Cole DeVries picked up his first win of the season with a strong eight inning effort, as the Red Wings beat the Gwinnett Braves 6-4 Saturday night at Frontier Field. The paid attendance was 8,427, the second largest crowd of the season. Baseball Month in Rochester presented by Hoselton Toyota continues Sunday at 1:05 p.m., when the two teams meet again.
Rochester right-hander DeVries came into Saturday's start winless, but has not received a lot of offensive support so far in 2012: the Wings had scored just 10 runs during his 38 2/3 innings of work.
DeVries' teammates set out to address that issue early, after DeVries had an easy 10-pitch top of the first. Pedro Florimon tripled on a ball that right fielder Felix Pie couldn't pick up in the bright sun. Then Wilkin Ramirez laced the first pitch he saw from Braves starter Eric Junge into center field for an RBI single, putting Rochester up 1-0.
The G-Braves came right back in the second with a triple of their own, when Ernesto Mejia led off the inning with a hit that rolled to the wall in right-center. A groundball out scored Mejia to tie the score.
In the Rochester second inning, a two-out single from Rene Rivera sent Sean Burroughs all the way home from second base, pushing the Wings back out in front 2-1. Matt Carson scored when second baseman Greg Paiml couldn't handle a ground ball from Tsuyoshi Nishioka, and the inning ended with Rochester ahead 3-1.
The Wings continued to pour it on in the bottom of the fourth. Carson led off the inning with a single and then proceeded to steal his fourth bag of the season. Two batters later, Nishioka blasted his first home run on American soil over the right field wall and increased Rochester's lead to 5-1.
Ramirez led off the bottom of the fifth with a single followed by a double by Chris Parmelee, putting two runners in scoring position with no outs. The Wings were unable to capitalize on the chance after a pop up and two fielder's choices would retire the side. The Wings had another chance in the seventh after hits from Parmelee, Danny Valencia, and Carson left the bases loaded with one out. Rene Tosoni would go down swinging for out number two. Rivera walked to pick up his second RBI of the game. Nishioka flew out to center to end the inning and the wings took a 6-1 lead into the eighth.
DeVries continued his strong start after giving up the second inning double. He retired 13 straight batters until Paiml ripped a single in the bottom of the sixth. DeVries finished the inning without allowing another hit.
Jose Constanza tripled off DeVries in the ninth inning to drive in two runs for the Braves to make it 6-3. Anthony Slama came into the game for Rochester and let up one more run and pick up the save. Parmelee leaned into the stands to catch the final out and the game finished 6-4 Wings.
