The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (65-73, 30-33) returned to Coca-Cola Park for the final six-game homestand on Tuesday night against the Worcester Red Sox (70-63, 34-28). Casey Lawrence was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Devin Sweet of Worcester.
At the top of the first inning, Worcester had a runner on third base when Franklin Arias hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Braiden Ward to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. With two outs, Lawrence struck out Romy Gonzalez to end the inning.
Moving to the top of the fifth inning, Worcester had runners on the corners with two outs when Mikey Romero hit a two-run RBI single, scoring Franklin Arias and Anthony Seigler for a 3-0 lead. Lawrence struck out Kristian Campbell to end the inning. Lawrence went five innings, allowing seven hits, three runs, three walks, and five strikeouts, throwing 94 pitches, of which 61 were strikes. Tanner Banks pitched for Lehigh Valley at the top of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Lehigh Valley third baseman Otto Kemp hit Patrick Halligan’s slider for a solo home run at 404 feet to left-center field. It was now 3-1. For Kemp, it was his 15th home run of the season, and the exit velocity off the bat was 103.4 mph. With two outs, Colby Thomas struck out swinging, and the inning was over.
In the bottom of the seventh inning. Lehigh Valley had runners on first and second base with two outs when Otto Kemp reached first base on a fielding error by third baseman Mikey Romero, scoring Dylan Moore. It was now 3-2. Kameron Misner popped out to first baseman Nathan Hickey to end the inning.
Tanner Banks went 2.1 innings, allowing a hit and four strikeouts, throwing 36 pitches, of which 25 were strikes. Michael Mercado replaced him at the top of the eighth inning. He walked one and struck out one, throwing 11 pitches, of which 11 were strikes.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lehigh Valley had the bases loaded with one out when Dylan Moore tied the game 3-3 with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Keaton Anthony. Paul McIntosh lined out to center fielder Braiden Ward for the final out of the inning.
At the top of the ninth inning, Michael Mercado loaded the bases with one out before he was replaced by Kirby Snead. Snead got the final two outs to end the inning. Mercado went 1 inning, allowing two hits, one walk, and one strikeout, throwing 20 pitches, of which 11 were strikes. Snead struck out one, throwing eight pitches, of which five were strikes.
At the top of the tenth inning, Worcester had a runner on third base with one out when Allan Castro put the Red Sox up 4-3 with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Mikey Romero. A groundout by Tsung-Che Cheng ended the inning. Snead went 1.2 innings, allowing a run, a walk, and one strikeout, throwing 25 pitches, of which 16 were strikes.
In the bottom of the tenth inning, Lehigh Valley had the bases loaded with one out. Lehigh Valley second baseman Carter Kieboom hit a game-winning two-run RBI single to left field, scoring Kameron Misner and Wuilfredo Antunez for a 5-4 win.
Lehigh Valley finished the night with seven hits, went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position, and left nine men on base. Carter Kieboom went 2 for 5 with two RBIs. The win went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Kirby Snead (6-2), and the loss went to Worcester pitcher Osvaldo Berrios (2-2).
The IronPigs and Red Sox play game two on Wednesday at 6:45 pm on the MLB App and Bally Sports Live. Brian Keller (1-5, 5.77 ERA) will be on the mound for Lehigh Valley, while Worcester will name a starter later.
