The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (13-7) played game five on Saturday night from Coolray Field against the Gwinnett Stripers (10-8). Kyle Tyler (1-1, 3.68 ERA) was on the mound against Hurston Waldrep (1-0, 7.11 ERA) of Gwinnett.
Lehigh Valley took a 1-0 lead at the top of the second inning when shortstop Rodolfo Castro hit an RBI double to left field scoring Buddy Kennedy. Castro went 1 for 4 with a double and one RBI.
Lehigh Valley second baseman Rafael Lantigua hit an RBI single at the top of the second inning scoring Rodolfo Castro to give the IronPigs a 2-0 lead. Lantigua went 1 for 4 with a single and RBI.
Gwinnett tied the game 2-2 on home runs by Matthew Batten in the bottom of the second inning, and Eddys Leonard in the bottom of the third inning. At the top of the third inning, a sacrifice fly by Lehigh Valley catcher Josh Breaux brought Buddy Kennedy home for a 3-2 lead.
Lehigh Valley was making a ton of mistakes on defense allowing Gwinnett to take advantage. Gwinnett left fielder Eddy Alvarez hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning scoring Eddys Leonard and the game was tied 3-3.
A sacrifice fly by shortstop Luke Waddell put Gwinnett up 4-3. Lehigh Valley got called for a balk allowing Carlos Rodriguez to score for a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, and an RBI single by Charles Leblanc extended Gwinnett’s lead to 6-3. Lehigh Valley could not mount a comeback and lost to the Gwinnett Stripers by the final score of 6-3. Lehigh Valley had eight hits and committed two errors.
Lehigh Valley starter Kyle Tyler lost his second game of the season pitching 5.2 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, three earned runs, one walk, and four strikeouts throwing 86 pitches, of which 61 were strikes. The win went to Gwinnett starter Hurston Waldrep and relief pitcher Jesse Chavez earned his second save of the season.
The IronPigs and Stripers conclude the six-game series on Sunday at 1:05 pm. Purchase IronPigs tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
