Lehigh Valley opened their season Thursday in Syracuse with a back and forth battle between the ‘Pigs and the Chiefs (Nationals affiliate). The 7-8-9 hitters jumped all over Lehigh Valley for 6 RBI’s and the ‘Pigs were unable to hold a late 6-4 lead after they had come back from an early 4-2 deficit. Brian Mazone started for Lehigh Valley and went 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits. He walked 2 and did not have a strike out. Mazone left with the ‘Pigs trailing 4-2, however that was quickly turned around with a three run triple by Paul Hoover, who scored himself on a wild pitch giving Lehigh Valley a 6-4 lead. Syracuse bounced right back in the 8th, scoring two runs off lefty Mike Zagurski. A two out RBI single by Rich Thompson scored DeWayne Wise giving Lehigh Valley the 7-6 lead, which was immediately answered by Syracuse in the 9th with a solo homer by Roger Bernadina off of Ehren Wasserman to tie the game. After walking the bases loaded following the homer, Wasserman (0-1) gave up a walk off single to Pete Orr which won the game for SYracuse, 8-7.
Notes: Andrew Carpenter was officially optioned back to Lehigh Valley. He will join the starting rotation.
–Interesting question as to where Scott Mathieson was during the game on Thursday. Mathieson looked very good in Tuesday’s exhibition throwing in the high 90;s, He certainly could have been used in a game where two leads were blown by ‘Pigs relievers.
—Alex Concepcion pitched two shutout innings in relief of Brian Mazone on Thursday.
—Chris Duffy, WIlson Valdez, Paul Hoover, Cody Ransom, and DeWayne Wise all had two hits for Lehigh Valley.
–The ‘Pigs continue exisiting without having been over .500 for a single day in their history.
Phuture Phillies 
Disappointing game, but good to see Hoover come up with the clutch hit.
Like you, I’m confused why Mathieson isn’t the closer on this team. I guess the team feels it can use Wasserman at the big league level more than Mathieson this year.
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Is anyone trying to listen to the R-Phils on the net tonight? Their audio feed is absolutely worthless.
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Wow, Lakewood put up an 8 spot in the first tonight. Can’t find a boxscore, but I’m dying to see what it looks like.
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How about letting Mathieson close, and moving Wasserman to middle relief, or to the cut list?
MILB seems to have done away with in-game boxscores. If you want them back, email the webmaster at
webmaster@minorleaguebaseball.com
as politely ask what happened to them.
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According to the Lakewood blog, James and Villar were both 2-2 in the 1st inning, and Ruf hit a 3-run HR.
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Threshers with a no hitter into the 7th? WOW.
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It’s a PG, actually.
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Never mind, broken up in the 7th with a 2-run HR (according to the Threshers Twitter feed)
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Actually broken up by Travis D’Arnaud of all people
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BTW, boxscores are back. Wonder if it was the thousands of emails we sent?
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A nice comment about Lakewood in BA chat today
Who in the Phillies system do you see taking a step forward and filling in the void left by the Halladay trade. I know Dom Brown is a stud, and the players brought in the Cliff Lee trade are solid, and the Phillies have a ton of high risk / high reward outfielders, but outside of Anthony Gose, who do you see as realizing that potential and taking a step forward this year. Thanks.
John Manuel: Jarret Cosart will break out on the mound. Watch their entire Lakewood roster, bursting with prospects, just some high-risk guys, like Domingo Santana, Jiwan James, Jonathan Villar, Cesar Hernandez . . . that’s going to be a fun team to watch. I expect the Phils’ system to come back up actually this year, with the development of some of those guys.
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The minor league closer role isn’t really a place where you put your prospects. You want your prospects getting steady work, and not having to wait upon a game situation which comes along inconsistently. Wasserman is ideal for the closer’s role as, despite today’s outcome, he is extremely good at preventing the long ball.
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Looks like Mr. Huppert did not put much stock in Brian Bocock’s hitting, 1 AB and then pinch hit for by Neil Sellers.
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Alan, by and large I agree. However, if you have a prospect at AAA that you want to pitch in “close and late” game situations in the majors, you ought to have him practice that in AAA. Maybe he doesn’t close every game, but he should see his fair share of save situations.
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I think the role is largely a canard. I’m not a believer that athletes display some kind of special skill in those kind of situations. But it’s largely irrelevant in the minors because managers just don’t play to win. Minor league relief appearances are often dictated simply by who needs work.
Besides, from what I’ve seen of AAA games the important situations come up in the 6th-8th innings. Minor league teams rarely have the weapons off the bench that the MLB teams do.
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Why is Neil Sellers not starting? Lets see if this guy is the real deal.
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Word is that Sellers will be seeing most of his time and DH. That being said, I agree with you.
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Duckworth to the DL since Carpenter was optioned…he’s got the dreaded “turf toe”…
Also, I wonder if Sellers would prefer to be in AA playing in the field as opposed to being a DH in AAA. Tough to make it to the Bigs if you’re considered a one trick pony…not saying that’s a fair or accurate label but it seems to be the perception.
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I sense that there are more potential plotlines here for our minor league players than in any other season I can recall. There’s a whole lot of intrigue. What this means, of course, is that there’s a lot of untapped potential (just look at the Lakewood outfield alone!) and entirely unknown (and unknowable) outcomes. It’s exciting.
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And you can’t beat having 4 or 5 box scores that you actually care about almost every night. I think I await this as more eagerly than I await the start of the big league team’s season (which is why I frequent this site, I suppose).
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7:05 tonight:
Aumont and Cosart and May. Everybody pitches, woo hoo.
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Good outing by Mathieson today: six batters faced, 19 pitches, no runs or hits and two K’s in two innings. Nothing wrong with pluncking a batter every once and a while with his heat. He is about the only reason to follow the Pigs. Looks like it’s going to be another long season for Pig fans until Galvis, Brown and Gillies arrive at add some excitement.
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Through 3 innings, May and Cosart have identical 0 ER, 1 hit, 3 Ks. Anthony Hewit draws a walk in his first at bat of the season.
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Cosart’s fastball sitting at 95-96. His curve ball at 75 according to Greg doing the play by play.
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Break up the Blue claws! 8-0 in the 5th.
Anthony Hewit: 2 for 2, HR and BB
Jiwan James: 2 for 2, HR, 3b
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