Major league promotions and injuries on their own roster have led to the ‘Pigs struggling as of late, having now lost three straight games and having a losing record in June thus far at 7-8.  With 8 losses, the ‘Pigs have already surpassed their number of losses the entire month of May.  Still, Lehigh Valley remains in first place in the Northern Division of the International League sitting at 43-24, 3.5 games ahead of second place Scranton.  The ‘Pigs continue at home for two more this weekend against Syracuse before hitting the road again next week for seven games against Pawtucket and Rochester.

Probables: Sat: Eshelman; Sun: Leiter; Mon: Appel; Tues: Thompson; Wed: Ramos

News and Notes: The 17 runs allowed on Friday night by Lehigh Valley was a single game record.  Additionally, the 10 runs allowed in the 9th last night (Beato and Therrien) set a franchise record as well.

–On Friday night Rhys Hoskins and Dylan Cozens homered in the same game for the 6th time this season.  The ‘Pigs are on pace for 159HR which would smash the former record of 122.

—Tom Eshelman has 3 straight quality starts and 6 in 7 starts to start his AAA career.  Since April 18th, Eshelman is a combined 7-1 with a 1.90ERA in 10 starts between Reading and Lehigh Valley, with a WHIP of 0.83.

–A modest 5 game winning streak for Jorge Alfaro who has been really struggling as of late.

–Over the last 20 games, Dylan Cozens is hitting .307 with 3HR 16RBI and 7BB.

—Cam Perkins is hitting .349 with a .440 OBP over his last 25 games.

–Since his move to the bullpen, Ricardo Pinto has not yet allowed an ER spanning 5 games and 10.1IP.  He has stranded all 8 inherited runners.

—Hector Gomez has made the most of his increased playing time since Taylor Featherston’s departure.  Over the last 26 games, Gomez is hitting .347 with 6HR and 15RBI.

–The troubles of Jake Thompson are continuing and escalating.  Is his last 5 starts, he is 0-4, with a 9.53ERA (22.2IP 37H 24ER).

–After pitching extremely well in Reading, Colton Murray is throwing very well for the ‘Pigs.  He is unscored upon in his last 5 games with 11K’s over 6.1IP.

–Since coming down from Philadelphia, Brock STassi has hit in 7 of his 9 starts and is hitting .333.

—Mark Appel has been coming around a bit, going 2-0 with a 2.38ERA in his last 4 starts.

–Mark Leiter has really struggled since coming down to Lehigh Valley and his transition back to the rotation with a 10.56ERA in his 2 starts.

—Nick Williams leads Lehigh Valley in OF assists with 5.

‘Pigs league leaders: Hitting: Nick Williams is 10th in AB(235), 7th in SLG (.502), 4th in strikeouts (77), 4th in HR(13); Rhys Hoskins is 2nd in runs (45), 4th in OBP (.387); leads the league in SLG (.589)6th in walks (35), 7th in hits (68), 3rd in doubles (17), tied for the league lead in HR(15) and RBI(51); Dylan Cozens is 5th in triples (3), 10th in SLG (.496), 3rd in strikeouts (80), 3rd in RBI (48). tied for the league lead in HR(15); JP Crawford is 5th in walks (36); Cam Perkins is 3rd in OBP (.390)

Pitching: Pat Vendittee leads the league in wins(6); Jake Thompson leads the league in losses (7) and 3rd worst WHIP (1.72) and has the worst ERA in the league (6.79); Ben Lively is 2nd in ERA (2.40) and is 2nd in WHIP (0.89); Pedro Beato leads the league in games (28) and SV(20); Mark Appel is tied for the league lead in starts (13) and is 2nd in walks (38); Tom Eshelman leads the league in CG(2)

Transactions: Comings, Brock STassi (From Reading); P Colton Murray (from Reading), OF Osmel Aguila (from Reading), INF Angelo Mora (from Reading); Goings: OF Roman Quinn (DL), P Casey Fein (Philadelphia), OF Jiandido Tromp (to Reading), INF Taylor Featherson (traded)