The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (13-11) returned to PNC Field Tuesday night to begin a six-game stint against the first-place Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (16-6). In their last meeting between these two teams, the RailRiders took four out of six games. Cristopher Sanchez of Lehigh Valley and Nick Green of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre were starting pitchers for the game.
At the top of the first inning, IronPigs center fielder Scott Kingery doubled to center field. Then a single from left fielder Mickey Moniak put the runners at the corners. Lehigh Valley shortstop C.J. Chatham singled out towards right field and scored Kingery for a 1-0 lead.
Two batters later, with one out, IronPigs catcher Raphael Marchan singled to right field that scored Moniak for a 2-0 lead. Then second baseman Ruben Tejada singled out towards right field, bringing home two more runs for a 4-0 lead.
Moving ahead to the bottom of the fourth inning with runners on second and third with two outs. RailRiders third baseman Armando Alvarez doubled to center field, scoring two runners that cut the IronPigs lead in half 4-2.
At the top of the sixth inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, RailRiders pitcher Addison Russ threw a wild pitch, scoring catcher Edgar Cabral for a 5-2 IronPigs lead.
Moving to the ninth inning, Lehigh Valley brought out JD Hammer to close the game. Hammer walked RailRiders first baseman Chris Gittens with two outs. Then he threw a wild pitch moving Gittens to second base.
The RailRiders had Socrates Brito hit for Trey Amburgey. Brito singled to left field to put the runners at the corners. Finally, Hammer got Derek Dietrich to fly out which ended the game. Lehigh Valley defeated the RailRiders 5-2. The win snaps the IronPigs four-game losing streak.
Lehigh Valley starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez pitched 3.2 innings, three hits, two earned runs, three walks, and seven strikeouts. The winning pitcher went to IronPigs reliever Bryan Mitchell (1.1 IP, 2 BB, 1 SO). The loss went to Nick Green (4.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO), and JD Hammer earned the save (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB).
The IronPigs and RailRiders meet again at PNC Field for game two today at 6:35 pm on MiLB.com.
