Post-game Pop-ups: Tides 6, PawSox 4

Swift summation
Last Monday, it was a steady flow of smooth-riding low Tides for Pawtucket Red Sox pitcher Doug Mathis. This Monday, it was an overwhelming crush of high Tides.

In a rematch of his 4-0 victory down in Norfolk, Mathis left the Memorial Day tilt at McCoy Stadium with a 6-2 deficit after 5.1 innings of work. It would morph into a 6-4 loss for the PawSox.

One week after he confined the Tides to one baserunner in a seven-inning shutout gem at Harbor Park, Mathis allowed twice as many men on board within the first inning. A 4-6-3 double-play at the expense of cleanup man and Major League veteran Miguel Tejada quelled any Norfolk threat, at least for the time being.

In the third, Jai Miller belted a second straight payoff pitch over the opposite wall in right-center, spotting the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Nate Spears retorted in the bottom half, driving his third dinger of the homestand over the right-field wall and picking up Pedro Ciriaco on the way home to seize a 2-1 lead for the PawSox. But following a leadoff single by former Boston infielder Bill Hall, Tejada was just as quick to draw a 2-2 knot by lining a double into the left-field corner, scoring Hall from first base.

Nudged to third by Joe Mahoney’s single, Tejada restored the Norfolk lead to 3-2 courtesy of Luis Exposito’s RBI base hit with still nobody out in the fourth. Jamie Hoffmann’s fifth-inning solo shot augmented the advantage to 4-2.

The Tides’ inning-by-inning erosion of Mathis rolled right along into the sixth. Brandon Waring slugged a one-out double off the left-center wall and Blake Davis followed up with another homer for a 6-2 edge.

That would be it for the starter, who immediately gave way to Garret Mock.

Josh Kroeger nibbled into the deficit in the bottom of the seventh with a double, followed by a nudge over to third via Alex Hassan and a sacrifice fly by Ronald Bermudez. In his next plate appearance, Kroeger cleared the fence on Jon Link’s first pitch to make it 6-4 with one out in the ninth.

But after that and a double by Ronald Bermudez, pinch-hitter Mauro Gomez grounded out to thwart the rally.

PawSox pluses

Kroeger, Hassan and the No. 9-slotted Jonathan Hee combined to account for six of Pawtucket’s eight hits, each charging up two.

Spears extended his hitting streak to seven games, his run-scoring streak to six and his RBI streak to three. He has now driven in a total of five runs in as many games this homestand.

Sox stains

Mathis matched a couple of season-worst stats with the 10 hits (May 16 at Durham) and six runs allowed (May 1 at Toledo).

Darnell McDonald got on base for the first time in three games since his reassignment from Boston. But it was hardly worth flattering oneself over as he was hit by Norfolk starter Zach Clark’s pitch in the first inning.

Afterwards, McDonald struck out in each of his next two encounters with Clark, who otherwise claimed no other strikeout victims in his six innings of work. McDonald is now 0-for-8 at the Triple-A level in 2012.

In addition to McDonald, the rest of the heart of Pawtucket’s batting order was hardly beating on Monday. Ryan Lavarnway drew a walk, but otherwise combined with Lars Anderson to go 0-for-7. 

Tides notes

Exposito, a veteran of five-plus seasons in the Red Sox organization and 92 games with Pawtucket last year and this April, faced his original organization for the first time since his rights were swapped from Boston to Baltimore. He was on recall to the parent Orioles during the PawSox visit to Harbor Park last week.

Leadoff man Lew Ford was the only visiting batter not to whittle a hit off of Mathis, going 0-for-3 against the PawSox starter. Yet in the sixth, on the first pitch he faced from Mock, he landed a double on the centerfield warning track.

On recall from Double-A Bowie, Clark won his season debut with the Tides and garnered his first victorious decision at the Triple-A level since 2008. 

Miscellany

Although he saw no action, centerfielder Che-Hsuan Lin was optioned back from the parent Boston Red Sox earlier in the day. He batted 1-for-5 with a run-scored and two strikeouts in five games-played during his eight-day promotion.

In relief of Mathis, Mock and Alex Wilson combined to allow zero runs on three hits and strike out five of the Tides over 3.2 innings.

Post-game Pop-ups: PawSox 7, Mud Hens 4

Swift summation
The visiting Toledo Mud Hens garnered 12 hits, their most in any of eight individual meetings with the Pawtucket Red Sox in the 2012 season. But PawSox cleanup man Lars Anderson was the most influential batter in McCoy Stadium Sunday evening. 

Piloted by Anderson’s 3-for-3 night, complete with two of the team’s five home runs, three runs-scored and three runs batted in, Pawtucket wrested away a 7-4 decision, claiming three out of four games during the Hens’ visit.

Toledo charged up 11 of its 12 hits within the first six innings and had a baserunner in each stanza but the seventh and ninth. But the visitors would only lead in the wee phases of the night, playing catch-up for the subsequent eight frames.

An early jam had Mud Hens at the corners with one out in the top of the first. Cleanup man Brad Eldred subsequently lobbed a deep sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Justin Henry from third for an early 1-0 advantage.

Only nine pitches into the home half, though, the PawSox usurped a 2-1 lead on back-to-back solo homers by Pedro Ciriaco to left and Nate Spears to right. And with still only one out in the stanza, Anderson deposited a dinger over the right-field wall himself.

Spears and Anderson collaborated in the bottom of the third to augment the lead to 4-1. Spears led off with a full-count walk and then advanced to second on a wild pitch to Darnell McDonald and to third on McDonald’s sacrifice fly. Anderson’s first-pitch rolling single into shallow right brought Spears home without much further hesitation.

Toledo whittled the deficit back down to 4-2 in the fourth, when a one-out, bases-loaded single by Jeff Frazier scored Brad Eldred.

With Clayton Mortenson on in relief of starter Brandon Duckworth to commence the sixth, the Hens drew a 4-4 knot. Frazier followed Bryan Holaday’s one-out single with a double to the corner in left field, watched his teammate score on Argenis Diaz’s sacrifice grounder, then hustled home for the equalizer with the help of Ben Guez’s straightaway single.

But in the home half, Anderson’s second solo blast to right field swiftly renewed Pawtucket’s lead to 5-4.

Two innings later, Anderson went on board for the fourth consecutive time with a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then rode home with Alex Hassan after the latter belted a two-run laser to left-center off of Matt Hoffman.

Each taking one inning in succession of Mortensen, Tony Pena, Jr. and Will Inman combined to bring down six straight Mud Hens, salvaging the victory in the weekend series and the split of the season series.

PawSox pluses

The first two homers of the night stoked a pair of PawSox hot streaks. Ciriaco’s leadoff longball, his second home run of the season and first since April 25, assured him a six-game hitting streak and a run scored in each of his last five outings. Meanwhile, Spears has extended his hitting streak to seven games and went 4-for-10 in the series.

In the bottom of the second, Tony Thomas stole a base for the third time in as many games-played this homestand and advanced to third on the Toledo catcher Holaday’s throwing error. Although, he would be stranded by Ciriaco’s flyout to left.

Quick thinking and quick feet helped to bail Duckworth out of the Mud Hens’ half of the third inning. With two aggressive runners at the corners and nobody out, Duckworth collaborated with Anderson at first and Ciriaco at short to catch Ben Guez in a rundown. Once Guez was deleted, Ciriaco relayed the ball back to Duckworth, whose throw to Mike Rivera at home cut down Henry.

Sox stains

Easy come, easy go for Josh Kroeger, who was benched on strikes in each of three showdowns with Toledo starter Thad Weber. This coming after he had gone 2-for-7 in the previous two games, an improvement on his 0-for-13 showing when the PawSox visited the Mud Hens at the beginning of the month.

In his fourth at-bat, with Anderson in scoring position and the Sox looking for insurance in the eighth, Kroeger was caught looking at a payoff pitch for his fourth whiff.

Kroeger was joined in the 0-for-4 department by McDonald and Mauro Gomez, who is 0-for-11 over the last three games and has struck out five times in the last two.

Mud Hens notes

Playing his only game of the series in left field and batting eighth, Frazier hit 4-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. Joining him in his team’s multi-hit club were Guez, Henry and Holaday.

Diaz ended two innings by hitting into a double-play. One of them, a liner to Duckworth that also caught Frazier in the basepaths, ended the second. The other, an old-fashioned 4-6-3 eliminated himself and Frazier in the eighth.

Weber, who lasted six innings, was tagged with the loss and dropped to 3-3 on the year. 

Miscellany

Rivera played his first game of the homestand, giving top catcher Ryan Lavarnway the night off.

Ronald Bermudez succeeded McDonald in right field as a defensive replacement to commence the eighth inning.

Mortensen followed Junichi Tazawa as Pawtucket’s second pitcher in as many nights to record both a blown save and a win. Pena earned his first hold of the 2012 campaign while Inman earned his third save. 

The PawSox will welcome in the Norfolk Tides for the second half of the homestand, beginning with a 4:05 game Monday afternoon.

This Date In Providence Bruins History: May 27

2005: Four different goal-getters chase Philadelphia Phantoms goaltender Antero Niittymaki before the halfway mark of regulation and help Providence claim Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 6-4, at The Dunk. The Phantoms delete a 4-1 deficit before Brad Boyes scores his second game-winner of the series for the P-Bruins with 70 seconds to spare in regulation.