Crawford heads to bigs after helping IronPigs

When J.P. Crawford bashed his 15th homer of the year for Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Monday, he didn't know it would be one of the last contributions he'd make for the IronPigs in their chase for the Governors' Cup.
Philadelphia's No. 4 prospect is headed to the Major Leagues for the first time after Lehigh Valley clinched the International League's Wild Card with a 4-3 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Coca-Cola Park. 

"Playoffs are the best time to play baseball, but big leagues sound a lot better," Crawford told The Morning Call, "I've been working at it since I was 5, 6 years old. Living a dream."
Gameday box score
After Phillies No. 3 prospect Scott Kingery walked, the 2013 first-round pick took Jose Pena (0-1) deep for his only hit in three at-bats. Dylan Cozens, Philadelphia's 10th-ranked prospect, capped the first inning with an RBI single.
A groundout by Christian Marrero in the second plated Kingery and extended the IronPigs' lead to 4-0 for veteran Henderson Alvarez III (2-0). The 27-year-old yielded five hits, including the first of two solo shots by Yankees No. 15 prospectTyler Austin, with two walks and three strikeouts over seven frames.  
After Francisco Diaz drew the RailRiders within two runs with an RBI double in the eighth off César Ramos, Austin led off the ninth by sending an 0-1 offering from Pedro Beato over the fence in left-center field. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre loaded the bases with one out, but Beato fanned Jake Cave and got Billy McKinney to bounce out to second to notch his 33rd save.

Crawford, MLB.com's No. 60 prospect experienced a resurgence in the second half after batting .203/.321/.276 with 12 extra-base hits, 34 runs scored and 27 RBIs over the first three months of the season. In 51 games after the All-Star break, Crawford went 56-for-195 (.287) with eight homers, three triples and 11 doubles to raise his on-base average and slugging percentage to .387 and .492 respectively.
"No one likes to struggle. But I did not give up," the 22-year-old told the newspaper. "My dad and mom taught me way better than that. I fought through it and now I'm here. I never struggled like that, but fortunately I had good coaching staff and a great, great clubhouse. They kept my mind off it and I just played baseball."

The IronPigs were able to carry Crawford through his early struggles, staying 20 games over .500 through June. Sixth-ranked Rhys Hoskins led the Minors with 29 homers and 91 RBIs for Lehigh Valley before being promoted to the big leagues on Aug. 10. After starting the season with Double-A Reading, Kingery joined the IronPigs on June 26 and batted .294/.337/.449 in 63 games.
Lehigh Valley staved off elimination by taking both games of doubleheader Sunday to move into control of its playoff fate, a situation that seemed impossible a week ago. North Division rival Rochester had two opportunities to nail down the Wild Card spot over the weekend, but lost twice to Pawtucket.
The Iron Pigs reeled off five straight wins to lead the race entering the final day of the season. On Monday, the Red Wings defeated the PawSox, 10-1, but it was all for naught. Lehigh Valley's win gave it the same record as Rochester at 80-62, but the IronPigs won the head-to-head series, 13-9, to claim the tiebreaker.
Lehigh Valley begins its Governors' Cup run with a best-of-5 series against the RailRiders starting Wednesday night at Coca-Cola Park.