Joe Ross – Photo by Gabe Rodriguez
It took a couple of extra days, but the Syracuse Chiefs and Rochester Red Wings finally started their season series on Saturday. Joe Ross started the game for Syracuse and had a rough start to his campaign. The 6’4 righty, lasted just 2.2 innings giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits while walking three and striking out three. The Chiefs fall to the Red Wings 10-0 to start the 2017 season.
After back-to-back one-out singles in the first inning, Ross settled in and got himself out of trouble stranding both runners. It started to unravel slightly after that. Rochester’s Mitch Garver, who had the Chief’s pitchers number all day, hit an RBI double in the second inning to start the scoring for the Red Wings. He would chase Ross from the game in the third after hitting another double, this time of the two-run variety.
Jose Berrios – Photo by Gabe Rodriguez
“I thought at times he looked pretty sharp” Chiefs manager Billy Gardner said of Ross “Other times the zone got away from him for a bit, had a couple of walks, yanked a couple sliders against Garver” he added. Gardner did like what he saw from Ross despite those things.
It looked like Syracuse was going to get back into the game in their half of the third after a one-out walk to Corban Joseph, and a double by Rafael Bautista, but Jose Berrios for Rochester stopped all of it with an inning-ending strikeout to Brian Goodwin.
Berrios was outstanding for Rochester. He went six full innings, allowing just three hits with a walk and seven punchouts.
“Anytime you go up against a quality starter like Berrios, you’ve got to get to him early. You can’t let him settle in and we did” Gardner said.
Syracuse gave themselves another opportunity to get on the board in the fourth with a Matt Skole double, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the game. Red Wings pitching didn’t
allow another runner to reach second the rest of the game.
In their long history, this was just the third time the Chief’s had been shutout on opening day.
The teams are at it again Sunday for a doubleheader.
Matt Skole – Photo by Gabe Rodriguez
Players of note:
Rochester:
Jose Berrios, 6IP, 3H, BB, 7K
Mitch Garver, 2-for-2, 2 2B, 4 RBI
Syracuse:
Matt Skole, 1-for-3, 2B
John Ginder
John has recently graduated from the University at Albany with a B.A. in History and is currently finishing his Master's Degree there as well in secondary education. After being away from school for over two decades he decided to go back and work towards his dream of becoming a social studies teacher.
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