IronPigs Edge Durham, 3-2
One night after scoring a club-record 28 runs, the Durham Bulls were handcuffed by a vagabond right-hander over eight innings, falling 3-2 to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on Wednesday night at Coca Cola Park. David Buchanan (W, 1-1), who spent the previous seven seasons pitching in Japan and Korea,
One night after scoring a club-record 28 runs, the Durham Bulls were handcuffed by a vagabond right-hander over eight innings, falling 3-2 to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on Wednesday night at Coca Cola Park.
David Buchanan (W, 1-1), who spent the previous seven seasons pitching in Japan and Korea, needed just 90 pitch to coast through the Bulls’ lineup over eight innings en route to his first win on American soil since 2015.
The Bulls (4-7) struck first, pushing across the game’s first run on a groundout by Tristan Peters to score Logan Driscoll from third.
Lehigh Valley (4-4) evened the game against Bulls starter Mason Montgomery (L, 0-3) on a two-out single from David Dahl in the last of the second to make it 1-1. Nick Podkul stroked a tie-breaking single in the fourth to score former Bulls outfielder Jordan Luplow for a 2-1 Lehigh Valley lead. The Bulls’ deficit grew to 3-1 in the sixth thanks to a sacrifice fly from Darick Hall off of Durham reliever Edwin Uceta.
Ronny Simon (HR, 1), who doubled in the second inning, hit an opposite field home run in the eighth to draw the Bulls to within a run 3-2. But Iron Pigs closer and longtime Chicago White Sox reliever Jose Ruiz (S, 2) entered in the ninth inning and shut down the Bulls in order to even the series.
Montgomery worked a season-high five innings, permitting two runs and fanning six.
One night after piling up 26 hits, Durham managed just five against Buchanan and Ruiz.
The third game of the series against Lehigh Valley kicks off Thursday night at 6:45 PM ET with Nathan Wiles (0-1, 9.00) expected to start against Max Castillo (0-0, 8.31).
Tickets for Durham’s next home game on Tuesday, April 23rd against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and all 2024 Durham Bulls home contests are available and can be purchased online at DurhamBulls.com.