By Darryl Harding Sr –
On a beautiful 72 degree day at Polar Park the Worcester Redsox play their third of the homestand against the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs. This Philadelphia Phillies triple-A affiliate comes in just below the Woosox in the standings at 11-15.
With a game time decision RHP Nick Pivetta took the mound and immediately fell into trouble walking the first two Lehigh batters. Three Lehigh singles by Darick Hall, Weston Wilson and David Dahl left the Woosox down 2-0. Pivetta settled in and struck out the next three batters in a row.
Worcester got their bats working in the bottom of the second against opposing starter RHP Michael Mercado with a Mark Kolozsvary double, scoring Mark Contreras. Mercado was replaced by RHP Tyler McKay who slithered out of bases loaded, leaving three men stranded and the score unchanged at 2-1.
LHP Jorge Benitez spelled Pivetta in the 4th where the “wheels fell off” for the Woosox allowing 5 runs scored, including a 3 run homer by Hall. Now 7-1 the skies opened up causing an hour rain delay.
Returning to play, Woosox had a chance to decrease the deficit but again left three men stranded in the bottom of the 8th. Unfortunately, stranding two more in the 9th concluded the game and after three wins in a row Woosox had to take a loss.
“Over the last two or three days we’ve been excellent… we’ve been getting opportunities and cashing them,” said Woosox manager Chad Tracy in reference to men stranded on base, “today we just didn’t… so we’re trying to flush this one and tomorrow get back to what we’ve been doing the past 3 or 4 days.”
The homestand continues with three more games against Lehigh.