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MOOSIC — Kyle Higashioka’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly to shallow center field surprisingly wasn’t the farthest sac fly he had ever hit, but it was certainly important.
With Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders second baseman Gleyber Torres standing on third base in a tie ballgame, Torres keep a keen eye on the ball off of Higashioka’s bat. Once he saw that the ball was going into the outfield and Lehigh Valley IronPigs center fielder Collin Cowgill was on his heels, Torres tagged up and darted home even though the ball didn’t travel all that far.
The New York Yankees top prospect slid home just in front of the throw to give Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (3-1) a crucial one-run lead en route to a 5-3 victory over the IronPigs (1-2).
“Definitely with these conditions, it’s tough to throw the ball. I’m glad he pushed the issue right there, especially since we took the lead,” Higashioka said. “That was definitely a good move by him because he scored.”
Once Torres scored, RailRiders manager Bobby Mitchell was able to exhale.
After last season’s collision at homeplate ended Torres’ season short, Mitchell might be holding his breath whenever Torres could run into a collision en route to scoring this season. But after the hard lesson he learned back in June, Mitchell’s confident Torres won’t make the same mistake twice.
“We made it perfectly clear to him, and I don’t think he’ll ever slide head-first into home again,” Mitchell said. “I watched him and I thought, ‘It’s going to be close.’ Then he slid off to the left (to avoid the throw) and put his hands right (across his chest). He made sure.”
Higashioka’s go-ahead sac fly was the catcher’s third RBI of the game after he hit a two-run shot over the center field wall to give the RailRiders a 2-0 first-inning lead.
Monday’s 1-for-3 affair has compounded on what has been an impressive start for the 27-year-old catcher. Higashioka is batting a team-high .429 with two home runs, three runs scored and four RBI.
It took just three games to tie his home run total from last year’s 14-game season.
“Higgy’s swinging the bat well,” Mitchell said. “You can tell when he is because he’s patient at the plate, he gets good pitches to hit. When he starts swinging at some balls out of the zone he gets a little too anxious and is not as good, but he’s been really good lately, seeing the ball really good obviously.”
While RailRiders starting pitcher Daniel Camarena would have liked to go longer than 4.1 innings, he was pleased with his first outing of the season — aside from the fact that he allowed runners on second and third before he retired the final two batters of a scoreless first inning.
The southpaw gave up four hits and walked two batters while striking out three without factoring into the decision.
“That was it — just finding my rhythm, trying to get going. Felt good after that,” Camarena said.
RailRiders 5, Lehigh Valley 3
Lehigh Valley`AB`R`H`BI
Ortiz lf`5`1`3`2
Valentin 2b`5`0`0`0
Cozens rf`4`1`1`0
Cowgill cf`3`0`1`0
Walding 3`0`0`0
Meneses 1b`4`0`2`1
Pullin dh`3`0`0`0
McBride c`3`0`1`0
Anna ph`1`0`0`0
Moore c`0`0`0`0
Amarista ss`3`1`1`0
Totals`34`3`9`3
RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI
Asche 3b`3`1`1`0
Torres 2b`4`1`1`0
Higashioka c`3`1`1`3
Ford 1b`4`1`2`0
McBroom rf`4`1`1`0
Fleming dh`4`0`2`1
Zehner lf`3`0`2`1
Crawford cf`3`0`0`0
Avelino ss`4`0`0`0
Totals`32`5`10`5
DP: IronPigs 0, RailRiders 2; LOB: IronPigs 9, RailRiders 8; 2B: Cozens (1), Ford 2 (2), Zehner (1); 3B: Torres (1); HR: Ortiz (1), Higashioka (2); SAC: Crawford; SF: Higsashioka; SB: Cowgill (1).
Lehigh Valley`000`001`200 — 3
RailRiders`200`001`11X — 5
Lehigh Valley`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Irvin`5`4`2`2`1`10
Casimiro`1`2`1`1`2`1
Davis (L, 0-1)`1.1`4`2`2`0`1
Curtis 0.2`0`0`0`0`1
RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Camarena`4.1`4`0`0`2`3
Espinal`1.2`2`1`1`1`2
Holder (BS, 1)(W, 1-0)`2`3`2`2`1`4
Gomez (S, 1)`1.0`0`0`0`0`1
WP: Casimiro, Holder.
HBP: Cowgill (by Espinal), Asche (by Irvin).
Umpires: Travis Godec, HP; Jeremy Riggs, 1B; Chris Graham, 2B; Jansen Visconti, 3B.
Time: 2:52; Att: 2,305.
