The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (5-1) started its twelve-game road trip Tuesday at PNC Field against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The RailRiders are the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The IronPigs were on a two-game winning streak heading into this game. The starting pitcher for the IronPigs was Spencer Howard, while the RailRiders started Deivi García.
IronPigs designated hitter Travis Jankowski started the first inning with a double, but the IronPigs could not bring him home. The game was scoreless for the first three and a half innings. Spencer Howard pitched three innings, allowing one walk and three strikeouts.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Lehigh Valley made a pitching change, substituting Ramón Rosso for Spencer Howard. RailRiders left fielder Miguel Andujar reached second base on a fielding error by Ryan Cordell. Rosso would then get Kyle Holder to line out for the first out, then the chaos started.
Rosso would hit Chris Gittens, followed by Socrates Brito’s single to load the bases for Scranton. Trey Amburgey was next, and he doubled to left field to score two runners as the RailRiders led 2-0. Amburgey would get hurt after the hit and was replaced by Ryan LaMarre. Rosso would then walk Greg Allen to load the bases again, bringing up Robinson Chirinos.
Rosso then threw a wild pitch, scoring Brito to extend Scranton’s lead 3-0. He then walked Chirinos to re-load the bases. Up next for the RailRiders was Andrew Velazquez. Rosso hit him to bring in another run for a 4-0 lead. Armando Alvarez was up at bat for Scranton, and he hit a sacrifice fly to score Greg Allen for a 5-0 lead and out number two.
That was it for Rosso, and Lehigh Valley replaced him with Damon Jones. Jones gave up a single to Miguel Andujar, with Chirinos scoring. Jones was able to strike out Kyle Holder, but the damage was done with the RailRiders up 6-0.
Lehigh Valley was unable to get their offense going throughout the rest of the game. The IronPigs had Jeff Singer, Neftali Feliz, and JD Hammer pitch for the other innings but the IronPigs fell to the RailRiders 6-0.
The win went to Deivi García and the loss went to Ramón Rosso. Outside of Spencer Howard, the rest of the IronPigs pitchers combined went five innings, allowing four hits, four walks, and three strikeouts.
Lehigh Valley continues its series with the RailRiders for game two today at 6:35 pm on MiLB.com.
