Lehigh Valley returned home last night from an eight game road trip with a 5-4  loss to Rochester and now sit at 55-56 on the year, in 4th place of the Northern Division of the International League, 5.5 games behind division leading Rochester and 4 games behind Pawtucket in the wildcard race.

‘Pigs Prospects: Adam Morgan has made two starts for Lehigh Valley since his return from the disabled list and while he has not given up an earned run, he threw close to 140 pitches in less than seven innings of work in those two starts. Bottom line, he was less than sharp which is to be expected after missing two months injured.  On the year, Morgan is 1-5 with a 4.44 ERA in his 10 starts. He has thrown 48.2 innings, given up 55 hits, walked 17 and struck out 34 while opponents are hitting .269 against him. It will be interesting to check in on Morgan in two weeks with another 2-3 starts under his belt.

Cesar Hernandez has missed all of the last week with a sore wrist that has all but taken him out of consideration for helping in the short term for the Phils in CF. On the year, still alot to be impressed about: .316/.379/414 in 345AB’s; 2HR 34RBI and a very impressive 30SB’s.

Tyson Gillies simply has not proven that he can hit at the AAA level. After his 0-4 last night, Gillies has dropped down again to .200 after 150AB’s; with 2HR and just 6RBI’s.  While Gillies experienced a moderate level of success this year repeating AA, the success has not translated in any consistent fashion to Lehigh Valley. Hitting just .179 over his last 10 games, Gillies is hitting lefties at a .143 clip in AAA and is hitting an abysmal .091 with RISP.

Tyler Cloyd seems to have turned it around over his last 4 outings , going 2-0 with a 0.78ERA in his 23 innings of work. After seemingly losing his confidence, Cloyd walked just one and struck out 14 during that same time period.  While his numbers on the year are deeply inflated by his awful two plus months, Cloyd’s resurgence has been very important to the Lehigh Valley rotation.  On the year: 15 starts, 3-8 with a 5.77ERA; 1.45WHIP and .296 opp. avg. His downfall this year has been the 16 HR he has given up, approaching two per game.  His BB/K rate is good at 2.1/7.5 per nine innings.

Next week: Aumont, Rupp, Galvis,

News and Notes: Lehigh Valley has dropped to 2nd in the league in attendance, the first time in my memory they havent led the league.  That said, they are still averaging an impressive 8,790 per game.

—Ethan Martin has a 13 inning scoreless streak.

–Prior to his callup to the Phils, Cody Asche had a 10 game hitting streak and had hit in 26 of his last 33 games (.354, 7HR)

–SP Greg Smith is 4-0 with a 0.66 ERA in his 7 starts with Lehigh Valley.

–While the IronPigs are 7-11 during the last 18 games, they have gotten very good starting pitching with starters at 4-4 with an outstanding 1.83ERA.

—Tyson Gillies and Leandro Castro are tied for the team lead in OF assists with 6.

‘Pigs Leaders, Hitting: (Stats thru 7/29): Cody Asche is 4th in AB’s (404), 2nd in hits(119), and 4th in RBI’s (68); Cesar Hernandez leads the league in triples(8), is 4th in SB’s(29) andis 5th in avg. (.310); Cody Overbeck is 4th in strikeouts(109)

Pitching:Ethan Martin is 2nd in wins(11), 2nd in walks (67), 4th in stikeouts(67), leads the league in starts(21), and is 9th in IP (115.2); Tyler Cloyd is 3rd in HR allowed (16)

Probables: Wed: Smith; Thur: Morgan, Fri: Martin Sat: Cloyd; Sun: Miner

Transactions:Last Wednesday, OF Steve Susdorf was promoted to the Phillies. Last Thursday, INF Matt Tolbert was promoted from Clearwater to Lehigh Valley and P Carlos Zambrano was released. Last Friday, OF Derrick Mitchell was promoted from Reading to Lehigh Valley. On Tuesday, 3B Cody Asche was promoted to Philadelphia and INF Tyler Henson was promoted to Lehigh Valley from Reading.