In a wild back-and-forth affair, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (50-38) fell to the Rochester Red Wings (51-38) by a score of 8-7 on Thursday night at Coca-Cola Park.

Daniel Palka's solo shot in the top of the seventh off of RHP Luis Garcia proved to be the difference in the game and gave Rochester an 8-7 lead.

Garcia (1.1 IP, 2 H, R, ER, K) was tagged with the loss for the Pigs and falls to 6-2 on the year.

RHP D.J. Baxendale (2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 K) earned the win for Rochester with two scoreless innings of relief to improve to 2-0 on the year. RHP J.T. Chagrois (2.0 IP, H, 3 K) got the final six outs to notch his sixth save of the year.

Taylor Featherston's solo shot off of Red Wings starter Pat Dean to lead off the bottom of the first gave the IronPigs a 1-0 lead. The home run was Featherston's team-leading 10th of the season.

Palka tied things at one apiece for Rochester in the top of the second with a solo shot off of Pigs starter David Buchanan. It was the first career Triple-A at bat for Palka.

A two-run second opened up a 3-1 lead for the IronPigs as Logan Moore plated a run via an RBI groundout and Featherston (3-5, HR, 2 RBI, R) knocked home a run with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the third, Nick Williams led off with a single, advanced to second on a single and later scored on Darnell Sweeney's (2-4, RBI, R) RBI single to give the Pigs a 4-1 lead.

Rochester cut the lead to 4-2 with a run in the fourth when Jorge Polanco drew a one-out walk and later scored from first on Adam Brett Walker's RBI double.

Darin Mastroianni's RBI single in the top of the fifth brought the Red Wings within 4-3.

Darin Ruf led off the home half of the frame with a single before Cam Perkins (3-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R) and Brock Stassi delivered back-to-back homers off of Dean to open up a 7-3 advantage for Lehigh Valley. The home runs were the fifth of the season for both Perkins and Stassi.

Dean (n/d) gave up the seven runs on 12 hits while walking one and fanning three over four plus innings of work.

Buchanan (n/d) allowed three runs on three hits to go along with three walks and four strikeouts in 5.0 IP.

Rochester tied the game at seven apiece with a four-run sixth. Walker and Logan Schafer each came through with RBI doubles to cut the lead to 7-5 before the latter double and two walks loaded the bases with two outs and RHP Dalier Hinojosa (0.1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB) issued a bases loaded-walk to bring in a run and a wild pitch charged to Garcia allowed the tying run to scamper home and even things at seven apiece. Three of the runs in the frame were charged to IronPigs LHP Daniel Stumpf (0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER).

J.P. Crawford (3-5, 2 2B) also had a multi-hit game for Lehigh Valley.

RHP Frank Herrmann (1.0 IP) and LHP Elvis Araujo (1.0 IP, 3 K) each had scoreless outings in relief for manager Dave Brundage's squad.

The IronPigs will begin a three-game set with the Buffalo Bisons on Friday night at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. as RHP Ben Lively (3-2, 3.86) gets the ball for the Pigs against Bisons RHP Wilmer Font (2-2, 3.13 in Ind.).