9.May.2010 at 9 | UncleLar
‘Pigs’ Bump sinks Columbus
The sinkerball pitcher gets batters to ground out on a windy night in Allentown.
By Jeff Schuler
OF THE MORNING CALL
Nate Bump has been playing professional baseball for 12 years, suiting up for some 1,800 games over that span.
He can’t remember one quite like Saturday night.
Gusty, swirling winds kicked up enough dirt to make Coca-Cola Park feel like a desert movie set. Rain skirted around the park early, leading to a double-rainbow beyond the right-field wall, before a sudden downpour developed as Scott Mathieson worked to get the final outs in the IronPigs’ 5-3 win over Columbus before 9,688.
“This is probably one of the strangest games I’ve ever played in during my career,” said Bump, who used a sinker to keep enough balls on the ground to pitch six effective innings and earn his fourth win. “I’ve played at Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 4,500-feet elevation with 15-to-20 miles-an-hour winds, but tonight was way worse.”
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