IronPigs bring two-game winning streak home to Howard

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — The finale of the IronPigs' eight-game road trip was just a walk in the park, so to speak.

Lehigh Valley scored the tying run on four walks in the seventh inning, then capped a rally from a five-run deficit by getting the winning run on an overthrow after a wild pitch in the 10th inning to beat Pawtucket 7-6 at McCoy Stadium.

The win gave the IronPigs (50-76), who were outhit 11-8 but drew 12 walks, their first series win since a four-game sweep at Indianapolis July 19-22. It was also just their second extra-inning win this year, their first back-to-back wins since July 24-25, and their first true win on a Friday in 18 tries this year.

Lehigh Valley, which pulled within four games of fourth-place Pawtucket (54-72)I in the International League's Northern Division, returns to a sold-out Coca-Cola Park Saturday night to meet Rochester with rehabbing first baseman Ryan Howard in the lineup. Howard went 1-for-2 with an RBI double and a walk for Lakewood Friday night.


Dane Sardinha opened the 10th inning with a single off Fernando Cabrera (2-5), then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After Rich Thompson flied out, Cabrera uncorked a wild pitch to Melvin Dorta, which caromed quickly back to catcher Gustavo Molina, who just entered the game as part of a double switch. Molina's throw sailed high over third baseman Jack Hannahan, allowing Sardinha to score.

Oscar Villarreal (3-3) then capped a brilliant night by the IronPigs bullpen by retiring the final three PawSox after allowing a leadoff single. Brian Gordon, Mike Zagurski and Villarreal combined to allow just three base runners in six innings, with Gordon striking out five of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings.

The walks — Pawtucket pitchers threw only 100 of their 196 pitches for strikes — helped take Brian Mazone off the hook after the lefty struggled through four innings. Mazone gave up nine hits and six runs, four earned.

A throwing error by third baseman Cody Ransom opened the door for two Pawtucket unearned runs in the second, and the PawSox used four straight hits to score three times in the third.

But Pawtucket's Rich Hill walked the bases loaded in the top of the fourth before giving up a two-run double to Bocock and a two-run single to Thompson that got the IronPigs back within a run.

Neumann Romero's soft RBI single in the fourth gave Pawtucket a 6-4 lead, but Ransom's RBI double matched that in the top of the fifth, although the IronPigs left the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position with one out. They also loaded the bases with one out in the sixth but Hannahan turned John Mayberry Jr.'s hot smash into a 5-4-3 double play that ended the inning.

However, four walks in the seventh — the last three with two outs to the bottom third of the IronPigs order — forced in the tying run, although again the PawSox got out of a bases-loaded jam when Thompson went down swinging.

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