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MOOSIC — Rob Refsnyder has been criticized this season for his defensive play at second base.
Truth is, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre infielder has been nothing short of phenomenal fielding his position after the first six weeks of the season.
On Wednesday night at PNC Field, his glove work helped the RailRiders defeat Lehigh Valley 2-1 as he started two sharp double plays, one of them a candidate for play of the year for the team as SWB snapped its three-game losing streak.
In the top of the third with a runner on first base, the IronPigs’ Tyler Pastornicky hit a grounder behind the second base bag. Refsnyder made a diving stop going to his right. Without much time to get an out, he flipped from his belly to shortstop Gregorio Petit, who got the out then strongly fired to first in time for the second out.
The play was big because Brian Bogusevic then homered for Lehigh Valley’s only run of the game.
“That was a great job by Petit. I didn’t think we had a shot after I flipped it,” Refsnyder said. “But he’s been so good, Petit, and it’s great having him there and it rubs off on me.”
In the fifth inning, Refsnyder started another double play, this time more routine. But in the seventh, he had to run hard to to get to a groundball hit by Tommy Joseph. Refsnyder fielded the ball on the shortstop side of the bag and had to make a strong throw to first to get Joseph. The IronPigs picked up two hits in that inning after that play.
“I feel real comfortable,” Refsnyder said. “I feel as good as I have felt this year and I think it’s kinda reflecting on some of the plays I have been making, and I’m kinda excited about the future to be honest.”
Making his first start at PNC Field, right-hander Brady Lail had a strong performance in his home debut. Lail was very efficient needing just 76 pitches to get through six innings, the most he’s thrown in his three Triple-A starts.
After getting out of a jam in the top of the first when the IronPigs had the bases loaded and two outs, Lail had a quick second inning. The 22-year-old ran into trouble in the third allowing the shot to Bogusevic giving LV a 1-0 lead.
The RailRiders tied it up at 1-1 in the bottom of the frame scoring an unearned run when Ben Gamel (2 for 4) drove in a run with a single. Lail then went on cruise control for the rest of his outing. He faced the minimum through the last three innings he pitched, giving up only four hits in his six innings pitched, while walking two and notching one K. With a low pitch count, Lail wanted to go out for more and tried to talk his way into that, but didn’t have any luck.
“I wanted the seventh. I hopefully wanted to eighth. I wanted to give the bullpen a little bit of a break,” Lail said. “We only have a few starters so I kinda knew the mindset going in of six, seven innings. The bullpen did a great job after me, but I definitely wanted to go out for the seventh.”
Aaron Judge, who struggled the night before with three strikeouts against Sean O’Sullivan and hit a lazy flyball in his first at bat on Wednesday night, got used to the offspeed stuff in his second at bat and walloped a solo homer to left-center, just to the left of dead center off left-hander Anthony Vasquez to give the RailRiders their first lead of the series at 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
SWB had a big chance in the bottom of the sixth inning when it loaded the bases with no outs. But the struggling Slade Heathcott (hitting .125 going 6 for 48 in 13 games since returning from the disabled list) grounded into a 1-2-3 double play, followed by an Austin Romine ground out to second to end the inning. The RailRiders also left the bases loaded in the eighth and third innings, while stranding two in the sixth and seventh for 10 total LOB.
It looked like the squandered opportunities were going to hurt the RailRiders. The IronPigs had two on and two outs in the seventh against James Pazos then loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth against Pazos and Andrew Bailey. After Bailey allowed a walk to crowd the bags, he struck out Jordan Danks to get out of the threat. Bailey also gave up a two-out single in the ninth before recording his fourth save with the club.
RailRiders 2, IronPigs 1
Lehigh Valley`AB`R`H`BI
d’Arnaud ss`5`0`2`0
Pastornicky 2b`5`0`1`0
Bogusevic lf`4`1`2`1
Kratz dh`3`0`2`0
Henson pr/dh`0`0`0`0
Dugan rf`3`0`0`0
Joseph 1b`3`0`0`0
Danks cf`4`0`1`0
Moore c`4`0`0`0
Phelps 3b`3`0`1`0
Totals`34`1`9`1
RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI
Gamel dh`4`0`2`1
Refsnyder 2b`2`0`0`0
Pirela lf`4`0`1`0
Sanchez c`4`0`0`0
Judge rf`3`1`2`1
Heathcott cf`4`0`1`0
Romine 1b`4`0`0`0
Figueroa 3b`2`1`0`0
Petit ss`3`0`1`0
Totals`30`2`7`2
Lehigh Valley`001`0o0`o00`—`1
RailRiders`001`100`000` —`2
E: d’Arnaud (19), Vasquez (2). DP: IronPigs 0, RailRiders 2. LOB: IronPigs 10, RailRiders 10. 2B: Kratz (3), Petit (7), Pirela (14). HR: Bogusevic (11), Judge (7). SAC: Petit. CS: Gamel (5). PO: Gamel (first base by Vasquez).
IronPigs`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Vasquez (L, 7-6) `6.2`5`2`1`3`0
Ogando `1.1`2`0`0`2`0
RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Lail (W, 2-1) `6.0`4`1`1`2`1
Pazos (H, 3)`1.2`4`0`0`0`3
Bailey (S, 4)`1.1`1`0`0`1`1
Umpires: HP: Jon Byrne. 1B: Jansen Visconti. 3B: Doug Vines
HBP: Dugan (by Lail)
IBB: Figueroa (by Ogando)
T: 2:23. Att: 5,287.