After two weather related cancelations, the Red Wings finished the week by playing a double header against the Syracuse Chiefs. Rochester had been on the road for the past two weeks, sweeping Scranton then being swept by Pawtucket and finishing by taking two of three against Syracuse.

Rochester’s biggest struggle so far this season has been their offense, currently ranking in the bottom half in the league in runs (9th), hits (11th), home runs (8th), RBI’s (8th) & 13th in stolen bases in the International League. With Josmil Pinto leading the team in batting average at .325 entering Saturday’s game and second on the team with eight RBI’s, only Reynaldo Rodriguez is hitting above .300 for Rochester.

When talking about the Red Wings offense, manager Mike Quade said “Ortiz (Danny), is swinging the bat great, we are getting contributions from Rodriguez, Martinez (Jose) has been good, Bernier (Doug) is starting to hit well, so there’s a lot of things offensively that are going well”. While the numbers are not there, the optimism is there that things will turn around soon.

So if the bats are struggling, then the pitching must be doing well, right?

Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case for Rochester either. The Wings currently rank 12th in the IL in team ERA, 1st in HR allowed with 15, 4th in walks allowed with 55, and 12th in WHIP. Pat Dean has been the surprise of the season in the Red Wings rotation, currently 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings pitched. Originally Dean was not in Rochester’s rotation, but with the promotion of Trevor May to Minnesota, the opportunity was there for Dean and he’s run with it.

Probably the biggest surprise & disappointment so far has been Alex Meyer’s start to the 2015 season. Meyer had a very good season with the Wings in 2014, but so far walks have been his Achilles heel with 14 walks in 14 2/3rd innings pitched. Through three starts overall Meyer is 1-0 with a 4.91 ERA, he has struck out 20 batters in the 14.2 innings, but control has to drastically improve if he hopes to join the Twins rotation, or bullpen in 2015.

Rochester is going to finish the week by starting a 10 game home stand against Syracuse, Columbus and then Norfolk before heading back on the road May 5th.