Carpenter, bottom of order spark IronPigs

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Drew Carpenter allowed four hits and two runs over six innings while adding his first career RBI and Dane Sardinha and Brian Bocock each had two hits and two RBIs to lead the IronPigs to a rain-delayed 6-3 win over Buffalo Saturday night before 13,256 at Coca-Cola Field.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak by Lehigh Valley (24-38) and handed Buffalo (33-30) its sixth straight setback.

The bottom four hitters in the Lehigh Valley lineup -- Chris Duffy, Sardinha, Bocock and Carpenter -- combined to go 8-for-11, score four runs and knock in five in a game delayed a half-hour at the start and another 37 minutes in the middle of the seventh.

For the second straight time weather cut Carpenter's start short, but unlike last Sunday, when he had given up four runs in four innings against Charlotte, he was much sharper this time. Carpenter (6-4) retired the first 11 batters he faced before Mike Jacobs' two-out homer in the fourth gave Buffalo its first hit and run.

He later gave up a sixth-inning run on a single and a double before retiring the last two batters he faced.

Carpenter walked none, throwing 51 of his 74 pitches for strikes while striking out three.

The 26-year-old, who was 0-for-11 this season and 2-for-41 as a pro hitter including 0-for-3 in the majors, followed singles by Duffy, Sardinha and Bocock (RBI) in the second with a bouncing ball to the left side. Third baseman Mike Cervenak smothered the ball but had no play anywhere, and the infield single drove in Sardinha from third with the inning's second run.

Lehigh Valley made it 3-0 in the fourth when Cody Ransom doubled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Sardinha, who was robbed of extra bases when left fielder Marshall Hubbard made a leaping catch of his fly ball at the fence. Sardinha and Bocock both had RBI singles and John Mayberry Jr., in the lineup for the first time after missing six games with a bruised left knee, was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth to make it 6-1.

Alex Concepcion gave up a home run to Fernando Martinez on the first pitch after the seventh-inning rain delay but that was Buffalo's only hit over the last three innings. Scott Mathieson pitched a perfect ninth for his 12th save.

Bocock's two hits give him five over the last two nights and pushed his average to .195, the highest it's been since April 14 when he ended season's seventh game hitting .211.

Before the game catcher Paul Hoover was placed on the disabled list with a bruised left knee. John Suomi was called up from Reading to replace him.

From the Morning Call