Recorded via SoundCloud with the help of Decal’s preview and Matt’s Game Notes:
(let’s see how this works)
oh, and remember to VOTE!
The Morning After – 4/8/13 Dog Day & More!
I was happily surprised when I got to CCP yesterday and was handed a copy of “Precious Pets Pet Owners Guide” and saw that the cover was a photo of myself and my crazy weimaraner Blitzen.
From last year’s IronPig Dog Day!
The day was perfect for dog day and many showed!
Dr. Melvin of Dr. Karen’s Critter Care enjoying the sunny day!
I always love dog day… but back to baseball.
*****
A few notes:
Expect bullpen to improve. Even if some end up in Philly.
Pawtucket comes in undefeated having swept RailRiders but I’m still happy to see Syracuse leave
I’ve missed a lot of Sunday games over the years but it was nice to take in some daytime baseball yesterday. A little warmer than the previous three nights.
Standard warnings about rain today. They’ll open the doors. Forecast calls for 50% chance of rain in the evening. The price we pay for warmer weather in April. Those May flowers need water, etc. etc.
Ethan Martin – Still Kram’s Choice For Best Hair. Photo – Cheryl Pursell
Castro getting the Pigs on the board. Photo – Cheryl Pursell
Joseph throws out his first baserunner of the season! Photo – Cheryl Pursell
*****
Pigs are home until Wednesday then head out for their first road trip! Stay tuned to The Horn & Bell for team and game updates!
OinK!
Filed under Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Previewing The PawSox
The Pawtucket Red Sox come to the Lehigh Valley undefeated after winning 4 straight against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Their offense appeared to be too much for SWB as the PawSox averaged 7.5 runs per game in the 4 game series, with their lowest single game output being 6 runs in a 6-2 win on Sunday. And just like 2012 when they won the International League title, they seem to score runs in bunches in the late innings. 15 of their 30 runs this year have come in the final 2 innings. They come to the Lehigh Valley with plenty of familiar names on their squad plus a few new highly touted prospects.
Coming into the 2013 season the Pawtucket starting rotation was expected to be Steven Wright, Allen Webster, Chris Hernandez, Terry Doyle and Rubby De La Rosa. So far they have stayed in that order so it appears De La Rosa will start game 1 vs. B.J. Rosenberg on Monday and then they’ll go back to the top of the rotation with Wright vs. Cloyd on Tuesday and Webster vs. Pettibone on Wednesday.
Let’s look at what to expect.
Behind the plate is Ryan Lavarnway, a name very familiar to Ironpigs fans. Lavarnway took the International League by storm in 2011 when he was promoted from Double-A. In 61 games for the PawSox he hit .295 with 18 homeruns. He followed up his breakout 2011 season by again hitting .295 in 2012 with 8 homeruns before being promoted to Boston, but he was a disappointment with the Red Sox, hitting just .157 in 46 games. With the acquisition of Mike Napoli and David Ross by the Red Sox this year to go with Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Lavarnway found himself back in Pawtucket to begin the 2013 season. Through the first 4 games he is 4-13 .308 with 3 RBIs and is still looking for his first 2013 homerun.
Lars Anderson is long gone from the Red Sox organization so first base is now being manned by Brandon Snyder. Snyder was a former 1st round pick by the Orioles and played in 40 games for the Rangers last year, hitting .277 with 3 HR. The Rangers let him go at the end of spring training and he was signed by the Red Sox just days before the beginning of the 2013 season. He has played against the Ironpigs before as a member of the Norfolk Tides in 2010 and 2011. He is hitting just .222 through 4 games but has 1 HR and 5 RBI. Other infielders to watch include Brock Holt, a 24 year old middle infielder who was acquired from the Pirates as part of the Joel Hanrahan deal in December, Jonathan Hee, beginning his 2nd year with the Paw Sox and Jonathan Diaz a middle infielder coming over from the Toronto organization. Rounding out their infield is veteran switch hitting third baseman Drew Sutton, returning to the PawSox after playing for Gwinnett and Indianapolis in 2012. He also spent time with the Rays and Pirates during the 2012 season.
The outfield is solid with the addition of RH Bryce Brentz, the #7 prospect in the Boston organization. Brentz is just 24 and was a 2010 1st round draft pick by the Red Sox. In 2011 he hit .306 with 30 HR between Class A Greenville and Class A+ Salem. In 2012 he played mostly in AA with Portland and hit .296 with 17 HR. Through 4 games this year he is hitting a cool .368. Left-handed hitting Justin Henry joins Pawtucket after playing for Toledo last year where he hit .300. He is hitting a solid .375 with 1 HR this year. Jeremy Hazelbaker is another LH bat who got his feet wet with the PawSox last year after spending most of the year in AA where he hit .273 with 19 HR. He is hitting .353 with 2 HR after 4 games this year.
Rubby De La Rosa, the scheduled starting pitcher in game 1, is a 24 year old coming off Tommy John surgery. He pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011 and had a 4-5 record with an ERA of 3.71. His injury occured on July 31, 2011 while pitching for the Dodgers. He pitched very little in 2012 and was acquired by the Red Sox in the deal that sent Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers. 28 year old Steven Wright, the Game 1 starter for the PawSox switched to throwing knuckleballs in 2011 while in the Indians organization. He was a combined 10-7 2.54 in the minors in 2012. His knuckleball is thrown harder than the average knuckler, making his style similar to R.A. Dickey. Allen Webster threw 5 scoreless innings in his first start this year. The 23 year old was another player acquired by Boston in the big trade last year with the Dodgers. MLB lists him as the #4 prospect in the Red Sox organization and Baseball America lists him at #49 on their list of baseball’s top minor league prospects. The 23 year old has a career minor league record of 34-25 3.39. It appears the Ironpigs won’t see starters Chris Hernandez and Terry Doyle in this series but Hernandez was 5-12 3.26 in AA & AAA last year and lost to Tyler Cloyd 2-1 on August 2nd, while Doyle was 6-3 2.83 with Charlotte in 2012. The PawSox bullpen is deep and is led by Chris Carpenter, no, not that Chris Carpenter. This one came from the Cubs and was acquired by the Red Sox as compensation for the Cubs signing GM Theo Epstein away from Boston. In 2 innings pitched this year Carpenter has 6 strikeouts. Also part of the bullpen for Pawtucket is former Ironpigs pitcher Oscar Villarreal. Oscar allowed 3 runs in 2 innings against SWB on Friday night but was the beneficiary of a big 5 run 8th inning by the PawSox resulting in a win for Oscar. Rounding out the bullpen are Jose De La Torre, Pedro Beato, Graham Godfrey, Anthony Carter, Alex Wilson and Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Let’s hope the Ironpigs come out swinging Monday night and put a few notches in the loss column of the 2013 Pawtucket Red Sox. Oink!
International League North:
Pawtucket: 4-0
Buffalo…..: 3-1
Syracuse..: 3-1
Ironpigs…: 1-3
Rochester: 1-3
RailRiders: 0-4
Filed under From the Desk of Decal
IronPig Game Results 4/7/13
What a great day! The sun was shining, the sky clear and a cool breeze coming through at the Coke. It was also dog day! (More on dog day in The Morning After column tomorrow)
The Pigs got on the board early and often. Scoring in the first with a Castro double, a walk, runners moved up on a flyball out then a Sacrifice fly by Darin Ruf put the Pigs ahead 1-0 early.
In the second, the Pigs used 4 singles and 2 groundouts to push the score to 3-0.
Syracuse struck back in the third topped off with a Corey Brown HR.
Not to be outdone, the Pigs tied it up in the bottom half of the third using a Walk and a Cody Asche double with some ground outs to level the field at 4. They added 2 more in the 5th to go ahead 6-4.
The Chiefs pushed back again scoring two in the top of the 8th with a Zach Walters 2 run HR.
Breaking the tie, Syracuse swiped another 2 runs when Corey Brown hit another 2 run HR putting the Chiefs up 8-6 in the top of the ninth.
For the IronPig Pitching staff:
IronPig starter Ethan Martin went 4.1 innings allowing 4 earned runs on 3 hits. He walked 4 and struck out 3.
Cesar Jimenez took over for Martin pitching 2 scoreless innings allowing no runs on 2 hit collecting 3 strikeouts and no free passes.
Zach Miner came in for the 8th and allowed Syracuse back in the game with 2 hits and a walk allowed including Walter’s two run shot. He stayed in for the ninth allowing the 2 run Brown homer and takes home the loss.
(So many blown saves so early in the season… does anyone have Gary Majewski’s cell number?)
Final Score: Chiefs 8 – IronPigs 6
The bullpen, slightly depleted from the extra inning game last night, continues to struggle. The bats, though, seem to have woken up with 12 IronPig hits this afternoon! Also, Joseph threw out his first base stealer of the year in the 8th!
The Chiefs leave the Lehigh Valley winning 3 of the 4 game set. Stat of the series is Syracuse Home runs = 8, IronPig Home runs = 0.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s combined comment post in the “Morning After”
Don’t forget to vote for the Noise Nation in the Morning Call’s My Choice Voice Best Blogs contest! We are nominated in the Entertainment, Misfits and Sports categories. You can vote for all three categories every day until April 22nd. Help us become the Best Blog in the Lehigh Valley! Vote by clicking here.
Filed under Lehigh Valley IronPigs
About Last Night – 4/7/2013
The IronPigs got their first big win last night in walk-off fashion. Here are some observations from around the park:
..
BASEBALL:
- Young Adam Morgan pitched very well. Put the emphasis on “pitched.” His fastball was mostly 92-93 but touched 95 once and 97 once–not that I trust the Coca Cola Park radar gun. The real story was that he used all his pitches and kept the red-hot Syracuse hitters off-balance. He made one big mistake: a fastball down the middle I believe, but overall looked really good. Adam just turned 23–not 26 as a local newspaper printed this morning. That’s a big difference when we’re talking about a guy who could be a fixture in the Phillies’ rotation before too long.
(c) Cheryl Pursell
- I’ve got to give some credit to Lerud, too. It seemed he called a really good game for all the pitchers.
- Heard from behind me tonight, regarding the Chiefs: “Wow, this guy’s hitting .750” “Hey, they’re all hitting .750”
- That’s what happens when you’re down 22-2 after the first two games of the season.
- But a win today gets the split. So here we go!
- Ethan Martin on the hill for the ‘Pigs. The challenge for him is hitting his spots. Look for him to avoid walking batters early. He did very very well on Tuesday evening, so I’m hopeful.
- Darin Ruf mad a diving catch in left field early in the game to save a couple runs. There were guys on base and two outs. He face planted at the end of it, too. Despite the nice play, a guy behind Cheryl was riding him all night. Golly. Keep it positive, she says, and I would agree.
Darin Ruf
(c) Cheryl Pursell
AROUND THE PARK
- The frozen yogurt bar is really cool. You pay by the ounce, and it’s a little pricey (what isn’t?), but a top addition to Coca Cola Park for sure. That place is going to be mobbed when it gets warmer. Even the line they had set up will get quickly filled, I predict. Six flavors and mixtures at each of three machines equals 9 yogurt choices. Then a station for chunky toppings (C chose brownie bits) and then candy and sprinkles (C chose gummy worms) and finally syrups and hot fudge or caramel. The cups are big, which is good to hold all the stuff, but even a relatively conservative “sundae” was $6-$7. I advise: go easy.
- “Where’s DiPro?” That’s what the first four people I talked to at the park asked me. Bartenders, Ushers, Fans, everybody. Crimony, brother, check in or something. 🙂
THERE HE IS!
- A $0.99 fee was added to my Bypass order. Two years ago it was the norm, but last year in the club level there was no fee. Probably just to get me hooked. No matter, but I noticed it!
- How many of us have Sunday vests? Sunday hats? Powder blues? I’m calling for Sunday vests or powder blues today, if you’ve got ’em. This will be the first Sunday for the IronPigs’ powder blues.
- I overheard a gentleman describing the urinal games to his party. None of them had heard of it before. Goodness.
- It looks like ‘Hot Corner’ tickets are available for a lot of the upcoming games. Look for a full review of the seats after the next home stand, but in the mean time, if you need seats, give it a look. Early reviews are extremely promising.
IN PICTURES
(As always, major thanks to Cheryl…)
Hernandez with an early game triple
(c) Cheryl Pursell
Cody Asche at the plate
(c) Cheryl Pursell
GREAT shot of Castro’s infield double. THAT is why you hustle!
(c) Cheryl Pursell
Stutes, in relief
(c) Cheryl Pursell
Savery gets the win!
(c) Cheryl Pursell
And, the walk off. One of my favorite sights to see at Coca Cola Park!
(c) Cheryl Pursell
See you at the park,
@Kram209
IronPig Game Results 4/6/13
The Pigs got on the board early turning a Cesar Hernandez triple and a Cody Asche ground out into a first inning run!
Syracuse struck back in the 3rd on a Jeff Kobernus 2 run HR.
The Pigs took their first lead of the season in the 7th when a few hits and a Syracuse error gave the Pigs a 3-2 lead.
The hot hitting Chiefs came back in the 8th to tie the game at 3.
The Pigs luck turned in the 8th when Leandro Castro hit a 5 foot double. That’s right, 5 feet. It landed between the pitcher and catcher just feet from home plate. Castro’s hustle paid off when Michael Martinez’s single rocketed up the middle for the go ahead run.
IronPig starter Adam Morgan had a solid start. Morgan went 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, those 2 runs coming from the Kobernus HR.
Mike Stutes pitched a scoreless, hitless inning recording one strikeout.
Jake Diekman pitched 1 inning allowing 1 run (tying run) on two hits.
Justin DeFratus came in to close out the ninth. The Pig’s luck turned when Micah Owings beat out an infield single and Zach Walters chopped the ball back to DeFratus who looked to second and no one was covering. Then Carlos Maldonado bunted right back to DeFratus who bobbled allowing the bases to load.
As Pig’s Radio Matt Provence stated, “Oy Vey!”
DeFratus did yield the tying run on a double play but struck out Jimmy Van Ostrand to end the Chief’s rally.
The Pigs went down in the ninth and fans get a free cup of coffee and extra baseball!
Joe Savery took over the 10th, allowing a lead off single before ending the inning without a score.
No score in the 10th and Savery took out the Chiefs in the 11th.
The bottom of the eleventh brought on 3 walks to load the bases with one out.
Hernandez came up and belted out his 4th hit of the night giving the Pigs their first walk off win… err first win of the season!
OinK!
Final Score: Chiefs 4 – IronPigs 5
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s combined comment post in the “Morning After”
Don’t forget to vote for the Noise Nation in the Morning Call’s My Choice Voice Best Blogs contest! We are nominated in the Entertainment, Misfits and Sports categories. You can vote for all three categories every day until April 22nd. Help us become the Best Blog in the Lehigh Valley! Vote by clicking here.
Filed under Lehigh Valley IronPigs
MLB Blackout Rules Taken too Far
I turned my attention away from the radio and computer for a moment and noticed this on the TV.
Really? I mean For Real?!
Ok, I understand the need for blackouts to get fans to the Park.
It may be hard to understand for IronPig and Phillies fans as they regularly sell out but some sports teams do not sell out requiring a blackout. Of course there’s always Comcast whose strangle hold on Philly sports blacks out those who do not pay homage to them financially.
But the Bad News Bears? Not even the first one. In Breaking Training. The sequel.
The best baseball movie ending ever.
Filed under Uncategorized
LV Roller Girls Upset Mother State
Our Lehigh Valley Rollergirls Hissy Fit squad came into this bout a 70% underdog. Mother State came in with a reputation for destroying opponents.
With only 7 skaters on the squad, Mother State was all business showing impressive skills warming up and a solid game plan. Their blocking was great, their jammers were quick and fast but they revealed their weakness early in the bout. Penalties. The best of plans fall apart when that first shot is fired and when the Hissy Fits realized Mother State’s game plan was only effective with all skaters on the rink they quickly took advantage of it.
The Hissy Fits got off to a great start pushing an early 25-0 lead only to have the score tied following a powerful power jam by Mother State. Mother State kept the momentum rolling until the Hissy Fits charged forward to a 96-83 halftime lead.
After the break it became a nailbiter. With 15 minutes remaining the score was tied at 138. With 6 minutes to go it was tied at 163. At 4:00 minutes tied at 168. The fans were screaming, they were yelling they were chanting. With less than 2 minutes to go the Hissy Fits got a huge break gaining a powerjam that pushed them to 192 with Mother State at 168. There were 3 more exciting jams that ended with a final LVRG powerjam and ultimately a victory!
Final Score: Mother State 183 – LVRG Hissy Fits 195
I have to say both squads fought hard in an almost brutally physical bout tonight. Playing short handed (I heard 7 is all they normally need) Mother State was impressive. Teamwork and well thought out, perfectly timed and effective strategy kept this bout exciting.
In the end, the sportsmanship and camaraderie were evident
Filed under LV Roller Girls
The Morning After 4/6/13
Ok it’s almost the afternoon after but hey, it feels like the “Morning After”
The only thought for the day comes from Kram:
“It wasn’t as bad as it looked, though, I mean, a touchdown, 2-pt, then onsides kick and field-goal and we’re right back in it.”
Pigs look to pull things together tonight.
Don’t forget to vote for the Noise Nation in the Morning Call’s My Choice Voice Best Blogs contest! We are nominated in the Entertainment, Misfits and Sports categories. You can vote for all three categories every day until April 22nd. Help us become the Best Blog in the Lehigh Valley! Vote by clicking here.
Filed under Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Game Results 4/5/13 There’s Always Tomorrow
There’s always tomorrow. Another game. Where the hits, runs, errors and all other game stats go back to zero. Another have at it.
That’s true of games 1 through 143… at 144 it changes to “There’s always next season” (yeah yeah, I know playoffs could impact the game count. Really I don’t care about that now)
The game started off rough. (Not Darin Ruf)
The Pigs were no hit until Cody Asche broke up the multi-pitcher no hit bid in the 7th inning. By then the damage had been done. Syracuse posted 11 runs on 11 hits at this point capitalizing on the IronPig’s 5, count em 5 errors.
Final score Syracuse 11 – IronPigs 0
On another note.. We are happy to announce DiPro’s new player identification contest. Photos will be posted and you will have to identify the player by photo only. Just imagine how embarrassed a Staff Writer for the Noise Nation’s blog would be if they sat next to an actual IronPig at lunch and had no idea… could you imagine? 🙂
*****
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition of “The Morning After” for a collective list of post game and pre game thoughts.
Also, don’t forget to vote for the Noise Nation in the Morning Call’s My Choice Voice Best Blogs contest! We are nominated in the Entertainment, Misfits and Sports categories. You can vote for all three categories every day until April 22nd. Help us become the Best Blog in the Lehigh Valley! Vote by clicking here.
Filed under Lehigh Valley IronPigs
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