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MOOSIC — Chad Green pitched one of the best games of his career on Wednesday night for the RailRiders.
Unfortunately for the right-hander and for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, it turned out being a loss.
Green tossed a season-high 6 2/3 innings, just one out short of tying his career high, and fanned nine, just one shy of his career high, but the RailRiders lost 2-0 to Lehigh Valley at PNC Field.
“It’s frustrating that we didn’t come out with the victory, but it’s just baseball,” Green said. “The slider was better tonight and it was probably the best I felt all year.”
Green (0-3) had just one troublesome inning, the seventh, where the usually sure-fielding defense ran into a few problems as an unearned run was allowed.
The IronPigs’ Brock Stassi led off with a bloop single to the left side of the infield. RailRiders third baseman Donovan Solano and shortstop Pete Kozma lost the ball in the lights — a scenario that has occurred multiple times so far this season — leading to the single. The next batter, Tommy Joseph hit a grounder to second baseman Rob Refsnyder, who had the ball go under his glove for an error. Two batters later, the IronPigs went up 1-0 on a sac fly by Will Venable.
Other than that inning, Green gave up just three hits and one unearned run.
He retired the first 10 batters of the game with the first he allowed being a single to center by Taylor Featherston. Green also gave up a single in the fifth inning.
Green showed great command of all his pitches throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 22 batters he faced and of the 105 pitches he threw, 71 of them were for strikes. He recorded zero walks in the game.
“As a defender there’s nothing you can do just let the other guy know that you don’t see it,” said RailRiders manager Al Pedrique on the pop-up in the infield. “And hopefully Pete would have listened to him earlier and would have had a chance to catch the flyball but it didn’t happen. That’s the break they got and they took advantage.”
The RailRiders had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh loading the bases with one out before Kozma grounded into a double play to end the inning.
They also let a big chance slip away in the first inning getting three hits, but not being able to score. Ben Gamel led off with a single, but was caught stealing. With two outs, Gary Sanchez and Nick Swisher each singled before Refsnyder struck out to end the first.
IronPigs starter Zach Eflin (3-0) didn’t make things any easier. Eflin pitched 6 1/3 innings allowing just four hits and a walk, while striking out six.
“We’d get into some good counts then we’d just miss some pitches and he was dealing,” SWB right fielder Aaron Judge said. “So you gotta tip your cap to that. He was hitting his spots, but we just weren’t able to get our timely hitting.”
Joseph clubbed a long solo homer in the top of the ninth for Lehigh Valley’s second run.
IronPigs 2, RailRiders 0
Lehigh Valley`AB`R`H`BI
Sweeney 2b`4`0`0`0
Featherston ss` 4`0`1`0
Stassi 1b`4`1`1`0
Joseph dh`4`1`1`1
Arencibia c`4`0`0`0
Venable cf`3`0`0`1
Perkins rf`3`0`1`0
Marte lf`3`0`0`0
Jackson 3b`2`0`0`0
Nina 3b`1`0`1`0
Totals`32`2`5`2
RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI
Gamel cf`3`0`1`0
Judge rf`4`0`0`0
Sanchez dh`4`0`1`0
Swisher 1b`4`0`1`0
Refsnyder 2b`4`0`1`0
Solano 3b`4`0`0`0
Puello lf`1`0`0`0
Rodriguez c`2`0`0`0
Kozma ss`3`0`0`0
Totals`29`0`4`0
IronPigs `000`000`101`—`2
RailRiders`000`000`000` — `0
E: Refsnyder (4). LOB: IronPigs 4, RailRiders 6. DP: IronPigs 1, RailRiders 0. HR: Joseph (4). SF: Venable.
Lehigh Valley`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Eflin (W, 3-0)`6.1`4`0`0`1`6
Murray (H, 1) `1.2`0`0`0`0`2
Mujica (S, 6)`1.0`0`0`0`0`0
RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Green (L, 0-3) `6.2`4`1`0`0`9
Pestano `1.1`1`0`0`0`0
Pazos `1.0`1`1`1`0`2
HBP: Puello (by Eflin), Puello (by Eflin), Rodriguez (by Murray)
Ejections: Lehigh Valley’s Ryan Jackson by HP umpire Jeremie Rehak in the 6th
Umpires: HP: Jeremie Rehak; 1B: Joey Amaral; 3B: Shane Livensparger
T: 2:25 Att: 3,482