RailRiders outlast poor start, and Lehigh Valley
May 15—MOOSIC — Pace? No, this game didn't have that. It took the RailRiders and Lehigh Valley more than 90 minutes to trudge through three innings at PNC Field on Friday night.
Action? An argument could be made that was lacking, too. At one point, the game went an hour between at-bats that ended in contact being made by a Lehigh Valley hitter. And the RailRiders struck out 14 times, too.
Still, for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a workmanlike effort got them exactly what they wanted against their Turnpike rivals: Another win.
Armando Alvarez laced a two-run home run into the first row of seating down the right field line to kick off a five-run third inning, and the RailRiders responded from an early three-run deficit to outlast Lehigh Valley, 6-4, in a plodding three hours, 50 minutes. It was their seventh win in their last eight games, and it guarantees them no worse than a split of their six-game series against the IronPigs that runs through Sunday.
It was also another standout performance for the RailRiders bullpen, which has guided the team through several tough wins this week.
"We knew they were going to be a strength of our pitching staff coming into this season," RailRiders manager Doug Davis said. "We have a lot of veteran guys with experience.
"They've been put in some difficult situations. But they're doing a terrific job."
RailRiders starter Brian Keller struggled through his 2 1/3 innings, walking five. He might have gotten away with it unscathed, but a squibbed grounder off speedy Travis Jankowski's bat in the second inning got under shortstop Andrew Velazquez's glove, allowing two runs to score for a 3-0 Lehigh Valley lead.
But two things happened after that: First, the RailRiders bullpen came into the game and started an impressive string of shutout innings. Then, the RailRiders finally solved Cristopher Sanchez in the bottom of the third.
The tall, slender left-hander who had several good outings against the RailRiders during alt-site scrimmages, retired six of the first seven batters he faced. But he didn't get out of the third, as the RailRiders batted around.
The Alvarez homer followed a leadoff walk by Zack Zehner to cut the Lehigh Valley lead to one just two batters into the inning. But Sanchez's struggles continued.
Greg Allen lined a single to right, and three batters later, Ryan LaMarre stroked another hit to right to tie it up.
"That's always been a strength of mine, going the other way," LaMarre said. "This team has really been battling. I know even up in Syracuse, (the Mets) would score some runs, and we'd always be able to respond. We've been able to string good at-bats together with guys in scoring position."
That was actually the last time the RailRiders would put a ball in play in the third. But they had some more runs to bring home. After Robinson Chirinos struck out and reached first on a wild pitch anyway, Sanchez walked Velazquez with the bases loaded to give the RailRiders a 4-3 lead. Zehner's second walk of the inning came against reliever Damon Jones and brought another run home.
Velazquez added another run on a sacrifice fly that brought LaMarre home in the fifth. While the RailRiders managed only four hits in the entire game, it turned out to be an abundance of offense the way the bullpen performed.
Right-handers Kyle Barraclough, Albert Abreu, Adam Warren and Luis Garcia combined to hold Lehigh Valley to just a ninth-inning run over the final seven innings.
They allowed only five combined hits and struck out 10, but they did have a few jams to work around.
Abreu got out of one in the fifth, striking out Darick Hall and Edgar Cabral after the first two runners reached. Then in the sixth, Abreu walked Jankowski and hit rehabbing Phillies utility man on the hand with a fastball, putting two on with one out. But Abreu got Mickey Moniak to fly out to left before Warren came in to fan Ryan Cordell and end the inning.
An opposite field double by Darick Hall preceded Austin Listi's RBI groundout against Garcia in the ninth, but he picked up his third save by getting Edgar Cabral to bounce out to Velazquez to seal a hard-fought, and long-sought, win.
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