4.17.01 ROCHESTER
RED WINGS vs
SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRES RED BARONS
 |
Our visitors left this morning, my wife is out of town for a couple days now, the weatherman is warning of snow, there’s a Red Wings businessman’s special scheduled for noon and—I check because I keep hearing how great this new park is and when I looked it up yesterday it’s closer to a four-hour drive than a six-hour one, as I’d previously thought—the Pirates are hosting the Astros at seven. “Snow,” says the weatherman. I look outside. It’s sunny and beautiful. Hmmm. Back to Frontier for the afternoon, or go crazy and drive to Pittsburgh for the evening?
I chose the former, mostly just because the Miata’s still waiting for new tires and the idea of driving all the way to Pittsburgh in our wheezing and listing Volkswagen Fox just didn’t have the same appeal.
It was the correct choice. The Red Wings game was a gem, surprisingly enough, featuring a rematch of the starting pitchers of last year’s Triple-A All-Star Game, played, coincidentally, right here at Frontier Field. Rochester’s Josh Towers is a 24-year-old control pitcher with a vaguely too-cool-for-himself demeanor, one that evidently serves him well on the mound. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s (say it with me now: “Scrant’n-Wilkesberries”) Nelson Figueroa is a 26-year-old righthander who came over from the Arizona system last season in the trade that sent Curt Schilling to the Diamondbacks. All these two did today was allow five hits apiece and zero earned runs combined, and pitch complete games despite temperatures in the mid-40s, bone-chilling winds on top of that, and an impressively loud and persistent Greek chorus of third-graders who indiscriminately showered them both with unjust accusations of being “belly-itchers.”
There was little itching of bellies, in fact. Figueroa was most impressive in the early going, using exactly three pitches to retire the side in the third inning and carrying a no-hitter into the sixth. Today it would be sloppy fielding by the Barons that would prove the difference in the game, however, as an error by shortstop Nick Punto set up the two Wings runs in the sixth, and one-time Dodger scrub Kevin Orie booted a grounder at third to give Rochester two more in the eighth.
Towers, meanwhile, just seemed to get better as the game went along, perfectly placing his pitches, throwing inside a lot, and keeping hitters generally pissed off. It was a tight, fun game to watch, even if the finer points of it were mostly lost on the kids behind me, who seemed frustrated by the lack of slugging. Funniest jest I heard was directed at Red Wings right fielder Wady Almonte, when he came to the plate in the eighth with runners in scoring position: “I don’t know how to say your name, but come on!”
The game was over in less than two hours, which left me wondering as I walked to the car whether or not I should still try to make the Pirates game. Ah, screw it, I thought—I’ve got work to do and it just sounds like too much hassle right now. This too was the correct decision: The Pirates got snowed out.
FINAL SCORE: RED WINGS 4, RED BARONS 0
FOOD CONSUMED: I got a foot-long from the Hebrew National cart, and, sad to say—because I love the idea of unique, regional brands and locally-produced meat products—it kinda kicked the ass of the Zwiegles hots. But that’s the power of kosher for you. A bag of peanuts. A Diet Coke.