The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (25-26) continued their 12-game homestand on Tuesday against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barres RailRiders (26-26) in their second series meeting of the season. The two teams met in April in Scranton when the IronPigs took two of four games from the RailRiders.
Michael Plassmeyer (1-3, 6.59) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Tanner Tulley (4-1, 3.81 ERA). Plassmeyer needed to have a good game as he allowed 12 runs in the month of May coming into this game. However, that trend continued on Tuesday night.
At the top of the first inning with one out, Plassmeyer threw a fastball at Oswald Peraza and he crushed it for a solo home run out to left field that put the RailRiders up 1-0. Two batters later with two outs, Andres Chaparro doubled to left field with Kole Calhoun approaching the plate.
If the name Calhoun is familiar to you folks, he used to play for the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers. Calhoun singled on a line drive to left field, scoring Chaparro for a 2-0 lead. Plassmeyer struck out Rodolfo Duran which retired the side.
The next inning got worse for Plassmeyer. He gave up a single to Carlos Narvaez and a double to Jamie Westbrook with nobody out for Jesus Bastidas. Bastidas singled on a ground ball past a diving Drew Ellis and into left field, scoring Narvaez for a 3-0 lead. Estevan Florial was next and he followed up with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Jamie Westbrook for a 4-0 lead.
Then, Oswald Peraza got his second hit of the night with a single to left field with one out. Plassmeyer got the final two outs to retire the side. Plassmeyer pitched one more inning and finished the night pitching three innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, and three strikeouts in 67 pitches, of which 49 were strikes. Plassmeyer has now allowed 16 runs in May and 36 runs this season.
Lehigh Valley’s only run came in the bottom of the second inning when designated hitter Jhailyn Ortiz hit Tully’s fastball and it went into the IronPigs’ bullpen at left field, cutting the RailRiders lead to 4-1. Unfortunately, that was the only run the IronPigs scored.
The offense struggled in this game only generating seven hits. They had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning when Jim Haley doubled, followed by a Simon Muzziotti walk. A wild pitch by Greg Weissert moved Haley and Muzziotti up a base.
They had three chances to bring them home but Scott Kingery popped out, Cal Stevenson and Jordan Qsar both struck out and Lehigh Valley lost the game by the final score of 4-1.
Lehigh Valley went 0-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Michael Plassmeyer lost his fourth game of the season for Lehigh Valley, while Tanner Tulley won his fifth game of the year for the RailRiders, and Greg Weissert earned his fifth save of the season.
The IronPigs and RailRiders play game two on Wednesday at 6:45 pm on MiLB.com. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub and Viagogo. Also, pick up IronPigs merchandise today at Fanatics.com.
