All season, Red Wings manager Stan Cliburn has stressed the importance of execution to his team's potential success.
He wasn't happy with what he saw tonight in the Wings' 4-1 loss to Buffalo at Frontier Field.
With the score knotted at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Wings placed runners on second and third with one out and Denard Span at the plate. Cliburn called for a suicide squeeze, with Chris Heintz coming home.
But Span fouled off the pitch, halting Heintz at third and short-ciruiting Cliburn's call. Span proceeded to strike out, and Alexi Casilla popped up to end the inning — and the Rochester threat.
The Bisons immediately seized the momentum, scoring two runs in the top of the sixth and one in the top of the seventh to post an insurmountable lead.
After the loss, Cliburn called the failed suicide squeeze the turning point of the game.
"We score there, it's a different ballgame," he said. "You've got to take control in the middle innings, and we didn't do that. Denard didn't execute."
The Wings managed only six hits all night off Buffalo starter Aaron Laffey, one of the International League's hottest pitchers. After dominating Rochester tonight, Laffey put the finishing touches on a remarkable month of June in which he went 6-0 and posted a 0.87 ERA.
"He pitched a heck of a game," said Wings left fielder Garrett Jones, who drove in Rochester's only run. "He had us off-balance. He was hitting his spots."
Wings starter Dave Gassner picked up the loss, dropping his record to 2-9 with a 5.00 ERA.
With the loss, the Wings dropped into a tie for second place in the IL North with Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Both the Wings and the Yankees are three games behind division-leading Buffalo. However, Rochester has a chance to make up some ground when they host Buffalo Sunday, then head down the Thruway for a two-game set at Dunn Tire Park.
