Durham completes sweep by blasting IronPigs, 9-2

FROM THE MORNING CALL

It was an "odd" night for Drew Carpenter.

The IronPigs right-hander had no problem with Durham in the even innings Friday night.

The odd innings, however, were another story.

Carpenter allowed a combined 10 baserunners and five runs in the first, third and fifth innings as the Bulls rolled to a 9-2 win over Lehigh Valley before the season's 17th capacity crowd of 10,000 at Coca-Cola Park

The IronPigs (44-63) hit into a team-record five double plays, all in the first seven innings. One came with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth inning, and another when Neil Sellers hit a rocket right at first baseman Chris Richard with runners on first and second in the seventh.

Durham (66-40), which came into the game with its second eight-game winning streak of the season, completed a four-game sweep and finished the season series against the IronPigs 7-1. After being held to a .236 average in the first three games of the series — 39 points below their season average — the Bulls ripped 14 hits in the finale including three each (with three RBIs each) by Richard and Justin Ruggiano.

Also, the soon-to-be four-time International League Southern Division champions got only four singles and three RBIs in the series from the league's home-run and RBI leader, Dan Johnson.

Carpenter (7-7), who allowed seven hits and walked three (one intentionally) in six innings, struggled from the start. Desmond Jennings ripped the game's second pitch to the wall in right center for a double, and Carpenter later hit Ruggiano to put himself in a first-and-third, one-out jam. Johnson followed with a sacrifice fly, and Richard ripped the first of his two RBI doubles to give Durham a quick 2-0 lead.

Two innings later, Carpenter issued a pair of walks around a strikeout to set up Richard's second run-scoring double, increasing the Bulls lead to 3-0.

A leadoff double by Jennings led to two more Durham runs in the fifth This time, after moving up to third on Elliott Johnson's second sacrifice, he scored when Ruggiano doubled down the left-field line. Carpenter struck out Johnson, then intentionally walked the left-handed hitting Richard to face the righty-swinging Angel Chavez. But Chavez came through with a single to right to drive in the second run of the inning.

The Bulls added a run off Michael Stutes in the seventh on singles by Elliot Johnson, Ruggiano and Richard, then snapped their odd-only trend by scoring three times in the eighth. Two scored on Ruggiano's bases-loaded ground-rule double when a fan got a hand on his drive high off right-field wall, and the other on a broken-bat single by Dan Johnson.

The IronPigs had eight hits but they were more than offset by the five double plays, matching a mark set in the franchise's 17th game on April 19, 2008, at Syracuse.

The first three baserunners against Richard De Los Santos (10-5) were erased on double plays before the IronPigs loaded the bases in the fifth on a walk to Andy Tracy and singles by Chris Aguila and Melvin Dorta. But the big inning evaporated when Sellers bounced in a 6-4-3 double play, allowing Tracy to score.

Two innings later, singles by John Mayberry Jr., Tracy and Dorta cut the deficit to 6-2 and left runners at first and second with one out. But that inning ended when Richard speared Sellers' line drive seemingly headed for the right-field corner and beat Dorta to the bag to complete the double play.

Mayberry and Dorta each had two hits. Ozzie Chavez had a fourth-inning single and has now hit safely in 13 of his last 17 games.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/ironpigs/mc-ironpigs-0730-20100730,0,3183637.story