Buffalo hands IronPigs 10th straight loss at home

FROM THE MORNING CALL

As if the IronPigs didn't have enough problems, it seems every team that comes to Coca-Cola Park these days is on a roll.

First came Durham, the best team in the International League, which had won six wins in seven games and brought a five-game winning streak to Allentown at the end of July. The Bulls became the first opponent to sweep a four-game series at CCP since the first series of the 2009 season.

Then last weekend, Gwinnett, which had won six of its previous eight, duplicated the Bulls' four-game sweep.

Now, Buffalo come to town with wins in eight of its last nine games, the lone loss in that stretch a setback to the IronPigs in Buffalo last Wednesday. And the Bisons kept rolling along Monday night, easing to an 8-1 win over Lehigh Valley before a Dog Day in the Park crowd of 9,288.

The loss extended the IronPigs' club-record home losing streak to 10 games — they haven't won at Coca-Cola Park since a 3-2 win against Norfolk in July 25. It was also their 13th in 14 games overall, matching their worst span (April 16-30, 2008) in franchise history.

The return of John Mayberry Jr. and Cody Ransom from the Phillies didn't do much to help the IronPigs offense. Mayberry had two hits, a double and a single off a ball off the body of third baseman Nick Evans, and Ransom — who accepted his minor league assignment earlier in the day after clearing waivers — flew out to right as a ninth-inning pinch hitter in his first IronPig at-bat since July 2. But overall Lehigh Valley (45-71) had just six hits and was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, making them 5-for-32 in that situation over the last three games.

Buffalo starter Michael Antonini, who was promoted from Double-A Binghamton earlier in the day, scattered those five hits and allowed an unearned run over six innings. Antonini, a Drexel Hill native who turned 25 last Friday, struck out five — all among the first nine batters he faced — and walked none, throwing 61 of his 93 pitches for strikes.

The lone IronPigs run came in the first, when Mayberry reached on a two-out throwing error by Evans and scored when Matt Rizzotti lined a single up the middle. Later, Brian Bocock was stranded at second in the fifth following his leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt, and the IronPigs couldn't bring in Mayberry after his leadoff double in the sixth.

The Bisons (61-54) pounded 15 hits, nine of them off Brian Mazone (5-12) in 6 1/3 innings. Mazone, who had allowed 10 hits and two runs in his last 15 innings over two starts, was charged with six runs (five earned).

For the third straight game the IronPigs handed their opponents a gift run, this time in the first inning when two errors gave Buffalo a quick 1-0 lead. First, third baseman Neil Sellers booted an apparent double-play ball after a leadoff walk. Then, after Ozzie Chavez and Brian Bocock turned a slick 4-6-3 doubleplay on Lucas Duda's bouncer in the second base hole, the usually sure-gloved Bocock booted Evans' bouncer to short, allowing Jesus Feliciano to score.

Another leadoff walk, this one to Duda, led to the Bisons' second run in the fourth. Duda went to third on a single to right by Kirk Nieuwenhuis, the Mets' third-round pick in 2007 playing in his fifth game with the Bisons following his promotion, then scored on Jorge Padilla's sacrifice fly.

Three straight hits by Feliciano (single), Justin Turner (double) and Duda (a two-run single) gave Buffalo a 4-1 lead through five innings, and the Bisons chased Mazone during a three-run seventh. Mazone gave way to Brian Gordon with runners on the corners and one out, and Gordon struck out Turner for the second out. But Duda followed with an RBI single to right, and after a walk Nieuwenhuis slapped a two-run single to right to extend the lead to 7-1.

Nieuwenhuis drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth off Mike Zagurski.

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