MOOSIC — After earning a third straight walk-off win in the first game of a doubleheader, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders decided to make things easy in the second game.
Sean Boyle and two relievers combined on a one-hit shutout as the RailRiders beat the Rochester Red Wings, 8-0, to complete a sweep Sunday afternoon at PNC Field before an announced crowd of 2,362. They won the opener, 3-2, scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning in a weird manner.
The RailRiders (9-5) took four of the five games played in the scheduled six-game series.
“It was awesome how the guys grinded through this weather,” RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said. “Some really cold days, wet days, they got their work in. We went out there today after that first game, could have let that energy drop a little bit, knowing you had one in the tank. But they went up there and put up a great day. It was a great game to finish off the week.”
Boyle put a capper on it with his pitching performance. The righthander went five innings, allowing only a leadoff single to Andrew Knizner in the third, walked just one and struck out five. He retired the final nine batters he faced. He threw 74 pitches, 48 for strikes.
Duncan said it was a lot of fun watching Boyle pitch.
“His slider was tremendous today,” Duncan said. “He got ahead with his sinker; it seems like he was able to control it everywhere. More importantly, he was throwing strikes with that sweeper and getting people to expand with it. That’s the best I’ve seen him throw in a long time.”
In his first two outings this season, Boyle (1-2) was undone by one bad inning. But Sunday, he said the difference was his ability to make an adjustment.
“When something was a little off, whether it was the slider release point or a little tug of the shoulder,” Boyle said. “Right from the first inning, I was able to make that adjustment and I feel like that let me do my thing as normal in the game versus my last couple where it was one inning in each where I blew up and the wheels fell off. Being able to make the adjustments let me do my thing.”
Wilking Rodriguez and Brent Headrick each worked a scoreless inning to finish off Boyle’s effort.
The offense provided plenty of support.
Jorbit Vivas’ RBI single in the bottom of the first provided the RailRiders with all the runs they would need. In the third, TJ Rumfield had a bases-loaded walk and Jose Rojas a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0.
In the fourth, the RailRiders batted around and scored four runs on a pair of two-run doubles by Vivas and Rumfield to make it 7-0. Jesus Rodriguez, called up from Double-A Somerset earlier Sunday, got his first Triple-A hit and RBI in the fifth inning to close out the scoring in the nightcap.
Game 1 ended in wacky fashion.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the score tied at 2, Cooper Hummel fouled off a 3-1 pitch and appeared to hurt his back on the swing. Rumfield came on to finish the at-bat and saw ball four to walk.
Vivas then skied a 2-1 pitch to center field that Rochester’s Robert Hassell III lost in the sun and the ball dropped in. Rumfield kept running and the throw to home was there in time. But Rumfield stepped over the swipe tag attempt of catcher Drew Millas and landed on the plate to score the winning run. Red Wings manager Matthew LeCroy argued with home plate umpire Dexter Kelley to no avail.
“Two outs, you’re taught the ball goes in the air, just hustle around and pick up your third-base coach,” Rumfield said. “That was my plan going into it. I just ran as hard as I could. Next thing you know, one thing led to another and I got to score a run to win the game.
“I’d never been a part of anything like that. It’s just one of those things where you’ve got to play as hard as you can because you ...
