Lehigh Valley shuts out Hens

IronPigs’ Sandberg managing in organization where he started

BY JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

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Lehigh Valley manager Ryne Sandberg offers his view to the umpires after one of his players was ejected Monday night at Fifth Third Field. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Most baseball fans remember that Ryne Sandberg spent all 16 years of his Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Cubs.

Sandberg, now the manager for Lehigh Valley, remembers that it was Philadelphia — the IronPigs’ parent club — that originally drafted him.

“It really is ironic,” Sandberg said before Monday’s contest at Fifth Third Field, where his team claimed a 1-0 victory over the Mud Hens.

“When things didn’t work out with the Cubs, the Phillies were the first call I got — within 24 hours of the news. They were calling to see what I wanted to do.

“There was an opening here, so it didn’t take me long to realize this was where I wanted to be.”

Sandberg retired following the 1997 season and was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2005. But in 2007 he returned to the dugout and managed for four seasons in the Cubs’ minor-league system.

“I enjoy what I’m doing: I enjoy putting on the uniform and being around the players — and I enjoy competing,” Sandberg said when asked why he returned to managing. “I also enjoy honing my skills instructing, and teaching, and managing. I enjoy coming to the ballpark.

“But the biggest thing is that I’m having fun with what I’m doing.”

Sandberg managed Chicago’s Triple-A team in Des Moines last season, but did not get the job as Cubs manager this off-season. Soon after, he returned to the organization that drafted him in 1978.

“There’s still that philosophy of Phillies baseball,” said Sandberg, who spent four years in the Phillies’ minor-league system before the trade. “A lot of familiar faces — people that I got my start with and learned how to play the game from — are still involved with the Phillies, and there was a continuity that I fit right into.”

And Sandberg said that trade to Chicago reveals a message that his current team can learn.

“These players can look at me, and I can share my experience about playing good baseball and not worrying about the parent club,” he said. “There are scouts in the stands who might give them an opportunity [to play in the big leagues with another team], just like the Cubs gave me.”

Monday night Sandberg’s team got a strong performance from starter Ryan Feierabend and relievers Jason Grilli and Juan Perez to shut out the Hens for the second time in three days.

Toledo had runners on base in four of Feierabend’s six innings, but the Hens were hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position against the southpaw, who did not throw a pitch harder than 90 MPH.

“He is a crafty lefty whose pitches look good to hit, but the ball just disappears on you,” Mud Hens manager Phil Nevin said. “I know how difficult those guys can be some times.”

Mud Hens catcher Omir Santos tags out Lehigh Valley’s Delwyn Young at home plate in Monday night’s game at Fifth Third Field. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Not that the Hens didn’t have chances.

But a poor sacrifice bunt blunted a potential rally in the sixth, and Timo Perez was picked off second base with no one out in the ninth to thwart a potential comeback.

“In a one-run game, you have to execute,” Nevin said.

“You have to do the little things to win baseball games, and we just didn’t do those things.

“It’s not how many runners you get on base: It’s what you do when you get them there. The team that executes the best in one-run games is the team that is going to win.”

The lack of offense made a loser out of Toledo starter Andy Oliver, who gave up nine hits and three walks in seven innings but pitched out of trouble in every inning but the third. In that frame a single by Rich Thompson, a double by Kevin Frandsen that moved Thompson to third, and a sacrifice fly by Domonic Brown produced the game’s only run.

“I felt my fastball was a little elevated,” said Oliver, who struck out seven.

PHOTO GALLERY: See more from the Mud Hens-IronPigs game.

“When I was in a good count and needed to make a good pitch to put them away, I kind of left those up.

“And that’s where the hits were coming from.”

NOTES: Duane Below was International League Pitcher of the Week on Monday. The Britton, Mich., native allowed just three runs and nine hits in 14 innings while fanning a league-high 16. For the season, Below is 3-1, with a 2.97 ERA and has 31 strikeouts in 36.1 innings. ... Andy Dirks and Will Rhymes were not in Toledo’s starting lineup Monday. Nevin said he wanted to give both players a day off: Dirks had played in all 31 previous games for the Hens, while Rhymes had played in five straight games after his demotion from Detroit. ... Two disputed calls led to a pair of ejections. In the second Delwyn Young was called out at home on a double by Josh Barfield, and former Hen Eddie Bonine was ejected for arguing from the dugout. Then in the fifth the IronPigs’ Thompson was called for interference on a potential double play at second base, and Lehigh Valley pitching coach Rod Nichols was ejected.

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com or 419-724-6481

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