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MOOSIC &#8212; Nestor Cortes fist-pumped as he walked off the mound and into the home dugout after striking out Lehigh Valley IronPigs first baseman Zach Green to end the eighth inning.Sure, Cortes lost his no hitter just two batters later, but with the strikeout, got the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders three outs closer to taking a two-game series lead to Allentown.Newly-converted RailRiders reliever Chance Adams sealed the deal when he took the mound in the ninth and retired the IronPigs in order to to secure the 3-0 victory.&#8220;Yesterday, with (Erik Swanson) only going (three innings) due to injury and the bullpen getting shaken up a little bit, I knew I needed to at least throw five,&#8221; Cortes said. &#8220;I had a no-hitter all the way to the eighth &#8212; opening the eighth inning &#8212; and I think that&#8217;s a huge win for us. Yesterday was a huge win for us, too, when (Mark) Payton walked it off. I think this might have turned on a switch for us. I think we&#8217;re in it to win it.&#8221;While Cortes admits that he didn&#8217;t have his best stuff despite eight one-hit innings and credits his defense for a lot of his effectiveness &#8212; Gio Urshela and Ryan McBroom, especially, made a handful of good plays in the field &#8212; the 23-year-old southpaw did a tremendous job keeping the Lehigh Valley bats off-balance all night.In fact, Cortes continued his dominance against the IronPigs in the postseason.In his first Triple-A postseason in 2017, Cortes got the ball in Game 4 of the first round against the IronPigs and picked up the series-clinching victory after throwing seven shutout innings. Now after Thursday&#8217;s outing, Cortes has pitched 15 shutout innings against Lehigh Valley during his postseason career.&#8220;After the performance I had today, I said, &#8216;Man, last year I threw seven (shutout) against them, too,&#8217;&#8221; Cortes said. &#8220;Playoff baseball is playoff baseball no matter how you put it. Just come out and get ready to win and that&#8217;s what we did tonight.&#8221;After watching Cortes dominate from the bullpen, Adams did his best to follow suit. And he was impressive.Touching 95 mph three times, and 94 six more, Adams struck out a pair of batters and retired the side. It only took him 12 pitches.In his last three appearances out of the RailRiders bullpen, Adams has pitched 4.1 shutout innings and allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out three.&#8220;It&#8217;s awesome what he did,&#8221; Adams said of Cortes. &#8220;He went out and pitched great, defense made some excellent plays behind him. McBroom, that diving play. Urshela, a few nice plays.&#8220;Just felt good. Just trying to go out and get my work in. Put zeroes on the board so we win this thing.&#8221;Just like Wednesday&#8217;s Game 1 win, the RailRiders came up with timely hitting again and again.Payton led off the fourth inning with a triple before scoring on an Urshela groundout. Then, Wilkin Castillo clubbed his third homer of the year to give the RailRiders a 2-0 lead in the fifth. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre put the IronPigs away for good when Payton came around to score on Lehigh Valley closer Pedro Beato&#8217;s second wild pitch of the ninth inning.&#8220;That&#8217;s a blast man. That didn&#8217;t get very high,&#8221; RailRiders manager Bobby Mitchell said of Castillo&#8217;s home run. &#8220;To put us ahead by two at that point in time was huge. Was really huge. Obviously the third run is huge, putting a lot of pressure on a team. Coming in, they have to score more than one and then more than two &#8212; it&#8217;s tough.&#8221;King honored againRailRiders starting pitcher Mike King was named the International League Player of the Month by MiLB.com on Thursday.King made five starts in August and went 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA. That impressive run included a perfect six innings in against Syracuse on Aug. 29, a game he didn&#8217;t factor in after being pulled with the lead.King gave up just 17 hits and four walks in 33.1 August innings, to pair with 27 strikeouts.&#8220;He&#8217;s consistent in everything he does,&#8221; Mitchell said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no real times I&#8217;ve seen so far where he&#8217;s floundered at all. He makes a bad pitch here or there, but he gets right back into it. It does&#8217;t continue to snowball on him one little bit. That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s been so successful, because of his execution. His consistent execution.&#8221;NotesWith the season winding down, RHP Erik Swanson&#8217;s season is likely over. The starting pitcher exited Wednesday&#8217;s game with a sore groin and Mitchell said on Thursday that the team won&#8217;t rush him back to action and his season is likely over.GOVERNORS&#8217; CUP PLAYOFFSFIRST ROUNDGAME 2 (RAILRIDERS LEAD 2-0)RailRiders 3, IronPigs 0Lehigh Valley`AB`R`H`BIAnna ss`4`0`0`0Cowgill cf`4`0`0`0Walding 3b`2`0`0`0Meneses rf`3`0`0`0Plouffe dh`3`0`0`0Knapp c`3`0`1`0Ortiz lf`3`0`0`0Green 1b`3`0`0`0Valentin 2b`3`0`0`0Totals`28`0`1`0RailRiders`AB`R`H`BIRobinson cf`4`0`0`0Payton lf`4`2`3`0Urshela 3b`4`0`0`1McBroom 1b`4`0`0`0Ford dh`4`0`1`0Zehner rf`2`0`1`0Mazzilli 2b`3`0`1`0Castillo c`3`1`1`1Navarro ss`3`0`0`0Totals`31`3`7`2LOB: IronPigs 2, RailRiders 5; 3B: Payton (1); HR: Castillo (1).Lehigh Valley`000`000`000 &#8212; 0RailRiders`000`110`01x &#8212; 3Lehigh Valley`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOIrvin (L, 0-1)`7`6`2`2`1`4Beato`1`1`1`1`0`2RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOCortes (W, 1-0)`8`1`0`0`1`7Adams (S, 1)`1`0`0`0`0`2WP: Beato 2.Umpires: Brennan Miller, HP; Adam Beck, 1B; Ryan Clark, 2B;John Bacon, 3B.Time: 1:54 (0:41 delay); Attendance: 912<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders catcher Wilkin Castillo celebrates as he rounds the third base after hitting a solo home run against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs during Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL090718RailRiders_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders catcher Wilkin Castillo celebrates as he rounds the third base after hitting a solo home run against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs during Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL090718RailRiders_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders left fielder Mark Payton rounds first on his way to a lead-off triple during the fourth inning of Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL090718RailRiders_3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders left fielder Mark Payton rounds first on his way to a lead-off triple during the fourth inning of Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL090718RailRiders_2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders southpaw Nestor Cortes delivers a pitch against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs during Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL090718RailRiders_2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders southpaw Nestor Cortes delivers a pitch against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs during Thursday&#8217;s Game 2 of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round at PNC Field in Moosic. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Cortes, RailRiders dominate IronPigs to take 2-0 lead</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By DJ Eberledjeberle@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>T.L. EXPRESSToday&#8217;s Game: The RailRiders continue their best-of-5 first-round series against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. First pitch of Game 3 at Coca-Cola Park is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.Probable Pitchers: SWB LHP Ryan Bollinger (0-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. LHV RHP Drew Anderson (9-4, 3.87)On Radio: All RailRiders games can be heard live on NEPA Sports Radio - The Game.HOW THEY SCOREDRAILRIDERS FOURTH: Cole Irvin pitching. Mark Payton triples to deep right center. Gio Urshela grounds out to short, Payton scores. RAILRIDERS 1-0RAILRIDERS FIFTH: Cole Irvin pitching. Wilkin Castillo homers to deep left center. RAILRIDERS 2-0RAILRIDERS EIGTH: Pedro Beato pitching. Mark Payton singles to right. With Ryan McBroom batting, wild pitch by Beato, Payton to second. McBroom grouns out to the pitcher, Payton to third. With Mike Ford batting, Beato wild pitch, Payton scores. RAILRIDERS 3-0</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</shirttailMeta></div>

Nestor Cortes and the RailRiders dominate Lehigh Valley to take a 2-0 lead to Allentown