The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (52-31) visited PNC Field on Friday night against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (44-37). Alan Rangel (4-2, 4.96 ERA) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Brendan Beck (1-0, 1.74 ERA) of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
At the top of the first inning, Lehigh Valley catcher Garrett Stubbs hit Beck’s slider for a solo home run at 377 feet to right field for a 1-0 lead. It was Stubbs’s sixth home run of the season.
In the bottom of the first inning, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre third baseman Jesus Rodriguez hit Rangel’s four-seam fastball for a solo home run at 370 feet to right field and the game was tied 1-1. It was his second home run of the season.
Moving to the top of the fifth inning, Lehigh Valley center fielder Cal Stevenson hit an RBI double to right field scoring Oscar Mercado for a 2-1 lead. Then, second baseman Nick Dunn hit an RBI single to right field scoring Cal Stevenson for a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre left fielder Everson Pereira hit Rangel’s four-seam fastball for a two-run home run at 378 feet to right-center field, and the game was tied 3-3. It was his 13th home run of the season.
At the top of the sixth inning, Lehigh Valley third baseman Rafael Lantigua hit a two-run RBI single to center field scoring Keaton Anthony and Donovan Walton for a 5-3 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre left fielder Everson Pereira hit an RBI single to right field scoring Jesus Rodriguez and it was now 5-4. Guillo Zuniga closed out the game for Lehigh Valley in the bottom of the ninth inning. He got the first two guys, followed by walking two players. Finally, he got Everson Pereira to ground out to first baseman Keaton Anthony, who tossed the ball to Zuniga and the ballgame was over.
The IronPigs defeated the RailRiders by the final score of 5-4 for their second straight win. Zuniga threw 15 pitches, of which eight were strikes to earn his second save of the season. Lehigh Valley finished the night with nine hits, committed one error, went 2 for 6 with runners in scoring position, and left four men on base.
Lehigh Valley starter Alan Rangel earned his fifth win of the season. He pitched 5.1 innings, allowing four hits, three runs, five walks, and four strikeouts throwing 99 pitches, of which 58 were strikes. The loss went to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre relief pitcher Sean Boyle.
The IronPigs and RailRiders played game five on Saturday at 6:05 pm.
