ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were held to two hits as Rochester posted a 3-1 victory Thursday night at ESL Ballpark.
The RailRiders also had four walks as they dropped their third straight.
Jonathan Ornelas had a double in the third inning and Oswaldo Cabrera singled in the ninth for the RailRiders’ only hits.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre broke up the shutout bid in the ninth when the RailRiders loaded the bases and Paul DeJong’s sacrifice fly brought in Max Schuemann.
The Red Wings opened the scoring in the first with a run on three hits against RailRiders starter Elmer Rodriguez. Christian Franklin led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on Harry Ford’s double. A Dylan Crews groundout plated Franklin and staked Rochester to a 1-0 lead.
Red Wings starter Andrew Alvarez struck out 10 and limited the RailRiders to a pair of baserunners over the first five innings.
The Red Wings extended their lead in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runs off reliever Harrison Cohen.
Robert Hassell worked a walk, and Trey Lipscomb doubled. Yohandy Morales singled home Hassell, and a Zack Short sac fly drove in Lipscomb for a three-run advantage.
Alvarez (1-0) earned the win and Rodriguez (0-1) took the loss, despite allowing one run on five hits with two strikeouts and two walks in his season debut. Seth Shuman allowed the ninth-inning RailRiders run en route to his first save.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Rochester play a doubleheader on Friday afternoon beginning at 1:05 p.m. Carlos Lagrange and Adam Kloffenstein are slated to pitch for the RailRiders against Parker Mitchell and a yet-to-be-named starter for the Red Wings.