Tides break through in 15th against IronPigs bullpen

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Perfection lasts for only so long.

For seven-plus innings Monday night the IronPigs bullpen was perfect — 23 Norfolk hitters up, 23 down.

But a leadoff double in the top of the 15th by Brandon Snyder, an unfortunate walk and two errors helped bring a 4-hour, 18-minute marathon to an end as the Tides scored three runs to cool off Lehigh Valley in a 6-3 win before the remnants of a Coca-Cola Park crowd of 9,607.


It was the IronPigs third game this season of 15 or more innings — they had previously played 15 innings in Gwinett on May 17, then came home back to play 16 with Louisville the next night.

Brian Gordon, Oscar Villareal, Scott Mathieson, Mike Zagurski and Schwimer combined to just one hit over their first nine innings of work behind spot starter Joe Savery. Beginning with a double play grounder after a leadoff walk in the seventh they retired 23 straight hitters, a club record.

"They were outstanding," IronPigs manager Dave Huppert said.

Five Norfolk relievers combined for 10 shutout innings, allowing only two hits and striking out 13. Jim Hoey (2-0), who struck out four including the side in the bottom of the 15th, pitched the last two innings .

"There guys just came in and shut us down," said catcher Dane Sardinha, who was also behind the plate for marathon at Gwinett. "The last three or four guys came in throwing 95 or higher with nasty sliders."

Snyder greeted Michael Schwimer (2-1) with his hit to left center, missing a go-ahead home run by a matter of inches high off the wall. After a sacrifice moved Snyder to third, Schwimer jumped up 0-2 on pinch-hitter Paco Figueroa. But Figueroa worked his way back to a draw a walk, leaving runners at the corners.

"It's always tough with a a man on third and less than two outs, so it would have been nice to get that second out there," Sardinha said.

Instead, on Schwimer's first pitch Tides leadoff hitter Matt Angle dropped a bunt down the first base line. Snyder, who didn't break for home until the bunt was down, slid in safely as Schwimer''s off-balance toss skipped past Sardinha, allowing both Figueroa and Angle to move into scoring position.

With the IronPigs infield in Robert Andolino, who had twice been robbed of hits up the middle by second baseman Ozzie Chavez, lined a ball to Chavez's left that kicked off his glove and into shallow right field for a tough error, allowing both runners to score.

"We were playing him up the middle because he had already hit a couple of balls there, and that ball had so much spin off it on the end of the bat that if you don't catch it in the air the best you can do is knock it down," Huppert said.

Chavez provided the IronPigs with their only runs as the IronPigs took advantage of a two-out strikeout/wild pitch to extend the fifth inning and tie the game at 3-3.

Brian Bocock swung through a two-out 1-2 curve in the dirt from Norfolk's Tim Bascom, but the ball bounced away from catcher Adam Donachie and halfway to the IronPigs dugout as Bocock scampered to first.

Four pitches later, the game was tied.

Chris Duffy slapped Bascom's next pitch into left for his second hit of the game, and Chavez lined a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right in a near carbon-copy of his two-run go-ahead shot in Saturday's win over the Tides.

Chavez, who also had a bunt single and has hit safely in 10 of his last 13 games, made a spectacular sprawling top of Andino's bouncer up the middle after a leadoff walk in the seventh, flipping to Bocock to start a 4-6-3 double play.

Then, with one out in the ninth, Chavez robbed Andolino again, going far up the middle to glove his bouncer with his backhand and and making a strong throw from shallow center field.

Norfolk scored twice in the second and again in the third off spot starter Joe Savery, who allowed five hits, walked one and struck out one in five innings in his first start since June 26.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/ironpigs/mc-ironpigs-0726-20100726-8,0,3902174.story