Swift summation
In the Triple-A team’s fourth-ever regular-season visit to Boston’s ballyard Saturday afternoon, tomorrow’s Red Sox were victimized by one of yesterday’s Red Sox fans.
Massachusetts native Matt Antonelli contributed two of his team’s hits and accounted for two runs, effectively spelling the difference in the Syracuse Chiefs’ 3-1 triumph over the PawSox at Fenway Park.
The loss was a particularly ugly way of prolonging Kyle Weiland’s winless streak, which is now at seven overall games between Pawtucket and Boston dating back to his last win at Rochester on Independence Day.
Recently, Weiland was likely cheated out of a winning decision by the elements when an eventual 6-1 win at Charlotte was suspended by inclement weather after two innings. And he endured a tough losing decision at Gwinnett one week to the date of Saturday’s game owing primarily to the misfortune of countering a superior pitching staff.
But against Syracuse, Weiland was hexed by an overdose of personal gaffes and his teammates’ inability to mooch much off of Chiefs starter Brad Meyers.
Designated hitter Daniel Nava drew first blood for the Sox in the bottom of the first, belting a solo homer into the Red Sox bullpen. But it was simply all downhill from there for the hosts, who are now 2-2 all-time in the still relatively novel Futures at Fenway event.
Antonelli pulled the Chiefs even in the second, leading off with a single, advancing to second on a passed ball to Seth Bynum and scoring ahead of Bynum’s rolling base hit to center.
Weiland briefly gained control soon thereafter and retired each of his next 10 challengers for a 1-2-3 third and fourth. But not long after Steve Lombardozzi broke up that trend with a one-out walk in the fifth, Weiland paid the blinking fee.
Lombardozzi would advance to second on Roger Bernardina’s grounder to first, steal third with Chris Marrero at the plate and grant Syracuse a 2-1 lead with the help of Jesus Valdez’s single.
Antonelli constituted the Chiefs’ third run in the next inning. He led off with a double to left, advanced to third on a wild pitch by Weiland and then came home on Bynum’s single, promptly ending Weiland’s outing.
Meanwhile, after Luis Exposito led off the third with a double, only to be stranded, the PawSox afforded themselves three baserunners over the next five innings. All of them would be abolished before they could be stranded.
In the sixth, Jose Iglesias lined a leadoff single to center, but was picked off with Che-Hsuan Lin at the dish. Nava led off the home half of the seventh with a walk, but was eliminated with Lars Anderson on the Chiefs’ second defensive double play of the game.
Likewise, pinch-hitter Nate Spears led off the eighth with a single to right, but went down with Exposito on an inning-ending twin kill.
PawSox pluses
In relief of Weiland, Jason Rice at least stopped the bleeding and retired nine out of 10 challengers between the first out of the sixth and the conclusion of the eighth. With his third single in four at-bats, Bynum was the only Chief to reach base on Rice’s watch.
Sox stains
Weiland was done after garnering only an even five innings-pitched. He had thrown 92 pitches, only 51 for strikes. In his last three losses with the PawSox, he has lasted no more than 5.1 innings.
Brett Carroll and Ryan Kalish were both particularly quiet at the dish. Carroll batted 0-for-3 with a strikeout and two popups. Kalish, meanwhile, whiffed once and dropped a pair of grounders in his first three at-bats, then ended the game with a lineout to left.
Chiefs notes
Meyers improved to 5-4 on the year after allowing one run on five hits in an even six innings. Atahualpa Severino and Jeff Mandel garnered the hold and the save, respectively, upon allowing only one baserunner apiece in a cumulative three innings of relief work.
Over the course of his first three at-bats, Jhonatan Solano constituted the third out of the first, third and fifth innings. In his fourth at-bat, Solano struck out for the third time on the day to lead off the eighth.
Roger Bernardina finished with a line similar to Solano, going 0-for-4 with three Ks.
Miscellany
With Will Middlebrooks getting his first infield start in Pawtucket, Hector Luna had a rare start at second base. Luna went 0-for-1 with a walk and was caught stealing for the first time in seven attempts this season to bring the second inning to an abrupt end. Luna was replaced by Spears, effective at what would have been his third plate appearance in the bottom of the seventh.
Another pair of positional oddities had Lin playing right field while Kalish took his post in centerfield and Carroll patrolled the spot in front of the Green Monster. Lin was credited with three putouts, all of them liners, and posted a .984 fielding percentage on the day.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Post-game pop-ups: PawSox 7, Clippers 1
Swift summation
The more the baseball gods inexplicably tear them apart, the closer the Pawtucket Red Sox come together. Or, so it seemed by the end of Friday night’s outing.
Whether they did it by driving in runs, crossing the plate themselves or a combination, eight out of nine batters contributed to a 7-1 lashing of the Columbus Clippers at McCoy Stadium. In doing so, they rewarded newcomer Greg Smith in his first PawSox start.
Smith, who was just claimed off waivers from the Yankees organization and was pitching in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre attire as late as last Saturday, plugged the hole in Friday’s lineup card left by injuries to Matt Fox and Brandon Duckworth. He took a step beyond that with a one-run, seven-inning gem against the I.L.-leading Clippers.
Almost anything the southpaw Smith’s outing was, Columbus starter Mitch Talbot’s wasn’t. By the time Talbot was finished, the veteran of 42 Major League games had thrown 84 pitches in a mere 3.2 innings.
Unsavory items on Talbot’s tab included six runs on seven hits, three walks, three stolen bases behind his back, a balk and one of his team’s three errors up to that point.
One of two unearned runs was still, for all intents and purposes, Talbot’s fault as his throwing error allowed Daniel Nava to score all the way from first on Lars Anderson’s infield single with two out in the fourth.
The PawSox began their first mosquito-like feeding frenzy on Talbot in the second inning as Hector Luna and Brett Carroll started the second inning with back-to-back doubles. Luis Exposito followed up with a walk and followed Carroll into scoring position on Talbot’s balk.
After a pair of strikeouts, Nate Spears lined his second centerfield single in as many at-bats, this time with enough force to score both runners and augment the lead to 3-0.
With one out in the fourth, Jose Iglesias effectively kindled Pawtucket’s next sugar rush when he reached on third baseman Jared Goedert’s fielding error. He would hustle home for the team’s fourth run on Che-Hsuan Lin’s double to the left-center warning track.
Lin advanced to third on Spears’ sacrifice grounder to second and waited patiently while Nava drew a walk. The two men would subsequently score on a bizarre play as Lars Anderson squeezed out an infield single and advanced to second while Talbot the Clippers engaged themselves in a vain effort to throw out Nava at third.
The Clippers finally got to Smith in the seventh. Nick Johnson and Goedert lined back-to-back singles and Johnson put Columbus on the board with the invitation of Argenis Reyes’ two-out double.
Smith would hand things over to Hideki Okajima after an even seven innings and having thrown 84 pitches to match the besieged Talbot’s bushel.
In the bottom of the seventh, Pawtucket touched Columbus’ second reliever, Matt Langwell, whose outing was at first reminiscent of his starter’s. Anderson reached second on Goedert’s second error of the night, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored his team’s seventh run on Luna’s rolling single to shallow left-center.
PawSox pluses
Although none of them amounted to extra runs, the Sox capitalized on Talbot’s contagious sloppiness and swiped three early bags in as many innings. With two out in the first, Spears and Nava pulled off a double-steal to put themselves each in scoring position while Luna pilfered second in the third with two down in the third.
Spears, who also batted 2-for-4 on the night, is now tied with Lin for the team lead with 13 steals. Meanwhile, Nava has nine on the year and Luna is a perfect 6-for-6 in his stealing attempts on the year.
Sox stains
Handling the DH duties in his Triple-A debut, touted third baseman Will Middlebrooks went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He was directly liable for leaving a combined three runners in scoring position in the third and fourth. He later swung and missed at a payoff pitch with Anderson at third in the seventh.
Clippers notes
Columbus stranded each of its first four baserunners, only one of whom reached scoring position. That was Cord Phelps, who leveled a two-out triple to right field in the third.
Designated hitter Beau Mills batted 2-for-4 on the night and finished the series 4-for-11. Goedert nailed a pair of singles himself.
Talbot’s first reliever, Paolo Espino, pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit in the form of a ground-rule double by Jose Iglesias.
Miscellany
Okajima has now pitched four straight scoreless innings with only one hit allowed, that being a single by Jerad Head in the eighth Friday night.
Fresh off the disabled list, Royce Ring polished the game off in the ninth in his first appearance in nine days.
The more the baseball gods inexplicably tear them apart, the closer the Pawtucket Red Sox come together. Or, so it seemed by the end of Friday night’s outing.
Whether they did it by driving in runs, crossing the plate themselves or a combination, eight out of nine batters contributed to a 7-1 lashing of the Columbus Clippers at McCoy Stadium. In doing so, they rewarded newcomer Greg Smith in his first PawSox start.
Smith, who was just claimed off waivers from the Yankees organization and was pitching in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre attire as late as last Saturday, plugged the hole in Friday’s lineup card left by injuries to Matt Fox and Brandon Duckworth. He took a step beyond that with a one-run, seven-inning gem against the I.L.-leading Clippers.
Almost anything the southpaw Smith’s outing was, Columbus starter Mitch Talbot’s wasn’t. By the time Talbot was finished, the veteran of 42 Major League games had thrown 84 pitches in a mere 3.2 innings.
Unsavory items on Talbot’s tab included six runs on seven hits, three walks, three stolen bases behind his back, a balk and one of his team’s three errors up to that point.
One of two unearned runs was still, for all intents and purposes, Talbot’s fault as his throwing error allowed Daniel Nava to score all the way from first on Lars Anderson’s infield single with two out in the fourth.
The PawSox began their first mosquito-like feeding frenzy on Talbot in the second inning as Hector Luna and Brett Carroll started the second inning with back-to-back doubles. Luis Exposito followed up with a walk and followed Carroll into scoring position on Talbot’s balk.
After a pair of strikeouts, Nate Spears lined his second centerfield single in as many at-bats, this time with enough force to score both runners and augment the lead to 3-0.
With one out in the fourth, Jose Iglesias effectively kindled Pawtucket’s next sugar rush when he reached on third baseman Jared Goedert’s fielding error. He would hustle home for the team’s fourth run on Che-Hsuan Lin’s double to the left-center warning track.
Lin advanced to third on Spears’ sacrifice grounder to second and waited patiently while Nava drew a walk. The two men would subsequently score on a bizarre play as Lars Anderson squeezed out an infield single and advanced to second while Talbot the Clippers engaged themselves in a vain effort to throw out Nava at third.
The Clippers finally got to Smith in the seventh. Nick Johnson and Goedert lined back-to-back singles and Johnson put Columbus on the board with the invitation of Argenis Reyes’ two-out double.
Smith would hand things over to Hideki Okajima after an even seven innings and having thrown 84 pitches to match the besieged Talbot’s bushel.
In the bottom of the seventh, Pawtucket touched Columbus’ second reliever, Matt Langwell, whose outing was at first reminiscent of his starter’s. Anderson reached second on Goedert’s second error of the night, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored his team’s seventh run on Luna’s rolling single to shallow left-center.
PawSox pluses
Although none of them amounted to extra runs, the Sox capitalized on Talbot’s contagious sloppiness and swiped three early bags in as many innings. With two out in the first, Spears and Nava pulled off a double-steal to put themselves each in scoring position while Luna pilfered second in the third with two down in the third.
Spears, who also batted 2-for-4 on the night, is now tied with Lin for the team lead with 13 steals. Meanwhile, Nava has nine on the year and Luna is a perfect 6-for-6 in his stealing attempts on the year.
Sox stains
Handling the DH duties in his Triple-A debut, touted third baseman Will Middlebrooks went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He was directly liable for leaving a combined three runners in scoring position in the third and fourth. He later swung and missed at a payoff pitch with Anderson at third in the seventh.
Clippers notes
Columbus stranded each of its first four baserunners, only one of whom reached scoring position. That was Cord Phelps, who leveled a two-out triple to right field in the third.
Designated hitter Beau Mills batted 2-for-4 on the night and finished the series 4-for-11. Goedert nailed a pair of singles himself.
Talbot’s first reliever, Paolo Espino, pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit in the form of a ground-rule double by Jose Iglesias.
Miscellany
Okajima has now pitched four straight scoreless innings with only one hit allowed, that being a single by Jerad Head in the eighth Friday night.
Fresh off the disabled list, Royce Ring polished the game off in the ninth in his first appearance in nine days.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Nava has made a positive U-turn in little time
Save for a few homering spurts during last week’s Southern excursion, Ryan Lavarnway’s bat was virtually gone from the PawSox clubhouse for the first half of August. As of Thursday, it had literally vanished with him, gone to Kansas City for the on-and-off slugger’s Major League debut.
Even in bitter defeat, 7-5, at the hands of the Columbus Clippers, Pawtucket can take comfort in the fact that Daniel Nava’s power has returned and chipped in consistently since the tail end of July.
Moments after the Sox squandered a 4-3 lead on the strength of Beau Mills’ eighth-inning grand slam, Nava cultivated the only fruitful seeds in the spontaneous rally effort. With two out in the bottom of the eighth, he launched a solo home run over the left-center wall.
While his teammates couldn’t do anything to build upon that and salvage the game, Nava redeemed himself after flying out to Columbus left fielder Chad Huffman at the left field warning track in his previous at bat. He also saved himself from what would have been his second hitless outing in three nights.
More notably, though, it was Nava’s fifth home run in his last 10 games, dating back to a dinger in Charlotte last Tuesday.
Before that game, Nava had left the yard only three times in his first 94 outings on the year. Overall, he was hitting 90-for-344, translating to a .261 batting average coupled with 26 runs batted in.
Beginning with a 2-for-3 performance that included his dinger and three RBIs, he has upped his overall average to .266, driving in nine runs over the last 10 ventures.
Nava has also enjoyed four multi-hit games in his last 10 played. In his first 94, leading up to Aug. 5, he had 24 to speak of and none dating back to July.
Now he suddenly trails only Lars Anderson for the team lead with 29 multi-hit bushels.
In the current month as a whole, Nava is now hitting 19-for-53 for a .358 batting average. He has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games.
And remember, for all intents and purposes, his August started three days later than that of his teammates. For the month’s first two days, in the latter half of a four-game home set with the Louisville Bats, Nava served only one plate-appearance, drawing a pinch-hit walk and scoring a run.
Nava sat out the full length of the next game and the team had the subsequent day off before the Buffalo Bisons came to McCoy. Nava was reposted to his usual defensive spot in left field, but all but instantaneously descended from the No. 2 slot in his previous start to No. 7 in the batting order.
Tough to blame manager Arnie Beyeler for that move at the time. After all, Nava had gone 1-for-17 in the preceding seven days of action.
He would remain the seventh batter for the duration of the Buffalo series, ultimately short-circuited by a rainout. But in the three games that were played, he batted 6-for-13, garnering exactly one more hit each night than the previous.
Nava was nudged up to the sixth spot for the first installment of last week’s visit to Charlotte, but mustered only one at-bat in a game that was suspended and picked up the following afternoon.
Normalcy was almost restored for the second half of the ensuring doubleheader last Tuesday. Instead of regaining his usual second spot, Nava immediately preceded cleanup man Lars Anderson and went 2-for-3 with a two-run blast in the fifth that effectively decided the PawSox 5-1 triumph over the Knights.
That constituted his fourth dinger of the year. In a matter of nine days, he has doubled that collection to eight, all of his hits coming from the upper echelon of the PawSox batting order.
And perhaps symbolically, the youngster who has played 60 Major League games, all in 2010, figures to see his first lick of action in Boston this Saturday as part of the “Futures at Fenway” doubleheader.
Suffice it to say, if he props up this pace, the late-blooming Nava ought to see some authentic Yawkey Yard action before the 2011 campaign runs its course.
Even in bitter defeat, 7-5, at the hands of the Columbus Clippers, Pawtucket can take comfort in the fact that Daniel Nava’s power has returned and chipped in consistently since the tail end of July.
Moments after the Sox squandered a 4-3 lead on the strength of Beau Mills’ eighth-inning grand slam, Nava cultivated the only fruitful seeds in the spontaneous rally effort. With two out in the bottom of the eighth, he launched a solo home run over the left-center wall.
While his teammates couldn’t do anything to build upon that and salvage the game, Nava redeemed himself after flying out to Columbus left fielder Chad Huffman at the left field warning track in his previous at bat. He also saved himself from what would have been his second hitless outing in three nights.
More notably, though, it was Nava’s fifth home run in his last 10 games, dating back to a dinger in Charlotte last Tuesday.
Before that game, Nava had left the yard only three times in his first 94 outings on the year. Overall, he was hitting 90-for-344, translating to a .261 batting average coupled with 26 runs batted in.
Beginning with a 2-for-3 performance that included his dinger and three RBIs, he has upped his overall average to .266, driving in nine runs over the last 10 ventures.
Nava has also enjoyed four multi-hit games in his last 10 played. In his first 94, leading up to Aug. 5, he had 24 to speak of and none dating back to July.
Now he suddenly trails only Lars Anderson for the team lead with 29 multi-hit bushels.
In the current month as a whole, Nava is now hitting 19-for-53 for a .358 batting average. He has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games.
And remember, for all intents and purposes, his August started three days later than that of his teammates. For the month’s first two days, in the latter half of a four-game home set with the Louisville Bats, Nava served only one plate-appearance, drawing a pinch-hit walk and scoring a run.
Nava sat out the full length of the next game and the team had the subsequent day off before the Buffalo Bisons came to McCoy. Nava was reposted to his usual defensive spot in left field, but all but instantaneously descended from the No. 2 slot in his previous start to No. 7 in the batting order.
Tough to blame manager Arnie Beyeler for that move at the time. After all, Nava had gone 1-for-17 in the preceding seven days of action.
He would remain the seventh batter for the duration of the Buffalo series, ultimately short-circuited by a rainout. But in the three games that were played, he batted 6-for-13, garnering exactly one more hit each night than the previous.
Nava was nudged up to the sixth spot for the first installment of last week’s visit to Charlotte, but mustered only one at-bat in a game that was suspended and picked up the following afternoon.
Normalcy was almost restored for the second half of the ensuring doubleheader last Tuesday. Instead of regaining his usual second spot, Nava immediately preceded cleanup man Lars Anderson and went 2-for-3 with a two-run blast in the fifth that effectively decided the PawSox 5-1 triumph over the Knights.
That constituted his fourth dinger of the year. In a matter of nine days, he has doubled that collection to eight, all of his hits coming from the upper echelon of the PawSox batting order.
And perhaps symbolically, the youngster who has played 60 Major League games, all in 2010, figures to see his first lick of action in Boston this Saturday as part of the “Futures at Fenway” doubleheader.
Suffice it to say, if he props up this pace, the late-blooming Nava ought to see some authentic Yawkey Yard action before the 2011 campaign runs its course.
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