MAY 28Th LEHIGH VALLEY (28-20) at PAWTUCKET (20-27) 1:35 Pm
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MAY 28th LEHIGH VALLEY (28-20) at PAWTUCKET (20-27) 1:35 pm Lehigh Valley IronPigs RHP Tom Eshelman (1-3, 5.73) vs. Pawtucket Red Sox RHP Chandler Shepherd (2-4, 4.76) Memorial Day Matinee – The Pawtucket Red Sox – who yesterday snapped their season-high 5-game losing streak with a crisply- played, 1-0 victory – bid to bookend their 9-homestand with two wins in a row when they play the finale of their 5-game, 4-day wrap- around holiday weekend series against the 1st-place Lehigh Valley IronPigs (AAA-Philadelphia) today at 1:35 pm at McCoy Stadium. The PawSox began the homestand one week ago with consecutive wins over Scranton/WB, then lost five in a row (two to SWB and three to LHV), and now today have a chance to end the homestand with back-to-back wins following their 1-0 triumph behind William Cuevas (7 IP) and Brandon Workman (2 IP) yesterday afternoon. The PawSox were swept in a doubleheader Saturday night by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 after dropping the series opener to the IronPigs on Friday, 6-4. So the Sox have gone from 4 runs to 3 runs to 2 runs to 1 run during the first 4-games of this series. They hope to buck that trend today. Six Pack – The PawSox season-high 5-game losing streak from May 23-26 was their longest since an 8-game losing streak last July 29 – August 6. The Sox stopped the skid yesterday with their 1-0 victory. Pawtucket is batting .200 in their last 6 games (35-for-175) while PawSox pitchers are 1-5 with a 5.04 ERA (28 ER in 50 IP). The Road Ahead - Pawtucket’s season-long 9-game homestand (3-5 thus far) concludes today. Pawtucket will not return to McCoy until June 5 vs. Louisville at 6:15 pm. They will head out on a flight to Virginia tonight and will start a 6-game roadtrip tomorrow that will include 3-games in Norfolk against former manager Ron Johnson & former pitching coach Mike Griffin, who are in their 7th and 9th seasons respectively leading the 1st-place Tides, (games Tuesday – Thursday are all at 6:35 pm). The trip will continue with a 3- game series next weekend in Durham for games vs. the 2nd-place Bulls on Friday (7:05 pm), Saturday (6:35 pm), and Sunday (5:05 pm). After an off-day one week from today (on June 4), the PawSox will begin a 6-game homestand from June 5-10 that features 3- game sets against both Louisville and Indianapolis. Last Chasing First – The last-place PawSox, who have dropped 15 of their last 20 games since May 7, were a season-high -8½ GB of 1st-place Lehigh Valley on Saturday but are now -7½ GB. Three weeks ago (May 6 & 7), Pawtucket was in 1st-place in the IL North with Lehigh Valley close behind. Since then, specifically May 8 after the IronPigs beat the PawSox, it’s been all Lehigh Valley as the Pigs have won 14 of their last 20 games and have been atop the division ever since (20 straight days) while the Sox have spent time in 2nd, 4th, 5th, and currently 6th-place. Below Ground – The PawSox (now at 20-27) were a season-low 8-games below .500 on Saturday at 19-27. It was their lowest point since they ended last year with a 67-75 record. On May 6 the Sox had matched their season-high of 3-games over the .500 mark (at 15-12) from April 28 when they were 11-8. Series Business – Pawtucket – down 1-3 in this 5-game set vs. the IronPigs – has won only one series outright this month…that a 2- game sweep at home vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 5 & 6. They most recently split a 4-game set at McCoy vs. the RailRiders earlier this week after having lost four series in a row from May 7-20. The Sox did split their first two series this month. Their last series victory of more than two games came when they won 2 of 3 in Buffalo from April 27-29. Overall the Sox are 4-8-4 in their first 16 series of the season (4 wins, 8 losses, and 4 splits) including this series loss to the IronPigs. NEXT ON TAP - The probable pitching match-ups for the upcoming series at Norfolk: Tues. 6:35 pm RHP Justin Haley (1-6, 3.65) vs. RHP Tim Melville (5-1, 3.47) Wed. 6:35 pm RHP Marcus Walden (0-2, 7.50) vs. LHP John Means (1-0, 5.59) Thur. 6:35 pm LHP Jalen Beeks (2-3, 2.74) vs. RHP Asher Wojciechowski (2-1, 3.94) 2018 Season-Series vs. Lehigh Valley – The PawSox trail the season-series vs. the IronPigs by a 7-2 count (2-4 at McCoy and 0-3 at Lehigh Valley). The clubs split an abbreviated 2-game series in Pawtucket to begin the 2018 season. Opening Night was snowed-out on April 6, the next (Opening) day Lehigh Valley was a 3-1 winner. The Sox gained the split with a 4-3 victory in the series finale on April 8. Lehigh Valley swept a 3-game series in Allentown, PA just over two weeks ago from May 7-9 in what, at the time, was a battle for 1st-place in the IL North. The Pigs out-scored the Sox, 11-2 in the series. The IronPigs won the first two games by identical 4-1 scores and then capped the sweep with a 3-0 victory in the finale on the morning of May 9. Lehigh Valley won the first 3-games of this current 5-game set by scores of 6-4, 6-3, and 6-2, but the Sox got on the board with a 1-0 victory yesterda6. These two teams will meet 17 times this season…10 in Pawtucket and 7 in Allentown. After this afternoon, the Sox and IronPigs will go at it again in about 3 weeks for a 4-game series at Lehigh Valley from June 14-17. Stats vs. the IronPigs in 2018 – Pawtucket is hitting just .186 in the 9 games vs. Lehigh Valley this season (49-for-263) with 4 HR (Betts, Flores, Travis & De Jesus, Jr.) and only 17 runs scored total. They have been shutout once, held to 1 run in four games (including a 1-0 win on May 27), limited to 2 runs and 3 runs once each, and scored 4 runs twice including in their other win on April 8 (4-3). PawSox pitchers are 2-7 with a 3.89 ERA vs. the IronPigs (32 ER in 74 IP). The Pigs have out-scored the Sox by a 35-17 margin in the 9-game season-series thus far. The 2017 Season-Series vs. Lehigh Valley – The PawSox finished 7-10 vs. the IronPigs last season (going just 2-7 in Pawtucket but 5-3 in Allentown, PA). Pawtucket went 7-6 when the clubs played single games, but 0-4 when the teams were involved in doubleheaders. Recently vs. the IronPigs –The PawSox – who lost the season-series to the IronPigs last year by a 7-10 margin - had reversed their fortunes against Lehigh Valley the prior three years…the teams split the season-series in 2016 at 9-9 but Pawtucket won the season- series over the IronPigs in both 2015 (10-8) and in 2014 (11-5) – that after going 5-11 vs. Lehigh Valley in 2013. Defensive – Pawtucket has presently played 5 straight games without an error – their longest errorless streak of the season (previous high was 3 games). Last year the PawSox led the International League with a .987 fielding pct. while making a league-low 64 errors on the season (both new franchise-records). This season the Sox are next to last in the league with a .977 fielding pct. (37 errors in 1626 total chances). Busy May - The PawSox have 4 days remaining during a busy May and they are at 9-17. Pitchers have posted a 3.94 ERA this month (97 ER in 221.2 IP) while batters are hitting .217 (177-for-815) with 17 HR and 78 runs in 26 May games (for an average of 3 runs per game). The Sox are slated to now play 30 games in 31 days in May with just one scheduled off-day (May 17) during the entire month. 15 games this month will be at McCoy and 15 on the road with all but the final three coming against IL North division clubs. Pawtucket plays Lehigh Valley 8 times (1-6), and played Rochester 5 times (1-4), Syracuse 4 times (1-3), Buffalo 2 times (1-1), and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 8 times (5-3) to cover most of May. After facing each of their IL North rivals from April 27 through today (May 28), the final three games of the month will be at IL South foe Norfolk this coming Tuesday – Thursday (from May 29-31). April Comes up a Winner – The PawSox posted a winning April for the 6th time in the last 8 years as they finished the month with an 11-10 record and in 2nd-place in the IL North (-2 GB of front-running Syracuse). Pawtucket has had just one losing month of April since 2010 and that came last year (10-12).