IronPigs sweep doubleheader from Bulls, take five of six in series

Lehigh Valley did not just win a doubleheader, it controlled a six-game set from the first inning on. The IronPigs blanked Durham 6-0 in the opener and finished the sweep with a 4-2 win at Coca-Cola Park, taking five of six from the Bulls and moving to 16-11 while Durham fell to 9-18.

The tone was set early in Game 1, when Lehigh Valley scored three runs in the first inning for the fifth straight game in which it plated at least one run in the opening frame. Liover Peguero opened the scoring with an RBI single, Christian Cairo followed with a three-run homer for his second long ball of the season, and the IronPigs kept stretching the lead from there. Steward Berroa and Otto Kemp later added insurance to turn the afternoon into a rout.

Tucker Davidson provided the kind of start that lets an offense play from ahead. He worked six shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out one. Jonathan Bowlan, on Major League rehab duty, handled the seventh with a perfect frame and struck out two to finish the shutout. Logan Workman took the loss for Durham after surrendering all six runs in 3.1 innings.

Game 2 was tighter, but Lehigh Valley again answered every early challenge. Durham struck first on Tatem Levins’ two-run homer in the second inning, only for the IronPigs to respond in the third with back-to-back singles and Steward Berroa’s three-run blast, his third homer of the year, to flip the game. That swing gave Lehigh Valley all the separation it needed.

Jean Cabrera did the rest. He worked five innings for the first time this season, allowing just the two-run homer as his lone damage and leaving with the lead intact. Peguero added an RBI single in the sixth for an insurance run, and Trevor Richards closed it out in the ninth for his third save of the season. Luis Guerrero took the loss for Durham.

The broader significance was bigger than one hot day at the plate. Lehigh Valley kept winning with different arms and different game scripts, a sign of depth that matters over a long Triple-A stretch and in the Phillies’ evaluation of who is forcing the issue. After a Monday off-day, the IronPigs were set to open a six-game road series at Syracuse on Tuesday, April 28, at NBT Bank Stadium, carrying both momentum and a staff that had just handled Durham across both ends of the doubleheader.