Save for a hit and a walk apiece to Brock Holt and Garin Cecchini, the Pawtucket Red Sox reaped nothing from Lehigh Valley IronPigs starter David Buchanan. The home bat rack cultivated nothing at all from the visiting bullpen in the last three innings and consequently brooked a 4-0 loss at McCoy Stadium to open the 2014 season at McCoy Stadium.
Touted
Philadelphia Phillies prospect Maikel Franco, putting in his Triple-A debut
with the Pigs, plated the first run in his first at-bat. His one-out single to
centerfield nudged Clete Thomas home from third and set the stage for cleanup
hitter Jim Murphy’s RBI double, making it 2-0 after half an inning.
Cameron
Rupp led off the fourth with a home run to left. Murphy later belted another
extra-base hit, a triple, and finalized the 4-0 upshot on a wild pitch in the
seventh.
From
there, Mike Nesseth, Jeremy Horst and Luis Garcia each took a full inning
keeping the PawSox mute. The Lehigh Valley bullpen combined for five strikeouts
on nine challengers.
PawSox Pluses
Bryce
Brentz terminated Lehigh Valley’s half of the third inning when he hustled and
leaped to his right to snare Reid Brignac’s would-be deposit on the
right-center lawn. While that hit the highlight reel, the previous play was
just as pivotal. Brentz factored into the second out when he cut down Ronny
Cedeno at third base.
Holt
was the only Pawtucket batter to reach scoring position without the aid of a
wild pitch or a fielder’s choice, and he did it twice. The leadoff man walked
and stole second in the opening stanza and then doubled in his second plate
appearance.
Sox Stains
Starting
pitcher Allen Webster let the aforementioned Thomas, the Lehigh Valley leadoff
man, reach third on a wild pitch before Franco sent him home. Likewise, reliever
Dalier Hinojosa let Murphy finalize the scoring with his own toss past batterymate
Christian Vazquez.
Webster
would last a mere 3.2 innings, authorizing three earned runs on seven hits and
two walks.
Three
straight relievers—Craig Breslow, Tmmy Layne and Hinojosa—struggled to keep
their strike-ball ratio 50-50. Breslow chucked merely 10 strikes out of 20
pitches, Layne 11 of 21 and Hinojosa 17 of 35.
Centerfielder
Corey Brown struck out in all three of his plate appearances and did not swing
at the deciding strike in the latter two cases. His second “K” came in the
fifth inning when Cecchini was on second base with one out.
IronPigs Notes
Brignac,
Rupp and Tyler Henson walked two times apiece. Brignac and Henson each stole a
base.
Designated
hitter Steve Susdorf was the lone visiting batter not to reach base, going
0-for-4 with two strikeouts and five teammates stranded.
Miscellany
Thursday’s
result amounts to Pawtucket’s first loss in a home opener since 2007, when the
Sox dropped a 6-2 decision to the Scranton-Wilkes/Barre Yankees. The PawSox
have started their overall slate on a losing note for the first time since
2005, when they lost five straight out of the gate.
