5 things about WooSox' 5-3 Wednesday afternoon loss at Rochester

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There most always will be ends of Worcester Red Sox winning streaks. And their ace reliever can't be lights out all the time.

The WooSox rallied in the eighth to tie, but the Rochester Red Wings scored twice in the bottom half for a 5-3 victory, snapping Worcester's winning streak at five games and Rochester's losing streak at the same number.

The eight-inning runs came off right-handed closer Kaleb Ort, who entered with a 0.45 ERA over 20 innings with seven saves. Ort recently has been entering games in the eighth inning, for two-inning stints, but the Red Wings made sure his appearance lasted only one with the decisive runs.

Marcus Wilson had three of Worcester's 11 hits for the WooSox (29-15), and Jarren Duran and Yairo Munoz each added two.

Rochester (16-28) took a 2-0 lead, on Luis Garcia's eighth homer of the season, a leadoff shot off Tanner Houck in the first inning, and Jake Noll's RBI single in the fourth.

Duran got one of those runs back in the fifth with his 13th home run of the season, to right-center field. He reached in each of his first three plate appearances, with a walk to lead off the game and a single in the third, before striking out in the seventh.

Rochester restored its two-run lead at the bottom of the fifth on Carter Kieboom's run-scoring double.

Things stayed that way until the eighth, when the WooSox mounted plenty of action before one was out against Ronald Pena. Michael Chavis walked to lead off, then Jeter Downs and Yairo Munoz singled to load the bases. Jonathan Arauz singled home Chavis to make it 3-2 when Dakota Bacus (1-2) relieved Pena.

Jett Bandy tied the game at 3-3 with a sacrifice fly to deliver Downs before Chad De La Guerra and Duran were retired to end the inning.

But Kieboom greeted Ort with a lined homer over the wall in left to start the Rochester eighth, and Daniel Palka followed with a single. Ort (1-1, 1.29 ERA) induced flyouts to the next two hitters before old friend Blake Swihart singled to center, and Rafael Bautista singled in Falka to make it 5-3.

Houck pitched 3-2/3 innings (58 pitches) and allowed two runs on three hits. He didn't walk a batter while striking out six.

John Schreiber allowed a run on three hits in 2-1/3 innings for Worcester, and Austin Brice pitched a hitless seventh.

Streaks come to end in afternoon

The WooSox' streak of 11 straight wins on the road is over. They outscored opponents, 86-35, during that time. ... Worcester had won 12 of its previous 13 games, yet remained 1½ games behind Northeast Division-leading Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, next week's opponent at Polar Park. The WooSox had won 18 of 23, 26 of 35 and 29 of their last 40, since their 0-3 start to Buffalo in Trenton. ... The top WooSox winning streak of the season is seven games, from June 8-15.

Stealing in double figures

After working a walk in the sixth inning Wednesday, Jeter Downs stole his 10th base of the season. Downs, who had four hits on Tuesday night, has been caught stealing only twice. ... Marcus Wilson has seven stolen bases, and Michael Gettys and Jack Lopez have six each. All three have been thrown out only once.

Daytime normally agrees with these WooSox

Worcester is 10-4 in day games. The next three games in this series are 7:05 p.m. starts, with Sunday's finale at 1:05. ... The WooSox are now 13-7 on the road, a mark behind only Durham (15-4), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (14-5) and Jacksonville (16-7) in Triple-A East.

Even more power to Worcester

After Duran homered Wednesday and the WooSox hit three in their 10-6 victory Tuesday over the Red Wings to open the series, the team has 76 homers over the first 44 games. ... Worcester has 40 home runs in 24 games at Polar Park. ... The WooSox were averaging an astounding 9.9 runs over their first 19 road games. ... Over the first seven games with Rochester, Worcester was batting .279 with 13 home runs.