Lehigh Valley IronPigs fall victim to unusual home run by unusual batter in another home-opening loss

A most unusual villain did in the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in a most unusual way Wednesday night.

Rochester’s Dustin Martin wore the black mask to ruin yet another IronPigs’ home opener and send 9,811 fans home disappointed.

Lehigh Valley has never won any kind of opener, so perhaps people saw it coming, but this one stung a bit.

Martin drilled a two-run home run the fifth inning that gave Rochester’s efficient bullpen (four innings, one run) a fluffy cushion to relax on the rest of the way.
Photo courtesy of Lehigh Valley IronPigsManager Dave Huppert
Home runs aren’t unusual, but the circumstances of this one sure were.

Martin was batting ninth. He’s a left-hander, and IronPigs manager Dave Huppert had just brought in ex-Phillie lefty reliever Mike Zagurski two batters before. And he hit a 3-0 pitch out -- to the opposite field.

That should not happen.

“We laid something in there and he was swinging 3-0,” Huppert said. “We got ambushed.”

The bottom of the Red Wings’ lineup tormented the IronPigs all night. Rochester’s No. 5-9 hitters went 8-for-19, with four extra base hits, all five runs scored and all five RBIs. Before Martin’s dinger, the left-handed Jacque Jones greeted Zagurski’s entry to the game with a double.

Huppert said he wasn’t going for the lefty-lefty matchup, that it was just Zagurski’s day to pitch; maybe so, but either way a left-handed reliever who does not get lefties out, much less allows crushing extra-base hits against them, isn't getting his job done and may face a very short future in the game.

Martin’s 3-0 swing typified the Red Wings’ aggressiveness versus Lehigh Valley’s more passive game. Rochester hacked at pitches all night (10 strikeouts, just one looking) and took chances on the bases (though the IronPigs made them pay for that with some terrific defense from second baseman Luis Maza, catcher Paul Hoover, Zagurski and pitcher Brian Gordon that added up to three outs on the base paths).

The IronPigs, meanwhile, looked at six called third strikes. There’s a time for taking pitches, to be sure, but there’s also a time to hit. Martin didn’t hesitate to jump on that 3-0 melon and make the difference in the game.

Lehigh Valley needed a difference-maker all night and could not find one, from start to finish. The IronPigs stranded Neil Sellers at third base in the first, and with two on in the bottom of the ninth, No. 9 hitter Brian Bocock was rung up on strikes and Chris Duffy went down swinging.

No heroes there, and heroes are what’s needed. The IronPigs are 2-5 but change one or two plays around in each game and they could be 7-0. They need a Dustin Martin to step up and whack a 3-0 offering out.

Sure, it didn’t help Lehigh Valley to lose starting shortstop Wilson Valdez (who was hitting .455) to the Phillies to replace the injured Jimmy Rollins. And the IronPigs don’t have a player like Rochester’s Jones, who was a standout major leaguer for most of the last decade.

But Lehigh Valley does have guys who are capable of doing what Martin did for Rochester Wednesday, and when those IronPigs start doing so, this team may get better in a hurry.
Or they’ll be suffering a lot more unusual losses.

Brad Wilson can be reached at 800-360-3601 or bwilson@express-times.com. Talk about sports at lehighvalleylive.com/forums

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