Iron Pigs' early eruption drowns Durham, 9-4

The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs roared out of the gates, scoring six times to defeat the Durham Bulls on a gusty Friday night at Coca Cola Park.

Jacob Lopez (L, 2-1) surrendered a pair of home runs amid a 40-pitch opening frame, and was knocked out after a wind-aided home run by Scott Kingery with two outs as the Iron Pigs (5-5) jumped out 6-0 after one inning. The big inning began with an opposite field home run by Jordan Luplow, with a potential inning-ending popout blown away from a pursuing second baseman CJ Hinojosa, dropping for a double before Kingery’s homer. Winds most of the night were consistently around 20mph and played havoc with most flyballs all night.

In the second, Durham (5-8) nicked the scoreboard on a hustle triple off the left field wall from Logan Driscoll. Osleivis Basabe bounced a single to left to cut the deficit to 6-1.

Down 7-1 in the third, Tristan Peters socked a three-run shot to right against Mick Abel (W, 1-0), but that’s as close as the Bulls would get.

Two Bulls relievers from 2023 closed out the final four innings. Ryan Burr fanned four over two frames, then Michael Mercado doused the Bulls with two scoreless innings to nail down the Iron Pigs win.

Basabe had three of Durham’s 10 hits, with Driscoll and Hinojosa collecting two apiece.

The fifth game of the series against Lehigh Valley launches Saturday night 6:35 PM ET. Adam Leverett is slated to make his Triple-A debut against Tyler Phillips (0-1, 6.52).