After getting blown out by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (57-37) Wednesday night. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (43-54) were looking for some payback. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as Lehigh Valley was shut out Thursday night 6-0 by the RailRiders.
Jack Perkins (0-0,0.00 ERA) made his IronPigs debut against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Matt Krook (2-4, 5.15 ERA). Jack Perkins was with Reading and played twelve games with a record of 3-2 and a 4.25 ERA. Before Reading, he played five games with the Jersey Shore BlueClaws and went 0-1 with a 5.51 ERA.
The game was scoreless until the top of the second inning. Then, after a double by RailRiders third baseman Armando Alvarez, RailRiders shortstop Kyle Holder singled on a sharp ground ball to center field, scoring a run for a 1-0 lead.
At the top of the fourth inning, with runners on second and third base, RailRiders shortstop Kyle Holder got his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice bunt to IronPigs third baseman Alec Bohm. The RailRiders lead was now 2-0.
At the top of the fifth inning, the IronPigs made a pitching change with Mauricio Llovera in for Jack Perkins (4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO). However, on a 1-0 count, Llovera gave up a solo home run to RailRiders first baseman Brandon Wagner now trailing 3-0. It was Wagner’s fourth home run of the season.
Moving ahead to the top of the seventh inning, Braeden Ogle was the new IronPigs pitcher. He walked the first two batters before throwing a wild pitch, moving those runners to second and third base. Then, RailRiders left fielder Greg Allen hit a three-run home run extending the RailRiders lead 6-0.
The RailRiders had a combined no-hitter going through seven innings until IronPigs first baseman TJ Rivera ended the no-hitter bid with a single. Lehigh Valley would get three more hits for the remainder of the game.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Greg Weissert closed out the game for the RailRiders. He would get the three outs to end the game, and the IronPigs were shut out by the RailRiders 6-0. Through three games of this series, the IronPigs have given up 21 runs to the RailRiders.
The win went to RailRiders starter Matt Krook (5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 SO), while the loss went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Jack Perkins.
Game four of the six-game series continues today at 7:05 pm. Cristopher Sanchez (4-5, 3.72 ERA) starts for Lehigh Valley versus Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s JP Sears (1-0, 2.45 ERA).
