The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (34-35) returned to Polar Park on Wednesday night for game two against the Worcester Red Sox (37-34). Coming into this game, the IronPigs trailed the series 1-0.
Lehigh Valley are 4-6 in their last ten while the Red Sox have been hot as of late in a four-game winning streak and 8-2 in their last ten games.
Nick Nelson (0-0, 2.45 ERA) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley making his fourth start of the season against Worcester’s Kyle Barraclough (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
The Red Sox picked up where they left off in the bottom of the first inning. Nick Nelson gave up a single to Nick Sogard. Three batters with two outs and Sogard stealing second base, Nelson hit Bobby Dalbec with Ronaldo Hernandez due up to bat.
Hernandez hit the ball toward left field which brought home Sogard with an RBI single. It was 1-0 Worcester. Daniel Palka was next with two outs but he grounded toward second baseman Esteban Quiroz, who made the throw to first baseman Weston Wilson which ended the inning.
The Red Sox added another run in the bottom of the second inning. It started when Narciso Crook reached first base on a fielding error by Scott Kingery. Christian Koss was next.
During Koss’s at-bat, Nick Nelson attempted to pick off Crook at first base but it failed. However, the ball did not get far which prevented Crook from taking second base. Koss grounded out as Crook went to second base.
Two batters later with two outs, Nick Sogard singled to right field, scoring Crook that made it 2-0 Worcester. There was a scary incident during Niko Goodrum’s at-bat when Sogard attempted to steal second base and got his bell rung by Scott Kingery on his head and was down for several minutes. Despite this, Sogard stayed in the game. Nelson would get out of the inning by striking out Niko Goodrum.
Moving ahead to the bottom of the fourth inning, Nelson walked Daniel Palka and Narciso Crook to begin the inning. Next, he loaded the bases after Christian Koss singled and that was it for him as Trey Cobb replaced him. Two batters later with one out, Nick Sogard earned his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Palka for a 3-0 lead.
The run was charged to Nelson. He finished the night pitching three innings, allowing four hits, three runs, two walks, and five strikeouts in 75 pitches, of which 40 were strikes. The inning ended when Cobb got Niko Goodrum to ground out toward first baseman Weston Wilson as he got the ball and stepped on the first base bag.
Josh Hendrickson was the new pitcher for Lehigh Valley in the bottom of the fifth inning. He gave up three straight singles to Bobby Dalbec, Ronaldo Hernandez, and Daniel Palka with one out for Narciso Crook.
Crook singled to center field, scoring Dalbec for a 5-0 lead with one out for Cristopher Koss. Koss grounded toward Esteban Quiroz, who tossed the ball to Scott Kingery before throwing the ball to Weston Wilson that completed the double play which ended the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Lehigh Vally made two crucial mistakes on defense. It started when Caleb Hamilton and Niko Goodrum hit singles with one out. On Goodrum’s hit, an error was charged to Esteban Quiroz.
Next, Wilyer Abreu singled on a fly ball to left field as the ball dropped in between three Lehigh Valley players and Hamilton scored for a 5-0 lead. However, the IronPigs did get Abreu out as he slid into second base. Two batters later, Hendrickson got Ronaldo Hernandez to fly out toward Scott Kingery which ended the inning.
At this point in the game, Lehigh Valley only had one hit and that came at the top of the third inning by Cal Stevenson. The only time Lehigh Valley ever had a chance at scoring was at the top of the sixth inning.
Cal Stevenson and Darick Hall walked and later a wild pitch moved them up a base with two outs for Weston Wilson but he popped out in foul territory that was caught by Ronaldo Hernandez which ended the inning.
Moving ahead to the top of the ninth inning, Lehigh Valley had one more chance to avoid being shut out. Weston Wilson was the first to face Andrew Politi. Wilson singled on a ground ball to left field. It was Lehigh Valley’s second hit of the night. However, Simon Muzziotti hit into a double play for two outs and Jim Haley was the last hope.
Unfortunately, Haley grounded out toward shortstop Christian Koss, who made the long throw to first baseman Caleb Hamilton for the final out of the inning. However, Haley should’ve been safe as he beat the throw by a half step but the umpire called him out and Haley exchanged words with him before getting tossed out of the game. Why would you throw someone out of the game when the game is over is beyond me. The IronPigs lost again to Worcester by the final score of 5-0 and their losing streak is now at two games.
Lehigh Valley continues to struggle with pitching and generating hits. They finished the night with two hits, committed three errors, went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position, and left six men on base. Lehigh Valley’s pitchers gave up 12 hits. Nick Nelson lost his first game for the IronPigs this year, and Kyle Barraclough won his first game for Worcester.
The IronPigs and Red Sox play game three on Thursday 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.
