Post-game Pop-ups: PawSox 6, Red Wings 2

Swift Summation

After devoting the middle of the week to giving first place in the International League North the hot-potato treatment, the Pawtucket Red Sox inched back ahead of the Rochester Red Wings Friday night.

A five-run outburst in the third inning put the Sox on pace to a 6-2 victory, ensuring a split of their four-game set with the Wings and of their eight-game homestand. At 13-10, Pawtucket sits half a game ahead of Rochester, which holds two games in hand and an 11-10 transcript.

Each side hatched its goose-egg in the third, albeit with a vast discrepancy in emphasis. After shedding first blood, the PawSox batted around to raise a 5-1 upper hand.

With two away in the road half, the Red Wings landed runners at the corners with the help of a walk and a throwing error by Garrin Cecchini. As if on cue, Chris Parmelee deposited a single to right to score Danny Santana for the first run.

Sox centerfielder Corey Brown retorted in the bottom half when he belted Trevor May’s first offering over the left-center fence for a leadoff homer. Three plays later, with Justin Henry on board via a walk, Christian Vazquez helped Pawtucket to a 2-1 edge through an RBI double.

Back-to-back walks filled the bags and Bryce Brentz nudged in a pair of additional runs by dropping his own two-bagger into deep center. Cecchini followed that by shooting to the straightaway warning trach for a sacrifice fly, more than enough to bring home Ryan Lavarnway.

Rochester promptly put two men in scoring position to commence the fifth with a single for Chris Rahl and a double by Dan Rohlfing. But Doug Bernier’s sacrifice fly, which plated Rahl, amounted to the lone visiting run of the inning.

Vazquez and Daniel Nava gave Pawtucket the same start to its half of the same inning with a two-bagger and base hit, respectively. Lavarnway proceeded to fire a liner to left and score Vazquez for a 6-2 advantage.

Back-to-back two-out singles by Deibinson Romero and Eric Farris went for naught in the top of the sixth. Ditto Rohlfing’s leadoff walk in the seventh and Romero’s two-out BB in the eighth.

 

Rohlfing walked once more with one down in the ninth. But Brown's catch on the centerfield warning track and Bernier's strikeout repressed Rochester's last threat.

PawSox Pluses

Two nights after being optioned from Boston, Nava percolated several solid sequences on offense in his first Triple-A appearance of the season. He reached base three times through a single and two walks and stole second with one away in the seventh.

That move arguably prolonged the inning as he subsequently advanced to third while Brentz grounded out on the next pitch. Although, he would end the inning when his attempt to swipe home failed.

Brentz, who patrolled right field, bailed out Cecchini and foiled a run to end the top of the first. He retrieved the remnants of Cecchini’s errant throw to first and zapped Doug Bernier at the plate for the third out.

With his two doubles, Vazquez now has five two-baggers in his last six games played and six in his last nine.

Sox Stains

Cecchini was less fortunate in the wake of his error in the third than he was on his botched toss in the first. If not for Brentz’s aforementioned initiative, the third baseman would have been liable for two consecutive unearned runs on 2014 debutant Matt Barnes’ tab.

Brandon Snyder struck out in all four of his plate appearances, taking a total of 18 offerings from three different pitchers. He incurred two of those “Ks” during the PawSox’ productive third and fifth innings, leaving a cumulative five teammates hanging.

Red Wings Notes

May mustered a mere three innings before giving way to Brooks Raley to commence the fourth. He authorized five earned runs on three hits and four walks with six of his seven baserunners coming in that fateful third.

By the middle of the sixth, every Red Wing had reached base through at least one hit or walk. Farris, who entered Friday's action tied for fourth among qualified I.L. leaders with a .354 batting average, was the lone visitor to record two hits.

Miscellany

Brown’s longball made him the ninth Pawtucket player to record a home run in 2014. He previously led the Syracuse Chiefs with 25 dingers in 2012, tied for that team’s lead with 14 in 2011 and placed second with 19 last year.

Barnes threw five full innings in his first start of the season, incurring six hits and two runs (one earned) while walking and fanning a pair apiece.

With his sac fly and three walks, Cecchini gained no official at bats Friday night.

The opposition has scored first, but managed only a 1-0 advantage, in each of the PawSox’ last three winning efforts.

Post-game Pop-ups: Red Wings 8, PawSox 1

Swift Summation
The statistics took an oath and refused to fool around Thursday afternoon at McCoy Stadium. Beneath the Pawtucket Red Sox’ 8-1 loss to the Rochester Red Wings was a defensive debacle shared by four participating pitchers.

Starter Anthony Ranaudo, who brooked his second defeat in two meetings with Rochester in 2014, joined three colleagues in throwing 168 pitches. That swollen tally was compounded by 72 balls and 20 baserunners—13 via the hit, six through walks and one on a fielding error.

The PawSox cultivated a paltry three innings out of Ranaudo. His final tab for the afternoon yielded 39 strikes, 32 balls and three runs on six hits and four walks.

Rochester only needed to swing at one of Ranaudo’s first 16 pitches to load the bases without delay. An infield single by Danny Santana and back-to-back walks brought up cleanup man Wilkin Ramirez. Ramirez proceeded to foul off five straight before moving everyone up a bag with an RBI single to left.

Two plays later, Eduardo Nunez belted a sacrifice fly to left, summoning the second run in the form of Doug Bernier.

The Red Wings revved up and loaded up again in the second, beginning with Eric Fryer’ one-out single up the middle. Santana followed up by dropping a double into right field and Bernier accepted four unanswered balls for his second walk.

This time, though, an impromptu pep talk led Ranaudo to fan Chris Parmelee and Ramirez, stranding all three runners. Still, his pitch count was already at 54 with only 30 strikes through two stanzas.

In the top of the third, Eric Farris rolled a two-out single up the middle. He augmented Rochester’s lead to 3-0 when he came home via Chris Rahl’s base hit and Bryce Brentz’s fielding error, which let Rahl reach third.

Jeremy Kerht provided anything but relief in the fourth. With a five-pitch walk and a single on a 3-1 delivery, he put Santana and Bernier on the corners as his first two showdowns. Ramirez subsequently plated Santana and sent Bernier, who had stolen second, to third with another deposit on the left-field lawn.

One play later, Will Middlebrooks’ error let Brad Nelson reach first, nudged Ramirez to second and bumped Bernier home. Farris batted in both of the remaining runners when he tripled to the opposite corner in right to swell the difference to 7-0.

Just as they did Wednesday night, the PawSox finally hatched the goose-egg in their run column when the visiting starter was at the dusk of his day. Kris Johnson let a single, error and walk load the bases with two out in the sixth. A subsequent six-pitch pass to Mike McCoy forced Brentz home.

Nelson’s single to center off Dalier Hinojosa’s waved Bernier home from second to restore the seven-run margin in the eighth.

PawSox Pluses

Brentz was the lone challenger to reap multiple hits off Johnson. His fourth- and sixth-inning singles accounted for two-thirds of Pawtucket’s total hits in six innings against the Rochester starter.

Sox Stains

Ranaudo’s inauspicious start generated its first disturbances when two of his early offerings reached the standing batter’s face height. Of the 33 total pitches he racked up in the opening stanza, only 18 went for strikes. Of those strikes, none were of the swing-and-miss variety.

Although McCoy’s passivity paid off on that bases-loaded walk in the sixth, he had a similar opportunity to alter the outlook in the fourth. An identical combination of a single, walk and error loaded the bases for him two down. But he spilled those three runners by lining the first pitch into the glove of Farris in center.

Red Wings Notes

Matt Hoffman relieved Johnson and threw three straight 1-2-3 innings with four strikeouts.

Santana is now 5-for-5 against Ranaudo in 2014, having tripled twice and singled once at Frontier Field on April 14.

Parmelee stretched his hitting streak, which began in Part I of last Thursday’s home doubleheader versus the PawSox, to nine games. Although, he is remarkably hitless in five confrontations with Ranaudo this season, drawing three walks and fanning twice.

Nunez was the only visiting batter not to reach base at any fashion at Ranaudo’s expense. Nonetheless, he factored in to the scoring with credit for an RBI on his sac fly in the first.

Miscellany

The visiting team has won five of the first seven installments of the Red Sox-Red Wings season series. Pawtucket claimed three out of four during last week’s stay at Frontier Field.

Alex Wilson, recently returned from Boston, logged eight pitches in an altogether meaningless 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

Post-game Pop-ups: PawSox 3, Red Wings 1

Swift Summation

The Pawtucket Red Sox channeled Homer Simpson from his boxing days Tuesday night, accepting as much punishment as needed before springing to action late in the bout.

After Rochester Red Wings’ starter Alex Meyer limited them to one hit while striking out 11 in 6.2 innings, the visiting bullpen proved less menacing. When Rochester was ripe, the PawSox pounced in the eighth to transform a 1-0 deficit into an eventual 3-1 victory at McCoy Stadium.

With eight balls on nine pitches, Ryan Pressly conceded back-to-back one-out walks to Alex Hassan and Ryan Roberts.

Edgar Ibarra promptly replaced Pressly, but Garin Cecchini directed a 2-0 delivery to the centerfield warning track. Hassan and Roberts both hustled home to usurp a 2-1 lead.

Two pitches later, Ryan Lavarnway pushed Cecchini home from second base by lining a single to the shallow right-field lawn. That ended Ibarra’s outing after only two challengers and Matt Guerrier yielded a single to Bryce Brentz and a walk to Brandon Snyder to load the bases before a popup and strikeout compressed the wound.

Through the midway point of the game, Meyer had a slight upper hand on Allen Webster in a defensive duel. Meyer kept a scoreless draw intact through the fourth with 36 strikes on 50 pitches and seven strikeouts through 13 showdowns.

In those first four stanzas, a second-inning sacrifice grounder and a fourth-inning double gave the Red Wings the game’s lone two runners to reach scoring position. Meanwhile, Lavanway had constituted Pawtucket’s only baserunner with a second-inning single.

Brentz drew Meyer’s first walk on six pitches to lead off the home half of the fifth. But Snyder grounded into a 4-6-3 to stanch any threat before it took serious shape.

Red Wings right fielder Chris Parmelee’s double and walks to Pawtucket’s Mike McCoy and Ryan Roberts amounted to nothing in the sixth.

When Brad Nelson led off the seventh to shallow right, Rochester skipper Gene Glynn installed Chris Rahl as a pinch-runner. The ploy took little time to alter the complexion of the game.

Rahl stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and spotted the visitors a 1-0 lead with the help of Eric Fryer’s sacrifice fly to shallow right.

In the bottom half, Meyer’s pitch count cracked triple digits when Dan Butler joined Snyder in a succession of back-to-back two-out singles. But Pressly fielded a quick Corey Brown grounder to quell the threat.

But the McCoy masses would have no further delay on their gratification thereafter.

PawSox Pluses

The Wings garnered one hit—no more, no less—in five of the six full innings Webster worked. The Pawtucket infield warrants more than a sliver of credit for preserving the scoreless knot up to that point.

Two force outs and a double play kept Rochester runners out of scoring position through the first 1.1 defensive innings. The shortstop McCoy snagged a grounder up the middle and heaved the third out of the second. Later, Roberts snared a line drive as part of a 1-2-3 fifth and Snyder did the same to strand Parmelee on second in the sixth.

On the other side of the ball, Lavarnway stood out as one of only three Pawtucket batters not to whiff against Meyer and the only one to cultivate a hit off the Rochester starter in the first six innings. Butler and Snyder only got to him when his last ounces of fuel had clearly evaporated. 

Lavarnway also had the home club’s lone multi-hit effort, batting 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Sox Stains

Wilfredo Boscan supplanted Webster with one out and one man on in the seventh. To say that he “relieved” the PawSox starter would be to miss the mark.

Boscan had already thrown seven of his first 11 pitches for balls and walked his first challenger when he authorized Fryer’s sac fly. The aforementioned wild pitch that hastened the scoring play came from his palm during Eric Farris’ five-pitch walk. He would exit the stanza with 12 balls on 21 total offerings and two walks on his tab.

The only reason he was not charged with the run was because he inherited Rahl from Webster. He easily could have allowed one himself after Farris swiped both second and third base amidst Dan Rohlfing’s free pass.

Red Wings Notes

Of Meyer’s 11 “Ks,” three benched the rehabbing Will Middlebrooks while two apiece fettered Brentz, Butler and Roberts. Meyer fanned Brown and Alex Hassan one time each.

Parmelee and leadoff Doug Bernier each touched Webster for a pair of hits, Parmelee charging up a couple of doubles, Bernier two singles.

 

Rochester's bullpen combined for three earned runs on three hits and three walks as well as 19 balls on 35 pitches.

Miscellany

Chris Resop picked up his first save of the season, fanning two and stranding two in the ninth.

 

The parent Boston Red Sox swapped out outfielder Daniel Nava in exchange for pitcher Alex Wilson Tuesday afternoon.

Middlebrooks ceded third base to Cecchini after the seventh. He is now 0-for-6 with five strikeouts through two conditioning contests with Pawtucket.

Roberts made his PawSox debut at second base two nights after being reassigned by Boston. He is now the oldest position player (age 33) to have seen action for Kevin Boles, ahead of a rehabbing Shane Victorino by 72 days. Of all members of the active roster, only pitcher Rich Hill is older with roughly a six-month differential.

One night after his second off-day of the season, Lavarnway crouched behind the plate for the first time in this homestand. The converted first baseman has assumed his original catcher’s task in four out of 19 games played this season.

Post-game Pop-ups: Red Wings 7, PawSox 5

Swift Summation
The Pawtucket Red Sox preceded Tuesday night’s seventh-inning stretch with a seventh-inning retch at McCoy Stadium. They yielded a dozen Rochester Red Wings plate appearances, with six crossing the plate to transform a 5-1 PawSox lead into a 7-5 deficit.

Save for Mike McCoy’s ninth-inning double with two away, Pawtucket did nothing to respond, letting that deficit go final.

Little, if anything, from the first six stanzas presaged Rochester’s resurgence as the hosts paced themselves to their initial edge. Brandon Snyder notched the first hit on either side when he led off the second with a home run to center.

Two plays later, Garin Cecchini landed a one-out single, then made his way to third when Rochester catcher Dan Rohlfing’s throw escaped second baseman James Beresford during a stealing attempt. Dan Butler’s sacrifice fly to right was enough to complete Cecchini journey en route to a 2-0 edge.

With runners at the corners and one down in the third, Danny Santana put the Red Wings on the board with a single to right.

Butler took a gradual tour to restore Pawtucket’s two-run advantage in the fifth. He led off with a walk, nudged to second via McCoy’s single, moved to third on Heiker Meneses’ sacrifice grounder and touched the plate courtesy of Logan Darnell’s balk.

Snyder’s second fence-clearer of the night carried Alex Hassan home and augmented the lead to 5-1 in the sixth. But Rochester retorted with a roar in the seventh.

Wilkin Ramirez led off with a triple and scored on reliever Dalier Hinojosa’s wild pitch. That toss put Brad Nelson in scoring position and Chris Rahl knocked him in on cue. Rahl notched his own run on a single by Deibinson Romero.

After all of that, their deficit now whittled to 5-4, the Red Wings loaded the sacks with still no outs. In turn, a five-pitch, one-out walk to Beresford drew a 5-5 knot.

Chris Parmelee kept the bases full with a shallow liner to left, good for an RBI single and a 6-5 Rochester lead. Nelson did the same with two away to raise the upper hand to 7-5.

PawSox Pluses

Snyder flexed fresh arms after a four-day absence from the lineup. His two long balls gave him extra bases on each of his last four hits, the others being doubles last Friday versus Buffalo and April 14 at Rochester.

Apart from the third inning, Sox starting hurler Rubby De La Rosa did not yield much opportunity to the visiting bat rack. The only other one of his six stanzas that saw a Red Wing reach scoring position was the fifth. That was when catcher Christian Vazquez botched a throw on a would-be strike-him-out-throw-him-out twin killing.

De La Rosa’s final stat line for Tuesday: 6.0 innings, one earned run, three hits, a walk and a season-high seven strikeouts. He still has yet to authorize more than one opposing run in any of four starts this season. 

Sox Stains

While the organization’s objective is to get him back into Boston-caliber shape, Shane Victorino has not given the McCoy masses much to cheer about in his rehab stint. In addition to a costly fielding error in that messy seventh, he went 0-for-4 at the dish with a grounder and three “Ks.” Overall, he is 1-for-11 through three games played at the Triple-A level.

Victorino and Snyder each committed a seventh-inning error, prolonging the plethora opened by Hinojosa and Rich Hill. The two relievers combined for six runs (four earned) one five hits and three walks. Hill was summoned to supplant Hinojosa after five challengers with still no outs. 

Red Wings Notes

Two episodes in as many half innings saw Farris reap rewards at Vazquez’s expense. First, in the home half of the fourth, Rochester’s centerfielder hustled to left-center to snare Vazquez’s liner for the second out of a 1-2-3 frame. He then drilled a one-out single, then stole second and advanced to third on the aforementioned throwing error.

Farris, who went 2-for-4, now has three multi-hit performances in five meetings with the PawSox in 2014. His cumulative batting line in the season series is 7-for-16 with five runs scored, three driven in, a walk and a strikeout.

Starting southpaw Logan Darnell lasted only five innings while Yohan Pino chucked three shifts of relief. The two combined for 13 strikeouts (seven for Pino) while splitting the tab on Snyder’s two dingers.

Miscellany

Farris and Beresford were Rochester’s only two non-strikeout victims on the night. Of those who made at least one plate appearance, only Butler and Henry could make the same claim for Pawtucket. The contesting pitching staffs combined for a whopping 27 “Ks.”

Infielder Ryan Roberts officially joined the PawSox’ roster, though did not see action, after a designation for assignment by Boston this past Friday.

The loss marks Pawtucket’s first in 2014 when leading after six innings. The Sox had entered Tuesday’s action a pristine 7-0 in that scenario.

P-Bruins vs. Falcons: A Unique Playoff Drought Ends And A Tale Of 2 Cities Returns

On May 10, 1997, the Springfield Falcons stamped a 3-1 victory over the Providence Bruins at the Springfield Civic Center.

With that, they secured a 4-1 series triumph in the AHL’s best-of-seven New England Division Final. The closer came 24 hours after the P-Bruins averted a sweep with a 2-1 squeaker at the Providence Civic Center.

Wednesday will end the mind-boggling wait for the next Calder Cup playoff bout between the AHL’s two most time-honored New England cities. To compound the hiatus, the teams that succeeded the Providence Reds and Springfield Indians are two of only seven surviving AHL franchises from the years of their previous playoff meetings.

After nearly 17 full years, the 22-year-old Providence and 20-year-old Springfield franchises will commence their third all-time postseason encounter. (The other came in the first round of the 1996 dance, when the Falcons zapped the Bruins, three games to one.)

Due to venue scheduling complications, the seventh-seeded Bruins will host Game 1 of this best-of-five Eastern Conference quarterfinal at the Dunkin Donuts Center. The higher-seeded Falcons will have the home ice they earned at MassMutual Center for Games 2, 3 and, if necessary, 5.

For those who have been in protracted seclusion, the two Civic Centers are still around, yet no more. The corporate bug bit the “Bear Den” and “The Nest” alike since the last Providence-Springfield series.

Here are 17 other developments from the past 17 years for the Bruins, Falcons, their cities and states, the sports world and the world in general: 

·       The P-Bruins have made 12 playoff appearances, facing opponents from 14 different cities in an aggregate 26 series. Those include multiple engagements with teams from Hartford, Lowell, Manchester, Portland and Worcester.

·       The Falcons have undergone five affiliation changes. They went from a joint partnership with the Whalers and Coyotes to linking up with the Kings, Islanders, Lightning, Oilers and now the Blue Jackets.

·       The Hartford Wolf Pack have replaced the Whalers, won a Calder Cup, faced the P-Bruins in four playoff rounds, faced the Falcons in three and momentarily changed their identity to the Connecticut Whale.

·       The P-Bruins have made seven coaching changes, including a three-year reign for Rob Murray, who captained the Falcons in the ’90s.

·       Lowell gained professional hockey in the form of the AHL’s Lock Monsters, then lost it 12 years later in the form of the AHL’s Devils.

·       The AHL has introduced 39 new franchises, 16 of whom no longer exist due to relocation or folding.

·       David Cicilline has entered and exited the office of mayor of Providence with eight years of service in between.

·       Michael Albano has given way to Charles Ryan and then Domenic Sarno as mayor of Springfield.

·       Donald Carcieri entered and exited the office of governor of Rhode Island.

·       Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney each entered and exited the office of governor of Massachusetts.

·       Boston-area teams have combined to win five NCAA men’s hockey titles, three Super Bowls, three World Series, an NBA championship and a Stanley Cup.

·       Kevin Faulk and Matt Light began and ended their NFL careers, both spent exclusively with the Patriots.

·       Various Major League home run records and Tour de France dynasties have been set and subsequently called into question.

·       Keith Olbermann went from ESPN to anchoring duties with Fox Sports, MSNBC, Current TV, TBS and a new position with ESPN.

·       Titanic had its initial theatrical release, followed by a re-release 15 years later on the 100-year anniversary of the event it depicts.

·       Jimmy Fallon passed his Saturday Night Live audition, then went on to star in Fever Pitch before hosting NBC’s Late Night and moving up to The Tonight Show.

·        Providence has faced Springfield in 172 regular-season games, holding a 106-49-17 edge. Although, with six wins out of 10 meetings this season, the Falcons won their first regular-season series over the P-Bruins in 12 years.

Post-game Pop-ups: PawSox 4, Bisons 3

Swift Summation
While the Pawtucket Red Sox let two baseballs get away from the playing surface, they did not let the Buffalo Bisons run them out of their own yard. They deleted 1-0 and 3-1 deficits, both the products of visiting home runs, to scrape out a 4-3 triumph at McCoy Stadium Monday night.

Buffalo nabbed the initial lead when Steve Tolleson lobbed a payoff pitch over the left-center wall in the first.

Bryce Brentz constituted Pawtucket’s first baserunner in the second when he belted the ball in roughly the same direction. Although he did not leave the yard and settled for a double, Garin Cecchini helped him finish the trip with an opposite-field RBI single.

After a pair of 1-2-3 stanzas, PawSox starter Brandon Workman surrendered another dinger and another visiting lead in the fourth. Chris Gentz bunted his way to first, then flew home with Dan Johnson, who made it 3-1 on a shot to right.

Justin Henry brought the Sox back within one run in the bottom of the fifth. With two teammates aboard and two out, he catapulted a single to right, sending Christian Vazquez home from second.

One inning later, back-to-back one-out singles and a wild pitch by Bisons reliever Rob Rasmussen put Cecchini and Brentz in scoring position. They each finished their round trip on another fugitive toss and a throwing error by catcher Erik Kratz, usurping a 4-3 lead for Pawtucket.

Johnson nearly nullified that lead in the eighth by lining a one-out single to the centerfield lawn. He placed himself and Getz at the corners, but Tolleson’s hustle from second was foiled by Mike McCoy’s relay to first baseman Ryan Lavarnway and Lavarnway’s throw to Vazquez at the plate.

Alex Wilson, who replaced Chris Hernandez after that chaotic sequence, retired the final Buffalo batter of the inning and then picked up the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

PawSox Pluses

McCoy’s initiative on the eighth-inning relay was not his only demonstration of defensive prowess Monday night. Earlier, he arguably stemmed a would-be Buffalo stampede by running down each of four flies in his neighborhood, giving him credit for half of Pawtucket’s first eight putouts on the night. That variously confined the deficit to a single run and preserved the 1-1 tie. Fittingly enough, he later nabbed the final out on a soft liner via Matt Tuiasosopo.

Although he left the game on the hook for a potential loss, Workman turned in a decisive improvement over his other two starts so far in 2014. Over two previous outings versus Rochester and Buffalo, he aggregated a mere 4.1 innings and three strikeouts. On Monday, he benched seven Bisons via the “K” in a full five innings of work. He finished his shift by striking out the side for a 1-2-3 fifth.

Henry recorded his first multi-hit effort since his season debut on April 8 versus Syracuse. His seventh-inning double to the left-field corner ensured a season-best three hits in a single night. With his 3-for-4 finish, he finished the game with a .265 batting average on the year after entering the action sitting on the Mendoza Line.

Sox Stains

Will Middlebrooks had a rough rehab debut, striking out twice and going 0-for-3 before yielding his third-base post to Carlos Rivero after the fifth inning.

Of those who played the full contest, and for all of his aforementioned accomplishments in the outfield, McCoy was the only other Pawtucket player not to join in on the offense. He brooked a pair of strikeouts after grounding in his first plate appearance to finish identical to Middlebrooks at 0-for-3.

Bisons Notes

Pitcher Marcus Stroman’s auspicious start crumbled after four irreproachable innings. After only two of his first 15 challengers reached scoring position, he authorized six base hits out of his next nine. Three of those resultant runners crossed the plate, putting four earned runs and 10 hits in 5.1 innings pitched on his tab.

Two of Johnson’s three home runs and seven of his 11 RBIs this season have come against Pawtucket.

Anthony Gose struck out eight times in 16 at bats during his team’s four-game visit to McCoy.

Miscellany

Brentz mustered a hit in each installment of this series and has reached base in one fashion or another in each of the last nine outings.

Shane Victorino patrolled right field for seven innings and batted 1-for-4 in his second rehab outing at the Triple-A level. 

 

Tommy Layne threw two scoreless stanzas in immediate relief of Workman to pick up the win and improve his record to 3-1.

The PawSox salvaged a 2-2 split in Buffalo’s visit, giving them two wins and three splits through their first five series of 2014.

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