The home woes continued on Friday night as the Rochester Red Wings evened their four game series with a 5-2 victory over Gwinnett Braves dropping the team to 9-14 at . Rochester had won only 15 games thus far and was last in their division. Andy Baldwin (3-3) pitched 6 2/3 innings giving up just one run while scattering seven hits. Jim Hoey came on with a runner on first in the ninth and picked up his first save of the season.
Rochester got on the board first in the top of the first inning as shortstop Ray Chang got a 1-out single and Designated Hitter Aaron bates hit a grounder in the hole that the third baseman threw into right field. Chang scored all the way from first but Bates was thrown out at third as the rightfielder threw home and the catcher threw back to the shortstop covering.
The Red Wings added to the lead in the top of the second as they got two hits and both scored on a double by the No.-9 hitter catcher Danny Lehmann to give Rochester a 3-0 lead.
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Gwinnett got a run back in the bottom of the second as designated hitter Daniel Nelson, who has been on the disabled list got a leadoff double and scored on a 1-out double by right fielder Stefan Gartrell to pull the G-Braves one run closer at 3-1.
Rochester once again added to the lead as leftfielder Brian Dinkelman led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly one out later by second basemanToby Gardenhire to increase the lead to 4-1. Gardenhire is the son of the Minnesota Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire.
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Aaron Bates hit an opposite field solo home run just inside the foul pole in right field with two outs inthe eighth to give the visitors a 5-1 lead. Gwinnett got the run right back in the bottom half of the inning when second baseman Matt Young doubled and scored on an infield out by first baseman Mauro Gomez to pull the Braves to 5-2. Mike Minor pitched eight innings giving up four earned runs and scattering 10 hits while striking out eight. He threw 111 pitches and 78 for strikes.
Juan Abreu pitched the ninth. Andy Baldwin was the winning pitcher for the Red Wings and improved to 3-3. Minor dropped to 2-2. 'We made too many mistakes early," said Manager Dave Brundage. "They had a game plan over there and it was pretty evident they were going to get after him early in the count. I thought Mike made some adjustments after the first couple of innings." Minor indeed retired 12 of 13 batters at one stretch but still the lead increased by a run. "The bottom of their order did some damage," Brundage said. "We made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage of it." Brundage attibutes the home woes to the better teams they have faced at home. "The teams we have played at home, three of the teams are thirty something games over five hundred," Brundage explained. "Until we play the entire league and until we size our self up, sometimes you catch a team when they're hot, sometimes you catch a team when they are making moves, that's triple-A baseball."
Gwinnett falls to 22-19 overall and will go on the road for four games against Lehigh Valley.
