It took a game-and-a-half off their schedule for the Pawtucket Red Sox’ carbonation to reach critical mass. When it did, virtually the entire batting order had a hand in a fifth-inning frenzy that flip-flopped a 4-0 deficit into an 8-4 lead en route to a 9-4 triumph over the Lehigh Valley IronPigs at McCoy Stadium Friday night.
It
took eight-and-a-half innings for Mother Nature to spill over her own
outpouring, which meant declaring the victor three outs early.
In
the tone-setting stages, it appeared Groundhog Day was coming for seconds two
months later. Several statistical elements from Thursday’s Part I of this season-opening
four-game set surfaced yet again.
To
start, the IronPigs reaped their second 4-0 advantage in as many nights all
within the third inning. Ronny Cedeno plated Clete Thomas on a single, then
flew home with Reid Brignac and Cameron Rupp, whose second dinger of the season
quadrupled the difference.
Entering
the bottom of the fifth, Pawtucket had likewise matched its opening-night
output of zero runs on two hits. That was when Christian Vazquez and Mike McCoy
dislodged the cork with doubles to sandwich Corey Brown’s walk and whittle the
deficit in half.
With
still no outs in the frame, Brock Holt singled and Alex Hassan and Ryan
Lavarnway walked. McCoy tallied the Sox’ third run on a wild pitch during
Hassan’s at-bat before Lavarnway loaded the bases.
All
three came back to the dugout safely with a walk to Bryce Brentz and a two-bagger
by Garin Cecchini. Vazquez’s liner to left finished the round trip for those
two and augmented the newfangled Pawtucket edge to 8-4.
Holt
led off the home half of the sixth with a double and constituted his team’s
ninth run with the aid of a Brentz base hit.
PawSox Pluses
Although
he authorized the four-run outburst in the third inning and did not make it to
the fourth, pitcher Anthony Ranaudo did bench seven IronPigs on strikes. The
formidable Maikel Franco went down on a combined nine pitches in his two
encounters with the PawSox’ starter.
Holt
piloted the PawSox’ eruption with two runs-scored on three hits and a walk
while Brentz, Cecchini, Vazquez and McCoy charged up two RBIs apiece.
Sox Stains
Designated
hitter Dan Butler had the lonesome distinction of being the lone Pawtucket
player not to cross the plate. In fact, he constituted the first out of the
fifth with one of his three strikeouts on the night.
Butler
got caught looking at the deciding strike in both his fifth- and sixth-inning
plate appearance. In so doing, he left Cecchini to clear the bases in the
former sequence and left Brentz hanging to close the sixth in the latter.
IronPigs Notes
Starter
Barry Enright and reliever Kyle Simon split the albatross of the fateful fifth,
accruing four earned runs on their respective tabs. Simon would muster only one
out (one of Butler’s “Ks”), along with a wild pitch, three walks and two hits,
before giving way to Cesar Jimenez.
Miscellany
The
parent Boston Red Sox doled out their 2013 World Series championship rings at
Fenway Park’s season opener Friday afternoon. Eight active PawSox players—Drake
Britton, Rubby De La Rosa, Holt, Lavarnway, Brandon Snyder, Brayan Villarreal,
Allen Webster and Alex Wilson—each made a cameo to receive their rings and
darted back across the state border for the Triple-A game.
With
“credit” for four earned runs within an even four innings of work, Ranaudo and
Enright each exited their first starts of 2014 with identical 9.00 ERAs.
Resilience
was rampant on the Rhode Island sports scene Friday night as the Providence
Bruins, who were home at the Dunkin Donuts Center, deleted a 2-0 deficit to top
the Worcester Sharks in a shootout, 3-2.
