Pigs Drop 1-0 Heartbreaker to Clippers

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (45-34) dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Columbus Clippers (42-37) on Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Park.

In the bottom of the ninth, the IronPigs had the tying run at second base with one out, but RHP Ben Heller (1.0 IP) got Andrew Knapp and Darin Ruf to ground out and end the game. Heller picked up his fourth save of the season.

The game was scoreless until the top of the sixth as Pigs starter James Russell and Clippers starter Adam Plutko traded zeroes.

In the top of the sixth, Erik Gonzalez reached on an error charged to IronPigs 3B Darnell Sweeney, advanced to second on a single and scored on Jesus Aguilar's RBI single to give Columbus a 1-0 lead on the unearned run.

Russell (2-4) gave up the one run (none earned) on five hits while fanning three over seven innings of work. The 7.0 IP represents a career-long outing for the southpaw and tops his previous career-high of 6.2 IP with Double-A Tennessee on June 25, 2008.

Plutko (2-1) allowed three hits to go along with a walk and five strikeouts over seven shutout innings.

RHP Dalier Hinojosa (1.0 IP, H, K) and RHP Frank Herrmann (1.0 IP, K) each had a scoreless outing in relief for manager Dave Brundage's squad.

The series wraps up on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. as RHP David Buchanan (4-4, 4.54) will be on the bump for the Pigs against Clippers RHP Mike Clevinger (7-0, 2.81).