Rochester did not get a decent performance tonite from Waldrop and Delaney. Couple that with Nick Blackburns least effective outing so far as a Red Wing, and you have the ingredients for a tough loss tonite at the hands of the surging Buffalo Bisons.

Wings probably should have won this one. They jumped out to an early 1-0 lead but on this night Blackburn's sinker wasn;t sinking and the Bisons jumped out in front 2-1 in the 3rd. Russ Adams hit the first HR off of Blackburn since his return to Rochester.

Wings tied it up in the 5th but Buffalo re-took the lead in the bottom of the inning on a long HR from Justin Turner.
The 6th inning was pivotal. Wings grabbed the lead sparked by a 3 run bomb by Eric Lis and a solo shot by red-hot Brandon Roberts....his 1st AAA homerun. With a 6-3 lead, Blackburn returned to the mound in the bottom of the 6th but ran into immediate trouble as the first 2 runners reached. Waldrop came on and the rest of the inning was a total mess--infield hits, passed balls, wild pitches, errors, walks...both inherited runners scored and Waldrop gave up 1 of his own and the Bisons tied it at 6-6.

Game stayed that way to the 9th. Slama pitched 2 strong innings in the 7th and 8th. Delaney came on in the bottom of the 9th and reverted back to the gascan of April-June. He committed the deadly sin of walking the leadoff hitter. After a lineout, he then went full on the next hitter and manager Oberkfell sent the runner...that was key because the grounder may have been an inning ending DP...but instead the Wings only got the out at 1st. With 2 outs and a runner at 2nd, they elected to walk the lefty Nieuwenhuis to get to the righty  Mike Cervenak, a mid-inning replacement for the injured Padilla. Cervenak grounded one straight up the middle and it easily scored Justin Turner with the winning run.

So much for the very over-rated 'percentages'.

What happens when you rot on the bench for over 3 weeks dept: Jose Morales, playing his first game since returning from his vacation on the Twins bench had probably the worst game of his career. For the first time in his career he struck out all 4 times up--had a passed ball and endured 3 wild pitches. Not his night.

The come in twos: yet another 2 hit game for Brandon Roberts. There isn't a hotter hitter in the league right now. His average with the Wings is .346. Thats 10 multi-hit games out of his last 12.

Trevor Plouffe came out of the game early with some kind of muscle strain. Trevor is still in a miserable slump.

Delaey has lost his last 4 decisions. He had a hot stretch where he was nearly unhittable, but in his last two appearances he has been shaky.  All in the Wings pen are mega-fatigued.

Blackburn's line was 5 1/3 IP 8 hits (2 HR's), 5 runs, 4 earned, 1 walk and 5 k's. Two of the runs charged to him scored when Waldrop came in. He threw 88 pitches, 59 for strikes.

New Britain is well on pace to lose 100 games. How significant is that anyway? Since 1958 only 2 teams in the minor leagues have lost 100 games...the Cats could be the 3rd in 52 years. Dubious.