Wild (pitch) finale

By Steve ruman

sports@vindy.com

NILES

On a day when runs were at a premium, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers bullpen responded in grand fashion.

Sunday’s game between the Scrappers and Auburn became a bullpen game earlier than anticipated for the Scrappers. Starter Jhonneyver Gutierrez was forced out of the contest in the first inning due to an injury.

A quartet of Mahoning Valley relievers weren’t fazed by the challenge, and the Scrappers ran off with a 2-1 victory over the Doubledays in front of 1,803 fans at Eastwood Field.

George Valera scored the game’s winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning courtesy of a wild pitch.

Per New York-Penn League rules, Valera (the final batter of the 10th inning) began the bottom of the 11th at second base. Valera moved over to third on a Michael Cooper sacrifice bunt.

After Johnathan Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, Valera raced home on a wild pitch by Auburn reliever Pearson McMahan.

The victory was the Scrappers first extra-innings and walk-off win of the season. It also moved the Scrappers (7-3) into sole possession of first place in the Pinkney Division of the New York-Penn League.

“I was ready, when I got to third I knew I was going to score in some way, I was just waiting for the opportunity on every pitch,” Valera said. “As soon as I saw the ball hit the dirt, I took off.

“At this level you play to learn and you play to win. We go out there every day with the mindset to win as a team any way we can.”

The victory would not have been possible if not for the performance of the Scrappers bullpen. Relievers Luis Valdez, Brendan Meyer, Tim Herrin and Jose Oca combined to work 101⁄3 innings, giving up just one run on two hits.

Herrin and Oca kept Auburn off the board in the 10th and 11th despite the fact that the Doubledays began both innings with a runner in scoring position.

“Outstanding, superior, fantastic ... any other superlative you can come up with,” Scrappers pitching coach Jason Blanton said when asked to describe the performance of his bullpen “Go down the list, each and every one of them did an outstanding job today.

“That was just great work by all of the relievers, and wow what a tremendous job our defense did in keeping [Auburn] off the board.”

“Our infielders made some fantastic plays.”

Valdez was forced into early action when Gutierrez was hit in his throwing arm on a line drive off the bat of Onix Vega. Following the game, the extent of Gutierrez’s injury was unknown.

Valdez eventually worked 31⁄3 innings, giving up one run on one hit.

“Great job by Luis coming in that early,” Blanton said. “He knew that he was going to pitch at some point today. He knew that he would be the one to come in if something happened early in the game. ”

Auburn’s run came in the third when Rafael Bautista was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, then eventually scored on a throwing error.

The Scrappers tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth on a Michael Cooper sacrafice fly that plated Ray Delgado.