Ruiz Makes Wings Walk-off Winners

With one out in the bottom of the tenth inning, Randy Ruiz singled to center field, scoring Felix Molina to lead the Red Wings to a 7-6 victory over the Charlotte Knights Monday afternoon at Frontier Field. The bottom of the tenth began inconspicuously, with Darnell McDonald flying to left field for the first out. Brian Buscher, who Molina replaced as a pinch runner, then reached base with a walk from Dewon Day. A Garrett Jones single set the stage for Ruiz, who hit a ball just in front of Charlotte center fielder Jason Bourgeois for the game winning hit. Charlotte came out swinging against Wings starter Francisco Liriano, when Chris Getz led off with a triple and scored on a double by Jason Bourgeois. Liriano notched a pair of strikeouts to help get out of further damage in the first. Rochester moved the tying run to third with one out in their half of the first, but Knights starter Lance Broadway got two quick outs to end the Wings first. Liriano had a one-two-three second inning, helped by a nice catch from centerfielder Jason Pridie. The Wings lost another scoring chance in the second, loading the bases with one out. But Ruiz was out by a mile trying to tag and score on Chris Basaks flyball out, and the double play ended the inning. McDonald made sure the Wings got on the board in the third, smacking a triple to right-center. The hit scored Tommy Watkins and Pridie, putting Rochester ahead 2-1 with none out. Buscher laced a single on an 0-1 pitch from Broadway to bring in McDonald and make it 3-1 Wings; Jones followed Buscher with a home run into the visiting bullpen, and Charlotte trailed 5-1. With two outs in the top of the fifth, Charlotte re-took the lead by scoring five runs off Liriano, four coming from a Brad Eldred grand slam. Liriano exited the game after throwing six 2/3 innings and allowing seven hits and six earned runs, walking one and striking out four. Liriano had given up a two-out triple in the seventh, but Mariano Gomez came out of the bullpen and retired Danny Richar to keep the Wings within one run. McDonald tied the game in the seventh, blasting a double over the head of centerfielder Bourgeois. McDonalds hit scored Watkins, who had singled with one out. The Wings had a great chance to win in the ninth, after Jones doubled off Matt Anderson to start the inning. Ruiz drilled a long fly ball to the warning track in left, whch was tracked down by Fernando Cortez; Jones broke for third instead of tagging at second, and was nearly doubled off the base. Anderson got two flyouts to strand Jones and send the game in extra innings. Tim Lahey (3-4) pitched two scoreless innings, striking out four and walking none. Wings Things: Red Wings mascots Spikes and Mittsy took part in both the Rochester and Greece Memorial Day parades Monday..Wings pitcher Kevin Mulvey and Rochesters "Mr. Baseball," Joe Altobelli, celebrated birthdays Monday...Jose Morales singled off Broadway in the second inning, pushing his hitting streak to 10 games. Morales added another single in his next at-bat, and is now batting .306 for the season. With a win today the Red Wings reached the 20 win mark for the season (52 games). The last time Rochester went this many games into the season to get their 20th win was 2001 when it took until their 54th game (June 2 20-34 record)....Fans across the country will once again have the opportunity to vote online for their favorite players to be selected to the Triple-A All-Star Game. This year’s contest will be held at Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, Kentucky on July 16 at 7:05 p.m. EDT and will match selected outstanding players from the International League and the Pacific Coast League. Fan balloting will be held from June 5-27 and will account for one-third of the total vote along with ballots cast by members of the media and each club’s field manager, coaches, and general manager.