The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (5-9) concluded a six-game road trip on Sunday evening against the Durham Bulls (8-6) from Durham Bulls Athletic Park. It has not been a good series for the IronPigs as they lost four straight coming into this matchup.
Cristopher Sanchez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Durham’s Elvin Rodriguez (0-1, 2.70 ERA).
Sanchez pitched two scoreless innings until running into trouble in the bottom of the third inning. He hit Durham right fielder Ruben Cardenas with one out. Later, Cardenas stole second base with Osleivis Basabe up at-bat.
Then, Basabe doubled off the monster wall at left field, scoring Cardenas for a 1-0 lead. Basabe got caught stealing a short time later and Ben Gamel grounded out to end the inning. Cristopher Sanchez pitched 4.2 innings, allowing three hits, one run, two walks, and five strikeouts in 75 pitches, of which 49 were strikes.
At the top of the sixth inning, the IronPigs tied the game 1-1 when catcher Vito Friscia hit a solo home run off a spinning slider and over the monster wall at left field. After the home run, Esteban Quiroz walked on four pitches but Lehigh Valley could not bring him home thus the game remained tied 1-1.
Josh Robertson replaced Elvin Rodriguez to start the top of the seventh inning for Durham. IronPigs’ shortstop Scott Kingery singled with one out, followed by another single from Simon Muzziotti. Next up was right fielder Dustin Peterson. He singled on a line drive to right field, scoring Kingery to put Lehigh Valley up 2-1. Two batters later with two outs, catcher Vito Friscia was up at-bat. However, a balk was called on Durham pitcher Josh Robertson and a run was scored. It was now 3-1 IronPigs. Vito Friscia struck out swinging for the third out.
Moving ahead to the bottom of the ninth inning, the IronPigs looked to be headed to snapping the losing streak. Trey Cobb was the new IronPigs pitcher. Cobb gave up a single to Nick Dini and walked Tristan Gray.
Two batters later, Kameron Misner doubled on a fly ball off the monster wall at left, scoring Dini. It was now 3-2. Cobb went on to walk three straight batters and the IronPigs lose the game 4-3. Lehigh Valley’s losing streak is now at five games.
Lehigh Valley was 1-2 with runners in scoring position, leaving five men on base. IronPigs pitcher Trey Cobb lost his first game of the year and Heath Hembree was the winning pitcher.
Lehigh Valley returns to Coca-Cola Park on Tuesday to start a six-game homestand against the Worcester Red Sox at 6:45 pm on MiLB.TV. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub and Viagogo. Also, pick up IronPigs merchandise today at Fanatics.com.
