IronPigs Move Closer to Playoff Berth

On the strength of a brilliant pitching performance by Brian Bass, the finished their home schedule with an impressive 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Bisons Saturday night.

With the victory, the IronPigs have seized control of their own post-season destiny with two games left in the season.

Bass was stellar, allowing only five balls to be hit out of the infield in eight innings, giving up just two hits and striking out a season high 10 batters.

Bass even helped himself at the plate. He led off the third inning with a line-drive single to left, his first hit of the season, then advanced to third on Pete Orr’s single to right.

Then Kevin Frandsen hit a long drive over the head of Bisons right-fielder Mike Baxter for a bases clearning double. Frandsen also drove in the third run of the game in the fifth inning with a two-out single to drive in Rich Thompson, who had reached on a bunt-single and stole two bases.

The International League’s Northern Division championship is no longer a possibility for the IronPigs, as the Pawtucket Red Sox clinched that with a come-from-behind victory over the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees Saturday night.

However, the Gwinnett Braves split a doubleheader with the Charlotte Knights Saturday, dropping them to one game behind the IronPigs in the race for the International League’s wild card berth.

Any combination of two Pigs wins and Braves losses will put Lehigh Valley in the playoffs for the first time in the team’s four-year history. If the Pigs and Braves finish the season Monday in a tie, they will play a one-game tiebreaker playoff game Tuesday night in Allentown.