The Ironpigs came home to Coca Cola Park with a roar! I stopped in at Pitcher’s Sports Bar & Grill to catch the extended pregame show today and noticed the Sold Out sign already up. I hear tomorrow could be another sellout too (10,000 sellout). The weather was absolutely perfect for baseball tonight and the capacity crowd stayed the entire game to watch another great fireworks show.
Early on in the game it became evident, by home plate umpire Mark Lollo’s tight strike zone, that it would be a hit parade and it was. Pitchers were forced to throw strikes and those strikes found their way onto the neatly manicured CCP outfield.
Good’s
Both John Mayberry and Dane Sardinha homered.Every position player had a hit tonight, minus one.
Ironpig pitching didn’t perform that great, but they did their job without imploding and blowing the game.
The Pigs kept their streak of win one, lose one going. Hopefully tomorrow will break that streak.
Also, kudos to the little boy who through the Indian’s home run back on to the field. Learning tradition early. He didn’t go home empty handed though.. a member of the Noise Nation replaced his ball from a foul ball obtained earlier.
Not so Good’s
Andy Tracy was the only position player to not get a hit. He went 0 for 4 with a walk.The Nationals sent Stephen Strassburg to Syracuse. Unfortunately, the Chiefs won’t be back to CCP until July 1st/2nd and then again the last week of August. I don’t expect to see him this summer unless I drive to Philadelphia.
Villarreal gave up 2 runs in 2 innings relief. It’s acceptable when your team is up by 6 runs but need to play hard in the innings when you don’t have to, to be able to come through when you need to.
Cody Ransom took right field tonight and early on extended his team leading error count to 6. I understand he isn’t an outfielder but really.. it’s right field. Another ball he bobbled in the corner gave up an extra base and his throws missed the cutoff man more often than not. Basics and fundamentals seem to escape him. I wonder if it goes in hand with sportsmanship.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Loved heckling the center fielder for the Indians. His error led to 5 pig runs!!
I had a great time tonight at the game…that’s the fullest I’ve ever seen CCP. I had to park down behind LSI (big parking lot next to CCP) ! I never had to park that far before but I didn’t mind.
I wonder – was Ransom released by the Yankees, or did he go on his own ? He seems to have an attitude.
Also – the fireworks were awesome !
Keep up the great work Ironpigs Management (Landes and everyone) !
That’s a good story.
The kid does the right thing and throws it back and ends up with an authentic, used game ball all the same.
Mayberry continues to mature.
Sardinha continues to swing a hot stick when given his chance.
Random Reply:
Ransom couldn’t hide in RF. Bring on Columbus so that we can have a DH. Then again, if we’re going to continue to send pitchers to the plate to pinch hit for other pitchers, perhaps it doesn’t matter. Is Mazone a better hitter than Gordon? Did they think maybe Gordon would pitch? What does this say about Bocock? (other than, he’s right handed)
Woman in the front row of my section caught a soft-toss ball and gave it to my son (7yo). He didn’t throw it back, but did say ‘thank you.’
Are we gonna need a roster move for an outfielder? Bozied? Spidale? Brown?!? If Wise and Duffy aren’t at least capable of pinch-hitting > Mazone, then we’re gonna hafta dispatch a Town Car to New Hampshire.
And look, if Bocock can’t pinch hit > Mazone–left hand/right hand I don’t care–then he needs to leave the 40-man. Surely the Phils could use a spot for somebody else….
Not that I’m not happy, though. It was a glorious evening. Even if I did have to park in New Jersey.
One more thing: flags looked great tonight. Thanks.
I’d still prefer the OINK to the smoking WAWA, though…if it were up to me…