Mike Cervenak News

With baseball reaching a fever pitch in Philadelphia, ita s time to dial it down a notch with some buzz-killing minor league updates.

Last of a three-part series Phillies fans familiar with the organization's minor league system are dreaming of a future outfield that includes Michael Taylor and Domonic Brown.

Second in a three-part series When you analyze the success of the IronPigs' season, Mike Cervenak says, you have to look beyond the International League.

He ended it by hitting cleanup for the IronPigs in his first Triple-A game after Andy Tracy was a late scratch due to illness.

Mike Cervenak, left, and J.J. Furmaniak figured prominently in IronPigs comeback win over Buffalo.

The boxscore showed that the IronPigs had just four hits in a 2-1 loss to Syracuse Wednesday night, a setback that ends their faint hopes of finishing the season with a better-than-.500 record.

He made previous starts with Class A Lakewood and Clearwater as well as two stints with Double A Reading.

Last season was a lifetime ago for IronPigs veterans Andy Tracy and Mike Cervenak, a pair of professional hitters who deserve to finish September in the majors but likely are doomed by circumstances to watch the Phillies' run to a third straight division title from the outside.

International League All-Stars Drew Carpenter, Mike Cervenak and Andy Tracy are among the Lehigh Valley IronPigs players who could be called up for Philadelphia.

America's Pasttime is the only professional sports league in which someone who has been a Durham Bull or a Lehigh Valley IronPig all summer long could potentially determine a team's playoff fate.

Buffalo dropped the series opener against Lehigh Valley, losing 12-6, Friday night from Coca-Cola Field.

Eric Duncan led off the seventh with a home run, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored three more times in the inning en route to a 6-1 International League victory Sunday night over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Kyle Drabek gave up six hits and four runs in five innings to take the loss last night for the Reading Phillies, who fell, 6-2, to the Binghamton Mets in the Eastern League.

The Rochester Red Wings have lamented all season their record when the score is close, going 22-28 in games decided by one or two runs.

Mike Cervenak was admittedly slumping shortly after he returned to the Lehigh Valley lineup following a 23-game stint on the disabled list.

We begin today with another brutal but necessary beating of a dead horse: the Miguel Cairo-Eric Bruntlett comparison.

What a difference a year makes. After an inaugural season in the Lehigh Valley where it seemed every bounce went against them, the 2009 IronPigs appear to be getting the breaks such as the one they received in the fourth inning of a 7-5 victory over Rochester in the first game of a doubleheader at Coca-Cola Park.

Drew Carpenter is a West-Coast type of guy. Born in Grants Pass, Oregon, and raised in Vacaville, Calif.

Lehigh Valley outfielder Rich Thomspon can't catch up to a foul ball while wearing the IronPigs special wedding night uniforms at Coca-Cola Park.

Pucetas power: Fresno starter Kevin Pucetas pitched into the eighth inning to equal his longest outing of the season.