By Josh Cook
A strong outing by rookie Aroldis Chapman helped the Louisville Bats win their third straight game Wednesday night.
The highly-touted left-hander allowed only three hits, while striking out seven, over 5 2/3 innings to lead Louisville to a 4-2 win over Lehigh Valley in Allentown, Penn.
Chapman (4-2), who also walked three, rebounded well from the worst outing of his young professional career - Rochester rocked him for eight runs over 3 1/3 innings last Friday night.
Wladimir Balentien led off the fourth inning with his fifth home run of the season to give Louisville an early 1-0 lead.
The Bats (17-23) added two more runs - on Chris Valaika's RBI-single and Drew Sutton's sacrifice fly - in the fifth inning off Iron Pigs starting pitcher Joe Savery (0-4).
Sutton added an RBI-double in the seventh inning. He led Louisville's eight-hit attack by going 3-for-3.
Rochester (15-24) rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Bats reliever Jared Burton, but Logan Ondrusek and then Enerio Del Rosario came on to preserve the victory.
Game 3 of the four-game series is at 10:35 a.m. Thursday morning at Coca-Cola Park.
