The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (43-21) returned to Coca-Cola Park to begin a two-week homestand starting with the Worcester Red Sox (35-28) on Tuesday. Andrew Painter (2-1, 3.86 ERA) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Issac Coffey (0-0, 0.96 ERA) of Worcester.
At the top of the first inning, Worcester third baseman Nate Eaton brought home Nick Sogard with a sacrifice fly to right field for a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the first inning, Lehigh Valley first baseman Buddy Kennedy hit Coffey’s curveball for a solo home run at 386 feet to left-center field and the game was tied 1-1. It was Kennedy’s eighth home run of the season.
At the top of the third inning, Worcester scored four runs, including a two-run home run by Nate Eaton to take a 5-1 lead. At the top of the fourth inning, Worcester left fielder Tyler McDonough hit a solo home run over the wall at right field extending their lead to 6-1.
At the top of the seventh inning, Blaze Jordan and fielder Trayce Thompson added two more runs for Worcester and it was now 8-1. Lehigh Valley struggled in this game with three hits and went on to lose to the Red Sox by the final score of 8-1. Lehigh Valley have now lost four straight games. The magic number to win the first-half division is seven games.
Lehigh Valley starter Andrew Painter lost his second game of the season. He pitched five innings, allowing eight hits, six runs, and four strikeouts throwing 73 pitches, of which 57 were strikes. The win went to Worcester starter Issac Coffey.
The IronPigs and Red Sox play game two on Wednesday at 6:45 pm. Purchase IronPigs tickets today on StubHub and Viagogo.
