The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (17-27) hosted the Rochester Red Wings (22-21) on Tuesday morning for a doubleheader at Coca-Cola Park. The first game was an education game, and the second was a makeup game from earlier this year in Rochester. In game one, Lehigh Valley pitcher Michael Mercado (0-0, 0.35 ERA) was on the mound against Rochester’s Thad Ward (1-2, 7.36 ERA).
In the bottom of the first inning, Lehigh Valley left fielder David Dahl hit Ward’s cutter for a solo home into Lehigh Valley’s bullpen at left field for a 1-0 lead. It was Dahl’s sixth home run of the season.
At the top of the third inning, Rochester had runners on second and third base when right fielder Travis Blankenhorn hit Mercado’s fastball for a two-run RBI single to center field scoring Jack Dunn and Alex Call to take a 2-1 lead. Lehigh Valley pitcher Michael Mercado pitched three innings, allowing two runs, four walks, and one strikeout throwing 69 pitches, of which 37 were strikes.
Moving to the top of the sixth inning, Beau Burrows was pitching for Lehigh Valley. With a runner on second base, Rochester designated hitter Karter Kieboom hit an RBI double to left field for a 3-1 lead. Two batters later, Rochester second baseman Darren Baker hit a line-drive RBI single to center field for a 4-1 lead.
Moving to the bottom of the seventh inning, Rico Garcia was pitching for Rochester. Garcia struck out Esteban Quiroz followed by back-to-back flyouts from Jim Haley and David Dahl ending the game. The IronPigs lose game one to the Red Wings by the final score of 4-1.
Lehigh Valley’s offense had five hits and committed one error. The loss went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Michael Mercado for his first loss of the season. The win went to Rochester pitcher Thad Ward for his second win of the season and Rico Garcia earned his sixth save of the season.
In game two, Lehigh Valley pitcher Tyler Phillips (4-2, 4.93 ERA) was on the mound against Rochester’s Robert Gsellman (0-1, 6.84 ERA). The IronPigs were the visiting team in game two.
At the top of the first inning, Lehigh Valley had a runner on third base when right fielder Jordan Luplow hit Gsellman’s fastball for an RBI double to right field scoring David Dahl for a 1-0 lead. Next, Lehigh Valley third baseman Weston Wilson hit Gsellman’s sinker for an RBI single to center field scoring Luplow for a 2-0 lead.
Two batters later, Lehigh Valley had runners on first and second base when left fielder Matt Kroon hit an RBI double to right field scoring Weston Wilson extending Lehigh Valley’s lead to 3-0. Two batters later with two outs, Lehigh Valley second baseman Esteban Quiroz hit a two-run RBI single to right field scoring Cal Stevenson and Matt Kroon for a 5-0 lead. Quiroz tried to stretch it into a double but got caught at second base for the final out of the inning.
Moving to the top of the third inning, Lehigh Valley had a runner on second base when left fielder Matt Kroon hit Gsellman’s changeup for an RBI double to center field scoring Cal Stevenson for a 6-0 lead.
Two batters later, Rochester changed pitchers with T.J. Zeuch replacing Gsellman. Lehigh Valley second baseman Esteban Quiroz was up to bat. With the count 1-0, Quiroz hit Zeuch’s cutter for a three-run home run over the wall at right field making it 9-0. It was Quiroz’s second home run of the season.
At the top of the fourth inning, Lehigh Valley had the bases loaded for center fielder Cal Stevenson. Stevenson hit Zeuch’s sinker for a grand slam over the wall at left-center field for a 13-0 lead. It was Stevenson’s third home run of the season.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Rochester had a runner on first when designated hitter James Woods hit Phillips’s changeup for a two-run home run over the wall at right-center field cutting the IronPigs lead down to 13-2.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Rochester had runners on the corners when third baseman Erik Mejia grounded into a double play but scored Stone Garrett and the score was now 13-3 Lehigh Valley.
Moving to the top of the seventh inning, Lehigh Valley had runners on first and second base when right fielder Jordan Luplow hit Stephen Nogosek’s cutter for a three-run home run over the wall at left field for a 16-3 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Lehigh Valley starter Tyler Phillips struck out Alex Call, followed by a groundout from Stone Garrett, and Brady Lindsly lined out toward right fielder Jordan Luplow, who made the catch to end the game. The IronPigs won game two by the final score of 16-3.
Lehigh Valley finished the afternoon with 15 hits. The win went to Lehigh Valley starter Tyler Phillips won his fifth game of the season pitching seven innings, allowing four hits, three runs, two walks, and five strikeouts throwing 86 pitches, of which 55 were strikes. Phillips became the second pitcher in Lehigh Valley history to pitch back-to-back complete games since Tyler Cloyd in 2013. The loss went to Rochester starter Robert Gsellman.
The IronPigs and Red Wings play game three on Wednesday at 6:45 pm on MiLB.TV. Purchase IronPigs tickets for the 2024 season today on StubHub and Viagogo. Also, pick up IronPigs merchandise today at Fanatics and Rally House.
