It took the Pawtucket Red Sox three-and-a-half innings and a few bend-don’t-break moments on defense to start exploiting an experiential discrepancy in Monday night’s starting pitching matchup.
They
ultimately lost their delayed rewards and needed to work overtime to regain
them. But they did just that with a little help from erratic relief pitching en
route to a 3-2 triumph over the Syracuse Chiefs at McCoy Stadium. Back-to-back
wild pitches by Daniel Stange brought home Justin Henry in the bottom of the
tenth.
For
the better part of Monday’s earlier stages, Chris Hernandez, he of 33 previous
appearances on a Triple-A mound, countered I.L. debutant Blake Treinen. Yet
much of their duel involved Syracuse inducing sweat to Hernandez and the McCoy
faithful.
Pawtucket’s
first two baserunners—Dan Butler in the third and Christian Vazquez in the
fourth—reached on a fielding error. By that point, Syracuse had already placed
four hits on Hernandez’s tab.
The
Chiefs loaded the bases on three unanswered one-out singles in the third. But
Hernandez fanned Jeff Kobernus on three looking strikes and induced a grounder
by Steve Souza to quell the threat.
The
Sox hatched their “H” column goose-egg in the fourth, when Corey Brown’s no-out
double put himself and Vazquez in scoring position. On the next pitch, Brandon
Snyder broke the ice where it mattered most by scoring Vazquez on a base hit.
Brown
hustled to third when Bryce Brentz grounded into a double play, then doubled
the lead to 2-0 with the help of Garin Cecchini’s deposit in right-center.
Syracuse
cut the difference to 2-1 in the sixth. A pair of Pawtucket fielding errors
placed Zach Walters and Steve Souza at the corners before Jhonatan Solano drove
Souza home on a single.
Two
innings later, the Chiefs loaded the bases on a single and back-to-back walks.
Bryan Villareal’s wild pitch to Emmanuel Burriss invited Solano home from third
to draw a 2-2 knot.
Syracuse
outhit Pawtucket, 10-4, and the Sox did not cultivate any bases with their bats
after Butler’s seventh-inning double. Two walks and the two wild pitches did
the trick in the tenth.
PawSox Pluses
In
both the second and fourth innings, the middle of the infield followed the same
procedure under the same circumstances to stifle Syracuse and sustain the
scoreless draw.
Both
times, Zach Walters reached base with one away. But on the next play, second
baseman Mike McCoy fielded a Solano grounder and handed things over to
shortstop Heiker Meneses, whose tag and toss to first terminated the Chiefs’
turn.
Between
those defensive dandies, McCoy and Meneses each sacrificed their turns at bat
to send Butler to third base in the bottom of the third.
Meneses
collaborated with the catcher Vazquez to foil Burriss’ stealing attempt in the
seventh. From there, relief pitcher Alex Wilson struck out Eury Perez and Souza
to polish the frame.
Vazquez
softened another Syracuse threat in the ninth by picking off Souza at first
before Brock Peterson struck out looking to strand Perez on second.
Sox Stains
Hernandez
had several shaky stretches in 4.2 innings of work. Three of his 92 pitches
fell in the dirt and a total of 37 went down as balls. His only no-hit inning
was the second, when he walked Walters, and he twice let the Chiefs load the
bases.
The
second instance came on the heels of losing his shutout when Brian Goodwin
belted a single on a 3-1 delivery. At that point, manager Kevin Boles forked
him out in favor of Wilson.
The
bullpen was not much better. Rich Hill started the eighth by retiring his first
two challengers, only to give up a two-out single to Solano and walk Goodwin. At
that point, Villarreal took over, threw a wild pitch whilst loading the bases
on another walk and then tossed another fugitive ball for Solano’s equalizer.
Chiefs Notes
Former
Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen served as Treinen’s first successor, charging
up a 1-2-3 sixth on 20 pitches.
Despite
batting eighth and ninth, respectively, Brandon Laird and Burriss nailed two
hits apiece to account for half of the Chiefs’ first eight of the night. Solano
joined them in the multi-hit club when he swatted a two-out single in the
eighth, as did Perez with a leadoff base hit in the ninth.
The
cleanup man Peterson, who came into the series on the three-game hit streak,
was the only visiting batter not to reach base in any fashion. He went 0-for-5
with two groundouts, a liner, a pop-up and a strikeout.
After
allowing a double to Butler. Xavier Cedeno pitched an otherwise two seamless
innings of relief, retiring six straight, including three strikeouts, in the
seventh and eighth.
Miscellany
Craig
Breslow, who is rehabbing
a shoulder injury en route back to Boston, delayed Hernandez’s start by
pitching the first inning. The PawSox explained
via Twitter that potential rain later in the game compelled the club to ensure
action for Breslow rather than risk waiting for a potentially nonexistent
relief opportunity.
Craig
Resop, who came on in the tenth and struck out two of his four batters-faced,
picked up credit for the win.
Henry,
ordinarily a second baseman, took to center field for his 2014 season debut.
Because
of unfavorable weather over the better part of the I.L. map, the Sox and Chiefs
engaged in one of only two games across the league Monday night. The other was
a battle of North Carolina with the Durham Bulls hosting the Charlotte Knights.
