On the whole, Pawtucket Red Sox rooters should be pleased in the present and stimulated going forward. After all, within the last four nights, their team has effectively sawed the Lehigh Valley IronPigs lead in the International League North.
It is naturally disconcerting that the PawSox didn’t let their appetite to pull even in the standings carry them far enough for a sweep when the opportunity came after pulling to within one game with wins Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
They had earned themselves that opportunity for extra gains in this midweek series and they whiffed in vinegary fashion Thursday night. They spilled 2-0 and 3-2 leads en route to the 5-4 loss at McCoy Stadium that bumped them back to two games behind.
With that being said, there is abundant reason to believe the momentum is with the trailers as this two-team derby presses on into the last 52 games of the season.
With the titans raring to converge again next Tuesday through Friday at Coca-Cola Park to polish off their 16-game season series, the PawSox will need at least a sweep, or better yet three out of four to make a come-from-behind divisional title plausible. But arguably, now more than at any other point in the 2011 season, that scenario should not come off as so off-putting.
The primal postgame topic Thursday night easily could have been the nine men the PawSox left on base when they could have regained their lead or added to it. Or it could have been Hideki Okajima’s game-changing implosion in relief that amounted to his fifth blown save and first loss on the year. Or it could have been the lack of production out of heart-based batters Lars Anderson (0-for-5 and a game-ending pop-out) and Drew Sutton (1-for-4).
Instead, most of the attention was drawn unto shortstop Jose Iglesias, who sparkled in his first game back from a concussion sustained via Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitcher Andrew Backman’s errant throw that left him concussed July 3.
Iglesias’ return lasted longer than originally slated as he consumed seven innings worth of defensive action, having a hand in nine putouts. None of those were more dynamic than one he pulled off in the sixth, when he threw out a hot-hitting Delwyn Young upon bolting to the second base bag and consuming the grounder for the second out of the inning.
Meanwhile, he joined four other teammates in the evening’s multi-hit club.
Iglesias did nothing but set a promising tone in his return just in time for the homestretch. And he is hardly alone amongst relatively new PawSox inserts making an impact.
Sutton saw action in only his second game back from a protracted promotion to Boston. Nearly concomitant with Iglesias’ return, his reinstatement to manager Arnie Beyler’s clubhouse makes for a welcome overload of capable infielders.
And barring another summons to The Show, Sutton ought to be available the rest of the way, an enticing proposition given he is one of only two active Pawtucket players to at least be hovering around the range of a .300 batting average.
The other? Duh, Ryan Lavarnway. The radiant rookie has now seen action in 35 games since he was promoted from Double-A Portland on June 13. In that time, he has gone on an unremitting sugar rush for 49 hits, a dozen doubles, a dozen dingers and 33 RBIs. If he hasn’t let up yet, odds are he will only cool off to a negligible degree between now and when the playoff picture develops on Labor Day.
And in his presence, the PawSox are 22-13, whereas they were 33-31 prior to his debut. That includes a 6-2 run against the IronPigs, who split a four-game set at Lehigh Valley while Lavarnway was still an afterthought most anywhere south of Maine.
Similarly, the likes of centerfielder Che-Hsuan Lin and right fielder Ronald Bermudez have climbed up the Red Sox rungs to McCoy this spring and summer, subsequently contributing to the hotter part of Pawtucket’s season.
With a pair of singles in Thursday’s loss, Lin has a seven-game hitting streak in the works, including three multi-hit outings against the top dog IronPigs, who committed three errors in the winning effort for a total of eight in the last three games.
And much like Josh Reddick with the parent club, Bermudez’s performance in right field and from the lower third of the batting order has all but negated initial plans to reassigned him to Single-A.
Although the PawSox still rank No. 11 in the 14-team I.L. in terms of team batting average, they are No. 4 (188) in the way of total doubles, RBIs (458) and runs-scored (458). And only the Columbus Clippers have drawn more walks on the year.
On the other side of the ball, Pawtucket ranks second behind only Gwinnett in team ERA (3.57). The likewise trail only the G-Braves with 804 cumulative strikeouts. And the staff has combined for a league-low with only 777 runs-allowed.
The return of Kyle Weiland, who still has a team-best eight wins on the year, is likely contingent upon the health of Boston’s aces. But with or without him, the PawSox still have a corps bolstered by midseason acquisition in Kevin Millwood, whose performances are improving and whose record is 5-0 since being claimed off waivers from the Yankees system.
All the while, the best that first-place Lehigh Valley can hope for in its season series is a split.
If that is somehow achieved, then it would threaten to drown the active talks of these teams reconvening for the first round of the Governor’s Cup playoffs. (The matchup would be inevitable if both parties make the dance as it is already predetermined that the wild card winner will face the North Division champion in the semifinals.)
In that event, the bubble is virtually burst and that’s that. Otherwise, the peaking PawSox are in a position to tighten their stranglehold on the IronPigs’ psyche next week.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Post-game pop-ups: IronPigs 5, PawSox 4
Swift summation
Ryan Lavarnway was in a perfect position to make the McCoy Stadium masses forget everything that had happened since his usual self mysteriously vanished after the first inning as he approached the dish in the ninth.
Regrettably for the home faithful, though, old friend Brandon Moss raced to the perfect position to spoil everything. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs outfielder who played parts of the 2007 and 2008 seasons in Pawtucket snagged Lavarnway’s low-flying shot to the left field corner, averting a home run and salvaging a 5-4 edge for his current mates.
Immediately thereafter, Lars Anderson popped out to Kevin Frandsen at the third base foul line to finalize Pawtucket’s fall-from-ahead 5-4 falter Thursday night.
The loss spoiled the Sox’ bid for a four-game sweep that would have rendered them tied with the IronPigs for first place in the International League North. Instead, they are two games behind on that leaderboard and knotted with the Gwinnett Braves for tops in the wild card derby.
Lavarnway had homered to left-center to give the PawSox a 2-0 lead with one out in the first. It was his fifth dinger against the IronPigs and the sixth Lehigh Valley starter Ryan Feierabend has surrendered to a Pawtucket challenger this year.
But Lavarnway struck out swinging in each of his next two encounters with Feierabend. By the time Lavarnway was benched for the second time in the fifth, the Pigs had deleted the deficit thanks to Josh Barfield’s RBI single in the second inning and Rich Thompson’s solo homer in the fifth.
Luis Exposito lined a single into shallow right to score Hector Luna from third and renew Pawtucket’s upper hand, 3-2, in the bottom of the sixth. But two plays later, with Exposito and Ronald Bermudez both on board, Feierabend gave way to Joe Savery and the IronPigs bullpen proceeded to tantalize the PawSox.
Between the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, Pawtucket mustered one run while stranding a cumulative four runners. Meanwhile, Lehigh Valley perked up in the top of the eighth to usurp the lead.
Moss drew another knot with a sacrifice fly to score Frandsen from third with only one away in the frame. Pete Orr, who had sent Frandsen to third with a double, stayed on second momentarily before Delwyn Young carried him home with a two-run shot that gave the visitors a 5-3 upper hand.
PawSox pluses
Jose Iglesias played seven innings in his first appearance since a concussion sustained 18 days prior and his itch to contribute again translated unmistakably. From his shortstop post, Iglesias had a hand in nine of the defense’s first 19 putouts, including each of the first three and six of the first eight.
At the dish, Iglesias went 2-for-3 with a not-so-reprehensible lineout to right field in the second, followed by two assertive singles in the fourth and the sixth. He would give way to Nate Spears to start the eighth.
Lately, Luna has made himself somewhat of a regular under the “Sox stains” heading of this sight. And he was inevitably bumped down a slot in the batting order with the return of Drew Sutton on Wednesday.
But to his credit, Luna accelerated his wheels on Thursday, good enough to earn a pair of extra-base hits, those being a leadoff double in the second and a triple in the sixth that amounted to Pawtucket’s go-ahead run.
Bermudez’s patience at the plate paid off multiple times Thursday night. In the second, he drew a walk on a payoff pitch. In the sixth, he fouled off a pair of 0-2 pitches, took two balls, and then reached first on a fielding error. He likewise fought off two potential third strikes in the eighth before grounding into a sacrifice that nudged Exposito to third.
Sox stains
Tasked with safeguarding Tony Pena, Jr.’s would-be win with a 3-2 lead to commence the eighth inning, Hideki Okajima surrendered as many hits (four) in one inning as Pena had in seven. Along the way, the aforementioned 3-2 edge devolved into a 5-3 deficit.
Okajima was ultimately charged with a blown save and endured his first loss in six overall decisions on his 2011 transcript.
As much as the PawSox pounced on Lehigh Valley’s iffy pitching and fielding (three errors) for a cumulative 15 baserunners on the night, they could have done more, as evidenced the nine men they left stranded.
In the second, Luna and Bermudez were left in scoring position when they might have augmented the 2-0 lead but instead watched Daniel Nava pop out. Che-Hsuan Lin left men on both first and second twice in as many at-bats when he struck out swinging to end the fourth and the sixth. And in the seventh, Luna grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
IronPigs notes
Young and Barfield were the only Lehigh Valley players with a multi-hit game.
Savery took credit for the win, improving to 2-0 on the year. Mike Zagurski took over for the eighth while Justin De Fratus breezed through the ninth to garner the hold and the save, respectively.
Miscellany
Both teams left the bases loaded in their respective turns at bat in the second and then exchanged 1-2-3 stanzas in the third.
Spears, who pinch-hit in the eighth, was the only Pawtucket offensive player who didn’t reach base safely at any point in Thursday’s game. However, he did hit a fruitful grounder to the first base that sent Exposito home on the sacrifice.
While Iglesias was welcomed back to the active roster, outfielder Matt Sheely was placed on the weeklong disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday, with what is being billed a foot contusion.
Ryan Lavarnway was in a perfect position to make the McCoy Stadium masses forget everything that had happened since his usual self mysteriously vanished after the first inning as he approached the dish in the ninth.
Regrettably for the home faithful, though, old friend Brandon Moss raced to the perfect position to spoil everything. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs outfielder who played parts of the 2007 and 2008 seasons in Pawtucket snagged Lavarnway’s low-flying shot to the left field corner, averting a home run and salvaging a 5-4 edge for his current mates.
Immediately thereafter, Lars Anderson popped out to Kevin Frandsen at the third base foul line to finalize Pawtucket’s fall-from-ahead 5-4 falter Thursday night.
The loss spoiled the Sox’ bid for a four-game sweep that would have rendered them tied with the IronPigs for first place in the International League North. Instead, they are two games behind on that leaderboard and knotted with the Gwinnett Braves for tops in the wild card derby.
Lavarnway had homered to left-center to give the PawSox a 2-0 lead with one out in the first. It was his fifth dinger against the IronPigs and the sixth Lehigh Valley starter Ryan Feierabend has surrendered to a Pawtucket challenger this year.
But Lavarnway struck out swinging in each of his next two encounters with Feierabend. By the time Lavarnway was benched for the second time in the fifth, the Pigs had deleted the deficit thanks to Josh Barfield’s RBI single in the second inning and Rich Thompson’s solo homer in the fifth.
Luis Exposito lined a single into shallow right to score Hector Luna from third and renew Pawtucket’s upper hand, 3-2, in the bottom of the sixth. But two plays later, with Exposito and Ronald Bermudez both on board, Feierabend gave way to Joe Savery and the IronPigs bullpen proceeded to tantalize the PawSox.
Between the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, Pawtucket mustered one run while stranding a cumulative four runners. Meanwhile, Lehigh Valley perked up in the top of the eighth to usurp the lead.
Moss drew another knot with a sacrifice fly to score Frandsen from third with only one away in the frame. Pete Orr, who had sent Frandsen to third with a double, stayed on second momentarily before Delwyn Young carried him home with a two-run shot that gave the visitors a 5-3 upper hand.
PawSox pluses
Jose Iglesias played seven innings in his first appearance since a concussion sustained 18 days prior and his itch to contribute again translated unmistakably. From his shortstop post, Iglesias had a hand in nine of the defense’s first 19 putouts, including each of the first three and six of the first eight.
At the dish, Iglesias went 2-for-3 with a not-so-reprehensible lineout to right field in the second, followed by two assertive singles in the fourth and the sixth. He would give way to Nate Spears to start the eighth.
Lately, Luna has made himself somewhat of a regular under the “Sox stains” heading of this sight. And he was inevitably bumped down a slot in the batting order with the return of Drew Sutton on Wednesday.
But to his credit, Luna accelerated his wheels on Thursday, good enough to earn a pair of extra-base hits, those being a leadoff double in the second and a triple in the sixth that amounted to Pawtucket’s go-ahead run.
Bermudez’s patience at the plate paid off multiple times Thursday night. In the second, he drew a walk on a payoff pitch. In the sixth, he fouled off a pair of 0-2 pitches, took two balls, and then reached first on a fielding error. He likewise fought off two potential third strikes in the eighth before grounding into a sacrifice that nudged Exposito to third.
Sox stains
Tasked with safeguarding Tony Pena, Jr.’s would-be win with a 3-2 lead to commence the eighth inning, Hideki Okajima surrendered as many hits (four) in one inning as Pena had in seven. Along the way, the aforementioned 3-2 edge devolved into a 5-3 deficit.
Okajima was ultimately charged with a blown save and endured his first loss in six overall decisions on his 2011 transcript.
As much as the PawSox pounced on Lehigh Valley’s iffy pitching and fielding (three errors) for a cumulative 15 baserunners on the night, they could have done more, as evidenced the nine men they left stranded.
In the second, Luna and Bermudez were left in scoring position when they might have augmented the 2-0 lead but instead watched Daniel Nava pop out. Che-Hsuan Lin left men on both first and second twice in as many at-bats when he struck out swinging to end the fourth and the sixth. And in the seventh, Luna grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
IronPigs notes
Young and Barfield were the only Lehigh Valley players with a multi-hit game.
Savery took credit for the win, improving to 2-0 on the year. Mike Zagurski took over for the eighth while Justin De Fratus breezed through the ninth to garner the hold and the save, respectively.
Miscellany
Both teams left the bases loaded in their respective turns at bat in the second and then exchanged 1-2-3 stanzas in the third.
Spears, who pinch-hit in the eighth, was the only Pawtucket offensive player who didn’t reach base safely at any point in Thursday’s game. However, he did hit a fruitful grounder to the first base that sent Exposito home on the sacrifice.
While Iglesias was welcomed back to the active roster, outfielder Matt Sheely was placed on the weeklong disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday, with what is being billed a foot contusion.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Walk-off hit carries on favorable trends for Lin, PawSox
When Che-Hsuan Lin uncorked a shallow single to bring home Wednesday afternoon’s winning run in the form of Nate Spears, he also popped open a can of clichés.
The two most prominent items that lurked with carbonation near the surface were the likes of “third time’s a charm” for himself and “all good things must come to an end” for a couple of pitchers.
Entering Lin’s confrontation with Lehigh Valley IronPigs hurler Michael Schwimer, though, the big question on the latter matter was “Which of those good trends would halt and at whose expense?”
The bottom of the ninth inning all but constituted the eleventh hour for Lin’s five-game hitting streak, and perhaps the PawSox perfect 9-0 transcript in Millwood starts. Meanwhile, Schwimer had a sparkling 5-0 record on his season when he entered the game to commence the eighth, at which point a 1-1 draw had stood unruffled for four straight innings.
Immediately before Schwimer had come into the equation, Lin had squandered two previous opportunities to snap the 1-1 knot. In the bottom of the fifth, Hector Luna and Ronald Bermudez were on the corners with two away when Lin grounded to IronPigs shortstop Brian Bocock, who collaborated with second baseman Josh Barfield to tag Bermudez.
Two innings later, Luis Exposito was on board with a one-out walk, only to be stranded when Bermudez flied out and Lin popped out to Kevin Frandsen along the first-base line.
On the other hand, the PawSox were heavily indebted to Lin just for bringing the long-standing 1-1 draw into existence and for keeping it out of Lehigh Valley’s hands for a full five-and-a-half innings. Exposito led off the home half of the third with a double and nimbly advanced to third when Bermudez belted a sacrifice fly to left.
Enter Lin, batting for the first time since he reached on a fielding error and then failed to score from first base on Daniel Nava’s double when he was thwarted at the plate.
This time, Lin lobbed a 1-1 offering from Nate Bump to left field, where it was caught by Brandon Moss, but deep enough for Exposito to sprint home. In a daylong plethora of long-distance teases off Pawtucket bats, Lin’s would be the only productive one.
At his centerfield defensive post, Lin made amends for another first-inning blunder wherein he couldn’t quite ensnare Pete Orr’s bloop to the shallow area. In another three opportunities over the course of the day, he put out three IronPigs with routine catches.
The magnitude of each of those plays was dwarfed, though, by a key assist in top of the ninth. Reliever Jeremy Kerht, tasked with salvaging Kevin Millwood’s relative gem when he came out of the bullpen the previous inning, allowed back-to-back singles with only one out.
His subsequent challenger, Kevin Frandsen, repelled a 1-0 delivery to the centerfield warning track. But Lin, who had to hustle out of his unorthodox position in the shallow outfield, managed to snatch it before the wall.
Baserunners Bocock and Rich Thompson both opted to tag and make a break for scoring position. But Lin alertly hurled the ball back to Luna at third base. Although that throw fell just shy of cutting down Bocock, Luna was equally apt to relay the ball to second baseman Drew Sutton, who tagged Thompson for an inning-ending double-play.
With the one-all knot still intact, Lin was ultimately summoned as the fifth Pawtucket batter in the bottom half. His opposite-field connection constituted his 10th his now-six-game tear, improved the PawSox to 10-0 in Millwood starts and gave them their third consecutive triumph over the I.L. North-leading IronPigs.
In those three wins, Lin has played a direct role in every deciding inning. On Monday night, he led off the third with a single and scored the first run ahead of a double by Ryan Lavarnway, who scored himself to make it 2-0 en route to a 4-1 victory. On Tuesday, Lin scored the go-ahead run in the sixth to bust a 3-2 knot and set Pawtucket off to a 7-2 win.
The Sox needed one more win, whether it was Wednesday or Thursday, to ensure that the contesting teams leave McCoy Stadium Thursday night with a slimmer gap in the standings than when they initially convened on Monday.
None other than the streaking Lin made that possible. The PawSox now trail Lehigh Valley by one game going into Thursday’s series finale.
The two most prominent items that lurked with carbonation near the surface were the likes of “third time’s a charm” for himself and “all good things must come to an end” for a couple of pitchers.
Entering Lin’s confrontation with Lehigh Valley IronPigs hurler Michael Schwimer, though, the big question on the latter matter was “Which of those good trends would halt and at whose expense?”
The bottom of the ninth inning all but constituted the eleventh hour for Lin’s five-game hitting streak, and perhaps the PawSox perfect 9-0 transcript in Millwood starts. Meanwhile, Schwimer had a sparkling 5-0 record on his season when he entered the game to commence the eighth, at which point a 1-1 draw had stood unruffled for four straight innings.
Immediately before Schwimer had come into the equation, Lin had squandered two previous opportunities to snap the 1-1 knot. In the bottom of the fifth, Hector Luna and Ronald Bermudez were on the corners with two away when Lin grounded to IronPigs shortstop Brian Bocock, who collaborated with second baseman Josh Barfield to tag Bermudez.
Two innings later, Luis Exposito was on board with a one-out walk, only to be stranded when Bermudez flied out and Lin popped out to Kevin Frandsen along the first-base line.
On the other hand, the PawSox were heavily indebted to Lin just for bringing the long-standing 1-1 draw into existence and for keeping it out of Lehigh Valley’s hands for a full five-and-a-half innings. Exposito led off the home half of the third with a double and nimbly advanced to third when Bermudez belted a sacrifice fly to left.
Enter Lin, batting for the first time since he reached on a fielding error and then failed to score from first base on Daniel Nava’s double when he was thwarted at the plate.
This time, Lin lobbed a 1-1 offering from Nate Bump to left field, where it was caught by Brandon Moss, but deep enough for Exposito to sprint home. In a daylong plethora of long-distance teases off Pawtucket bats, Lin’s would be the only productive one.
At his centerfield defensive post, Lin made amends for another first-inning blunder wherein he couldn’t quite ensnare Pete Orr’s bloop to the shallow area. In another three opportunities over the course of the day, he put out three IronPigs with routine catches.
The magnitude of each of those plays was dwarfed, though, by a key assist in top of the ninth. Reliever Jeremy Kerht, tasked with salvaging Kevin Millwood’s relative gem when he came out of the bullpen the previous inning, allowed back-to-back singles with only one out.
His subsequent challenger, Kevin Frandsen, repelled a 1-0 delivery to the centerfield warning track. But Lin, who had to hustle out of his unorthodox position in the shallow outfield, managed to snatch it before the wall.
Baserunners Bocock and Rich Thompson both opted to tag and make a break for scoring position. But Lin alertly hurled the ball back to Luna at third base. Although that throw fell just shy of cutting down Bocock, Luna was equally apt to relay the ball to second baseman Drew Sutton, who tagged Thompson for an inning-ending double-play.
With the one-all knot still intact, Lin was ultimately summoned as the fifth Pawtucket batter in the bottom half. His opposite-field connection constituted his 10th his now-six-game tear, improved the PawSox to 10-0 in Millwood starts and gave them their third consecutive triumph over the I.L. North-leading IronPigs.
In those three wins, Lin has played a direct role in every deciding inning. On Monday night, he led off the third with a single and scored the first run ahead of a double by Ryan Lavarnway, who scored himself to make it 2-0 en route to a 4-1 victory. On Tuesday, Lin scored the go-ahead run in the sixth to bust a 3-2 knot and set Pawtucket off to a 7-2 win.
The Sox needed one more win, whether it was Wednesday or Thursday, to ensure that the contesting teams leave McCoy Stadium Thursday night with a slimmer gap in the standings than when they initially convened on Monday.
None other than the streaking Lin made that possible. The PawSox now trail Lehigh Valley by one game going into Thursday’s series finale.
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