In many superhero movies the second act often goes in favor of the villains. After the Herd took game one of their series with the IronPigs, that’s exactly what happened Coca-Cola Field Saturday evening as 15,156 superhero-night fans watched the dark-grey villains run wild.
Lehigh Valley sent 18 men to the plate in the first two innings, running out to a ten-run lead as they went on to trample the Buffalo Bisons 12-2.
The evening started out ordinarily enough for Chris Leroux, inducing a pair of ground-ball outs from the first two batters – but then things unraveled quickly.
Leroux plunked Nick Williams on the leg to kick start the IronPigs’ offense. Darin Ruf then doubled home Williams to open the scoring.
A walk, a double and two singles later, Lehigh Valley had two men on base and a four-run lead.
Batting ninth in the order, Jesmuel Valentin took a 2-1 fastball from Leroux and promptly planted onto the tent behind the wall in right-center field.
Valentin’s third home run of the year gave the Pigs a 7-0 advantage heading into the bottom of the inning.
After the Herd went in order in the home half of the frame, the IronPigs hammered away again in the second.
Using a walk, a pair of singles and double, Lehigh Valley extended its lead to nine and chased Leroux from the hill. Jason Berken came on and relief and allowed an RBI single to Cedric Hunter before ending the inning.
Leroux was charged with all ten runs, coming on eight hits and two walks in a mere 1.2 innings.
The Pigs tacked on another pair of runs in the third to make it a 12-0 contest.
Buffalo finally hit the board in the bottom of the fifth. Chris Colabello belted a solo shot into the picnic area just beyond the right-field wall.
The first baseman’s fifth homer was the Herd’s first hit of the game.
Lehigh Valley starter Anthony Vasquez went seven innings, allowing a pair of runs on four hits while striking out three batters.
“He changes speeds and he throws strikes. He mixes things up and he spots his fastball, he’s got that nice changeup and he gets you thinking about it and he throws his curveball for strikes,” said manager Gary Allenson of Vasquez.
“It doesn’t matter how hard you throw it, that’s pitching right there.”
The Bisons scored their second run in the sixth as Darrell Ceciliani brought home A.J. Jimenez with a single through the right side of the infield.
Berken took the Herd to the seventh, spreading seven hits around to allow two unearned runs. Chad Girodo threw two innings of scoreless ball before Ryan Tepera kept the IronPigs off the board in the ninth.
BISONS NOTES:
With a sixth-inning single, Darrell Ceciliani extended his hitting streak to nine games…Dalton Pompey made his first career Triple-A start in right field…Chris Leroux’s previous 23 starts this year had all lasted at least 4.0 innings…After the final fridaynightbash! of the summer and Saturday’s superhero affair, Coca-Cola Field attendance this season hits 517,042. The half million plus is 34,261 behind last year’s final total with five home dates remaining.
from Bisons.com via IFTTT
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