Four Pitchers Hurl Wings To Shutout

Red Wings starter Scott Diamond was coming off his only loss of the season, an outing against Buffalo April 29 in which he gave up 11 hits and seven earned runs. Yankees starter Ramon Ortiz, a veteran of over eight seasons in the big leagues, allowed 10 hits in his last start April 26. But both starters were effective from the outset Friday.

Ortiz allowed just one hit - a double by J. R. Towles - and struck out three in his first three innings of work. Ortiz was helped by left fielder Cole Garner, who went to the deepest part of the park in left-center to take away a hit from Darin Mastroianni in the third inning.

Diamond allowed singles in both the first and second innings, before running into trouble in the third. Ray Kruml led off the third with a single, and the Yankees put together a bases loaded, one out threat. But Diamond retired Jack Cust and Brandon Laird, Empire State's fourth and fifth batters in the lineup, to keep the game scoreless through three frames.

Rochester capitalized on their scoring chance in the fourth inning, when Rene Tosoni led off with a line drive double. Ortiz fanned the next two batters, but Rizzotti doubled to almost the same spot in right field as Tosoni did, putting the Wings ahead 1-0.

Esmerling Vazquez took over for Diamond in the bottom of the fourth. Diamond threw 47 pitches, 27 for strikes in his three innings of work.