AUGUST 30th LEHIGH VALLEY (80-55) at PAWTUCKET (65-69) 7:05 pm Lehigh Valley IronPigs RHP Jerod Eickhoff (0-0, 1.32) vs. Pawtucket Red Sox RHP Justin Haley (6-8, 3.89) Series Matters - The Pawtucket Red Sox host the International League Northern Division Champion Lehigh Valley IronPigs (AAA- Philadelphia) in the rubber game of their 3-game series tonight at 7:05 pm at McCoy Stadium. Last night the PawSox evened the series at a victory apiece with an exciting 5-3 victory. On Tuesday in the series opener, the IronPigs scored 6 unearned runs in the top of the 9th to snap a 3-3 tie en route to a 9-3 win. With a victory tonight the Sox will win their second straight series (they took 3 of 4 in Buffalo earlier this week) and make it four series in a row without a series loss (they split their previous two 4-game sets vs. Durham and at Rochester during the middle of the month). Pawtucket’s last series loss came on August 14 & 15 when they dropped 2 of 3 at home to Norfolk. The PawSox are 16-20-6 in their 42 series this season (16 wins, 20 losses, and 6 splits) with three series results still pending (including tonight). Wait ‘Til Next Year - Pawtucket still trails in the wild card race by 5½-games with 5 games so last night’s Indianapolis win (the Indians are the current wild card leader) officially eliminated the PawSox from playoff contention for the 4th year in a row. The PawSox had qualified for post-season play in four straight years (2011-14) but now have four consecutive non-playoff years (2015- 18). It marks Pawtucket’s longest playoff drought since a five year stretch from 1998-2002 when they failed to make the IL Playoffs. We Say Goodbye and Good Luck to the Pigs - - Lehigh Valley, who clinched their first-ever IL North division title at home this past weekend with a walk-off winner vs. Scranton/WB, can’t make any post-season travel arrangements quite yet as they must still await their playoff foe for a semi-final series that will begin next Wednesday at the eventual wild card winner. The first two games will be played in either Indianapolis, Scranton/WB, Toeldo, Norfolk, or Gwinnett - before the best of 5 series shifts to Allentown for the final three game as necessary over the weekend. The IL wild card race is among the best in all of baseball right now as Indianapolis currently leads but by just 1-game over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 1½-games over Toledo, 2½-games up on Norfolk, and 3½-games up on Gwinnett. The Drive for Five - The PawSox – who have won 4 of 5 and 13 of their last 21 games - are down to just 5 games remaining in 2018 (3 here at home and 2 on the road). Pawtucket needs to win each of their 5 remaining games to finish above .500. Since they are only playing 139 games this season they can not finish exactly at .500 so winning all 5 would put them at 70-69. The PawSox are currently 65-69 – again equaling the closest they have been to .500 since August 17 (59-63). They have not been within 3-games of the .500 mark since all the way back on July 17 (at 45-48). The Final Four – After tonight’s series and homestand finale, the PawSox will travel to Moosic, PA overnight and then play a pair of games against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AAA-Yankees) beginning tomorrow (Friday) at 7:05 pm and Saturday at 6:35 at PNC Field. The clubs will quickly head to Pawtucket on Saturday evening/Sunday morning and continue their home and home series at McCoy Stadium for the final two games of the season on Sunday evening at 6:15 pm (with post-game fireworks) and Labor Day Monday at 1:35 pm. The PawSox will try to play the role of spoiler against the RailRiders who are presently 1-game out of the wild card spot. First Things First – Pawtucket has scored runs in the 1st-inning during each of their last four games (7 runs total) and they are 3-1 in those 4 games. It is their longest streak (4 straight) of scoring in the 1st-inning this season. NEXT ON TAP - The probable pitching match-ups for the upcoming series in Moosic, PA vs. Scranton/WB and then back at McCoy: Fri. 7:05 pm @ SWB RHP Erik Swanson (2-2, 4.09) vs. RHP Chandler Shepherd (7-9, 3.93) Sat. 6:35 pm @ SWB LHP Nestor Cortes (6-5, 3.63) vs. RHP William Cuevas (10-7, 3.39) Sun. 6:15 pm @ PAW (myRITV) RHP Adonis Rosa (2-1, 3.71) vs. TBA Mon. 1:35 pm @ PAW TBA vs. TBA Red Sox Rehabbers at McCoy – Three key members of the Boston Red Sox, all currently on the Red Sox disabled list, have begun injury rehab assignments with the PawSox this week. Pitcher Steven Wright, who has been on the DL since June 23 with left knee inflammation (related to his knee surgery a year ago May), started for Pawtucket Tuesday night and tossed 2 hitless innings. Wright is 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 10 games (4 starts) for Boston this season (from May 15 – June 22) and is 0-0 with a 4.30 ERA in 4 games (2 starts) during a rehab assignment with the PawSox from April 20 – May 11. Rehabbing Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez was behind the plate for the PawSox Tuesday night going 0-for-3 and was the DH on Wednesday (2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored) . He will catch tonight. He has been on the Sox DL since July 8 with a fractured right pinky finger suffered on a head-first slide while stealing 2nd base on July 7 in Kansas City. Vazquez, who went 1-for-2 with a SF while catching rehabbing Red Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez on Monday night in Portland, was hitting .213 in 60 games (59 as catcher) for Boston with 3 HR & 14 RBI. He was coming off a fine June, however, when he batted .298 during the month. Wednesday the Red Sox sent 3B Rafael Devers to Pawtucket to play at McCoy and last night batting second and playing third he went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored. He will DH tonight in the 2nd spot. Devers has had three stints on Boston’s disabled list this season with this most recent coming on August 16 when he was placed on the DL with a recurring left hamstring strain. Rafael has also been on the DL from July 11-21 with left shoulder inflammation and from July 29 – August 8 with the left hamstring strain. In 102 games for the Red Sox this season (100 at 3rd base) he is batting .242 with 22 doubles, 16 HR & 55 RBI. He also rehabbed for one game with (short-A) Lowell on August 6 and went 1-for-4 with a 2-run HR in that game and then rejoined the Red Sox on August 8 for six games before going back on the DL. PawSox Chase the Pigs – Pawtucket trails front-running Lehigh Valley by 14½-games in the IL North and some of that deficit can certainly be traced to the fact that the IronPigs have won 11 of the first 16 meetings between the clubs this year. Pawtucket is hitting just .217 in the 16 games vs. Lehigh Valley this season (108-for-497) with 7 HR (2 by Sam Travis and 1 each from Castillo, De Jesus, and Butler among active PawSox). Pawtucket has scored only 37 runs total in the 16 games vs. the Pigs (2.3 runs/game). They have been shutout once, held to 1 run in six games (including a 1-0 win on May 27), limited to 2 runs three times (including in a 2-1 win on June 15), 3 runs twice, scored 4 runs twice, 5 runs (in a 5-1 win on August 29), and 6 runs once (in a 6-1 win on May 28). PawSox pitchers are 5-11 with a 3.83 ERA vs. the IronPigs (57 ER in 134 IP). The Pigs have out-scored the Sox by a 68-37 margin in the season-series thus far. Pitching in for Offense – Back in early-August, Pawtucket took over the International League lead in Team Pitching when they surpassed Rochester. The PawSox had remained on top of the league until the last weekend in August when the Red Wings moved back ahead. However, the PawSox are now in a virtual tie for the top spot as both they and Rochester currently have a 3.45 ERA. Pawtucket has also gone on a big upswing this month offensively and they are now all the way up to 7th in the IL with their Team Batting average of .252 (a season-high). Records are Made to be Broken – PawSox pitchers have already established a new franchise-record for Most Strikeouts in a season as Sox hurlers have 1183 strikeouts on the year (previous record was 1118 SO in 2011). Two other club-records to keep an eye on come in the “fewest” category. Pawtucket has hit 10 triples this season…their record for fewest triples is 12 in 2015. And PawSox pitchers have just one complete game this season (Mike Shawaryn a 7-inning CG on August 14 in G2 vs.