Sox (15-21), a 7-4 win in ten innings for the road team at Polar Park on Sunday afternoon.
On the mound, WooSox starter Connor Seabold delivered a Triple-A career-high 11 strikeouts across six scoreless innings. The right-hander allowed just one hit and one walk, tossing 66 strikes in 92 pitches (72%). At one point, Seabold retired seven straight Rochester batters, five of which came via the strikeout, part of a performance that made him the fourth International League pitcher to reach double-digit Ks in a ballgame this year.
In seven starts, the 26-year-old has a 2.45 ERA in 36.2 innings and a 37/10 strikeout/walk ratio.
6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 11 K, 1 BB
— Worcester Red Sox (@WooSox) May 15, 2022
Must be the stache 🔥 pic.twitter.com/alajzGRI50
Offensively, Worcester got a pair of early runs after putting runners on the corners in the second. With two outs, Jeter Downs hit a slow ground ball to first—the throw went to second and was late, allowing Yolmer Sanchez to score. After a walk and an error on a pickoff attempt, Rob Refsnyder smacked a sac-fly to center, plating Downs from third.
That 2-0 lead held until Seabold’s departure, when Andrew Young crushed a game-tying two-run homer to dead center off Durbin Feltman in the seventh.
But the WooSox offense loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, all three runners reaching on walks. Ryan Fitzgerald was next, and he was hit in the back by a fastball for an RBI hit-by-pitch, a 91-mile-per-hour offering that made it 3-2 Worcester.
Zack Kelly inherited the one-run lead in the ninth and immediately loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk. After Kelly bared down to strike out two straight Red Wings, Luis Garcia came to the plate with his team down to its final out. Kelly threw a pitch that slipped off the glove of the catcher, Ronaldo Hernandez for a passed ball. It skipped to the backstop and allowed Chris Herrmann to charge home with the tying run.
That forced extra innings, where Rochester put up four runs against Kelly on RBI singles from Young and Adrian Sanchez, a sac-fly by Taylor Gushue and a wild pitch on a strikeout that scored Young.
Worcester got one run in the bottom of the tenth on Ryan Fitzgerald’s RBI single and Christin Stewart drove a pitch deep to center, but the ball settled into Matt Lipka’s mitt to close out Rochester’s series sweep. The loss gives the WooSox their tenth defeat in a row (the first double-digit losing streak since 2015 for the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate), while the win hands Rochester their ninth victory in a row (their longest win streak since 1992).
Polar Park saw its tenth sellout of the season on Sunday afternoon, its third in a row for a crowd of 9,134.
The WooSox are off Monday and return to action at Polar Park on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. against the Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders, affiliate of the New York Yankees. Television coverage is on NESN+ tape delay, while radio coverage is live at 6:45 p.m. on 100.1 FM The Pike, 98.9 Nash Icon and the WooSox Radio Network.