“Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’,Though the streams are swollen,Keep them dogies rollin’, rawhide.Through rain and wind and weather,Hell bent for leather,Wishin’ my gal was by my side.”
– Frankie Laine ‘Rawhide’
Featured Image of Gabriel Rincones, Jr., by Cheryl Pursell. It has been edited to fit the space.
About Last Night
Another night of just about the worst weather you could have, and still play the game, and another IronPigs victory. The winning streak is at 8 right now, and the overall record is 10-2. They remain in first place in the 20-team International League, overall, which is what you’d need to clinch a home playoff game. We’ll worry about that later.
Top Performers: Starting pitcher Seth Johnson with yet another quality outing. In three starts this season he is 2-0, 1.88 ERA. It’s not overpowering stuff with him, but he knows how to pitch and he’s executing nicely. Vespi with a clean inning still in recovery from some shaky outings to start the season. I stood behind John McMillon while he was warming up in the bullpen. Man, I don’t know how anyone ever hits a baseball. He entered the game with some wildness though, and didn’t have full velocity right away, probably adjusting to the conditions. He did crank it up to 97 eventually and also showed the confidence to reel off six straight sliders to get the last two guys to strike out. Overall, it was “strike out the side around two hits and a walk.” Padilla and Zuñiga with clean innings to finish it out. Those guys are throwing great and I have high confidence in them. At the plate, Rincones had a day, coming up a triple short of the cycle. He’s hitting .302 on the season. Óscar Mercado added a couple of hits including a three-run double. He’s up to .314 on the season.
Game Day!
Weather Considerations: I know with the previous offseason and all the very expensive repairs they did to the drainage on the field, they’re really not in the mood to cancel or postpone games over on IronPigs Way. But, it’s getting kind of ridiculous. The lack of fans has to drive down their numbers, even with the fictitious 4,201 (paid attendance) they announced last night. It was just crazy empty. Syracuse returns for the final games of the season, here at Coca Cola Park, in September. You could pump up a doubleheader that week some time–maybe add it to the Happy Hour! Rains might end in time to play a couple tomorrow as well. Sunday isn’t a getaway day for us, but Syracuse will have to travel so it’s doubtful they’d put a doubleheader there. But we’ll see, the rain isn’t enough of a wash probably to cancel ahead of time, so we’ll plan to make our way out to the park and see what happens. This early in the season, rescheduling the groups shouldn’t be that difficult.
Pitching Considerations: The weather has the potential to rob us of a nice pitching matchup. The IronPigs send resurgent RHP prospect Mick Able (Mick Abel Checklist) to the mound. He’s 1-1 and coming off his best start in two years last outing up in Rochester (1-1, 3.27). Syracuse sends their top overall prospect, RHP Brandon Sproat (0-1, 7.50). He was a second-round pick by the Mets in 2023, out of the University of Florida. He did three levels last season, including seven starts with Triple-A Syracuse, 1-2, 7.53. In two starts this season he got knocked out after two innings opening weekend in Worcester, giving up four runs. He rebounded at home against Scranton pitching four innings with only one earned run. It will be good to get a first-hand look at a guy who will likely be facing the Phillies in the future, one way or another. From an IronPigs perspective, they haven’t often asked Sproat to go deep in games, so as long as the rain holds off, even a sterling performance by Sproat doesn’t mean the Pigs can’t abuse their bullpen. They could bump him, too, if the conditions look horrible and they don’t want to risk an abbreviated outing or an injury. If you think that’s excessive, just wait until Andrew Painter gets here.
First Pitch: 7:05PM
Gates (East, Center Field): 5:45PM
Club (West Gate): 5:30PM
Promotion: Friday Fireworks
What Else? “Turn Back The Clock Night” The IronPigs debut their new “Faux-Back” Friday uniforms. It’s what might have been if the IronPigs played in 1955 instead of 2025. Perhaps some other old-timey baseball stuff tonight.
And Then: It’s Wrestling Night. Valley Elementary Wrestling League will present awards before the game in center field.
Other Resources:
Opening Roster post, with player capsules, has been updated HERE
Printable Roster: 040925 LHV Roster
Series preview with Syracuse notes is HERE
Overall Standings: HERE
Current Injuries: INF Christian Arroyo (hamstring), OF Matt Kroon (oblique), and 1B Carson Taylor (shoulder)
See you at the park,
I mean, I guess,
@Kram207
PS: Thank you to loyal readers. I have turned off the ads. Turns out, we’re not that popular around here and in three years I’ve generated a grand total of $0.58 in ad revenue. Yeah, 58 cents. Not worth it for the annoying ads, I’d prefer readers have a better experience!