The wind in Buffalo seemed to be affecting everyone involved in the IronPig at Bisons game tonight. You could see the results of it on the MiLB video feed, hear it on Matt Provence’s IronPig Radio broadcast, see right handed batters call time with gusts blowing infield dirt at them like a sand blaster and sent two of Hector Luna’s throws to first wide right like a Scott Norwood field goal.
In years past this would have been a hinderance to the Pigs but this season everything seems to work out for our beloved swine swingers.
The Pigs jumped out to a 4-0 start in the top half of the first inning thanks to a Podsednik single, a walk, a Luna single, a throwing error and a Mitchell double. Bison pitcher Jeurys Familia issued the IronPigs 6 walks in his 4 innings of work struggling with control on this windy night throwing only 52 strikes out of 92 pitches.
The Pigs added 2 more runs in each the 5th and 6th innings bringing the score to 8 to 1 with the Bison getting one back in the bottom of the 5th on an Omar Quintanilla double right after one of Luna’s wind assisted throwing errors allowed Bison Rob Johnson to advance to 2nd base.
Austin Hyatt had a great night! Despite one unearned run, Hyatt was pulled after 5.2 innings of work with a pitch count that reached 90. It’s still early in the season and I see Hyatt going deeper into games soon.
David Purcey came on in relief going scoreless innings with 2 strikeouts and no walks. Following Purcey was Brian Sanches who gave up a pair of hits but got a “Cut on and Missed Strike 3” to end the 8th inning. Sanches stayed in for the 9th and retired the first two batters in quick order before allowing a base hits to Jordany Valdespin and Bobby Scales. The floodgates cracked a little bit and another hit by Lucas May allowed Valdespin to score making it 8 to 2. Fear not though Pigfans, Zach Lutz grounded out to first baseman Cody Overbeck to end the game.
Final Score: IronPigs 8 – Bison 2
In the end, Austin Hyatt came away with the win improving his record to 2-0 on the season.
Multi-hit games by Frandsen and Mitchell with 2 hits apiece. Mitchell also led the offense with 4 RBI on the night.
The IronPigs are now riding a 6 game winning streak and a 10-2 record!
*****
With Buffalo we also got to see a local player in Zach Lutz. Lutz, a native of Reading attended Governor Mifflin High School and Alvernia University where he was drafted in the 5th round of the MLB Draft in 2007 by the Mets.
Another Alvernia alumni who succeeded in the Major Leagues is Wade Miller who spent nine years between the Astros, Red Sox and Cubs. Miller was inducted in the R-Phil’s Hall of Fame last summer.
*****
Pig’s will stay in Buffalo to continue this series with a 6:05 PM start. Don’t forget to set your reminders to listen to the Pre-game show at 5:35PM on 1230AM or 1320AM then tune into live video footage of the game via MiLB Video. They charge for video but it’s not too bad if you purchase an entire season pass.
OinK!
noisenation.mlblogs.com 