Jesse Anderson did a little bit of everything for the Rochester Blues on Tuesday.
And in the end, he helped them to their biggest win of the season, 5-4, over the Rochester Royals
With the Blues leading their intra-city rival Royals, 4-3, entering the top of the ninth, Anderson came on in relief and allowed the tying run to score.
He made up for that in the bottom half of the inning, collecting his third hit of the night, driving in the game-winning run. The Blues (18-4) had runners on first and third when Anderson came to the plate with two outs, and he delivered. He finished the game 3-for-5.
Starting pitcher Greg Polt was dominant for the Blues for six innings. The former RCTC pitcher allowed just one hit.
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The Royals scored three times in the top of the seventh to tie the score, but the Blues answered immediately. Tom Corcoran belted a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh and give the Blues a lead again, setting up Anderson's heroics.
"It's one of those big brother/little brother things," Blues manager Chris Zollner said. "This might be a one-time-out-of-10 thing that we beat them, and it happened tonight.
"I'm not taking anything away from our guys, though. When you play fundamental, errorless baseball, anything can happen."
Joe Siple and Shawn Leimbeck had two hits each for the Royals, and Joe Duda suffered the loss.
The Blues play at Dodge Center today.
Blues 5, Royals 4
Royals 000 000 301 -- 4 9 4
; Blues 100 002 101 -- 5 8 0
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; Royals: Joe Siple 2 hits; Shawn Leimbeck 2 hits. LP: Joe Duda.
Blues: Jesse Anderson 3-5, game-winning RBI in ninth; Greg Polt, 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R. WP: Jesse Anderson 1 IP.
