Wings Waste Two HR Night From Valencia
By: Thad Brown
Updated: June 30, 2012
On an ideal summer night at Frontier Field, Danny Valencia hit two home runs but it wasn't enough as the Red Wings dropped a game to the Empire State Yankees by a score of 6-4. The two-game set concludes with a 6:05 p.m. game here Sunday night.
Jeff Manship took the mound for the Red Wings and proved to be in top form early. Manship escaped the first inning with only one hit allowed after Tsuyoshi Nishioka made an impressive snag at second base to record the final out, keeping the Yankees offense at bay early. The Red Wings couldn't respond in the bottom of the inning as the two teams remained tied in a scoreless game after one inning of action.
After Manship again shut down the Yankees offense in the top of the second, the Red Wings offense finally found some life in the bottom half of the inning. Leading off the bottom of the second, Danny Valencia ripped a solo home run to left field, giving Rochester the early 1-0 lead.
A scoreless third inning kept the score at 1-0 in favor of Rochester.
In the top of the fourth inning, Nishioka again made a SportsCenter-esque top 10 play by making a diving save up the middle and throwing on the run to record the final out of the inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Valencia struck gold again as he launched a ball to left field for his second home run of the game, giving the Red Wings a 2-0 lead. The home run gave Valencia the fourth multi-homer game of his professional career, including his second in the last week.
Brendan Wise came in to relieve Manship in the top of the fifth and found himself in a bit of a jam early. Wise surrendered three hits and a walk in the inning as a single from Chris Dickerson gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead. The Red Wings were retired in order to end the fifth inning.
A three-run home run from Russell Branyan in the top of the sixth gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Valencia again came through in the clutch as he singled to score Wilkin Ramirez, cutting the deficit to 6-3.
The Red Wings got a home run from Matt Carson in the bottom of the ninth inning.
