The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (18-28) continued their seven-game series on Thursday night against the Rochester Red Wings (23-22) from Coca-Cola Park. Lehigh Valley pitcher Ricardo Pinto (0-1, 9.53 ERA) was on the mound against Rochester’s Spenser Watkins (1-1, 5.06 ERA).
At the top of the first inning, Lehigh Valley pitcher loaded the bases with designated hitter Travis Blankenhorn up to bat. The count was 0-2 when Blankenhorn hit Pinto’s splitter for a two-run RBI double to right field scoring Darren Baker and Drew Millas for a 2-0 lead. Three batters later with one out and the bases loaded, Rochester third baseman Karter Kieboom grounded into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
Moving to the bottom of the second inning, Lehigh Valley catcher Aramis Garica hit Watkins’s fastball for a solo home run clearing the Tiki Bar at left field and cutting Rochester’s lead to 2-1. It was Garcia’s first home run of the season and 10th RBI of the season.
Two batters later with one out, Lehigh Valley left fielder Matt Kroon hit Watkins’s cutter for a solo home run onto the berm at center field, and the game was tied 2-2. It was Kroon’s second home run of the season and the 12th RBI of the year. Lehigh Valley did not add any more runs in the inning.
Lehigh Valley pitcher Ricardo Pinto pitched six innings, allowing five hits, two runs, three walks, and one strikeout throwing 85 pitches, of which 56 were strikes. Max Lazer was the new pitcher for Lehigh Valley at the top of the seventh inning. Lazer got first baseman Juan Yepez to ground out, followed by back-to-back strikeouts to Carter Kieboom and Stone Garrett ending the inning. Lazer threw 14 pitches, of which 10 were strikes. Lazer pitched two innings, allowing one hit, and two strikeouts throwing 25 pitches, of which 17 were strikes.
Taylor Lehman was the new pitcher for Lehigh Valley at the top of the ninth inning. He threw 14 pitches, of which eight were strikes to get three outs and move the game to extra innings.
Ryan Burr was the new pitcher for Lehigh Valley at the top of the tenth inning with Juan Yepez at second base for Rochester. Burr got Carter Kieboom to flyout toward right fielder Simon Muzziotti, who made a nice throw to third baseman Weston Wilson to get Yepez out for the double play. Then, Burr struck out Stone Garrett to end the inning.
In the bottom of the tenth inning, Rico Garcia was pitching for Rochester with Scott Kingery at second base. Rochester intentionally walked David Dahl with Weston Wilson coming to bat. With the count 1-1, Wilson hit Garcia’s fastball for a game-winning walk-off three-run home run over the wall at right field and the IronPigs defeated the Red Wings by the final score of 5-2. It was Wilson’s fourth home run of the season and 25th RBI of the year.
Lehigh Valley finished the game with ten hits. The win went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Ryan Burr for his second win of the season, and the loss went to Rochester pitcher Rico Garcia.
The IronPigs and Red Wings play game five on Friday at 7:05 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.
