Post-game Pop-ups: Indians 8, PawSox 6 (13 Innings)

Swift summation

The Pawtucket Red Sox finally learned Friday night that they can only juggle with torches so many times before they get burned.

Conceding the first run for the fourth time in as many nights against the visiting Indianapolis Indians and falling behind by at least three runs, the Sox deleted 4-0, 5-4 and 6-5 deficits. But they could never raise an upper hand and ultimately paid for their newest pitcher’s shoddy tone-setter as the Indians departed with an 8-6 victory.

In his first (and, so far, only) Triple-A inning of 2012, demoted Red Sox starter Daniel Bard sandwiched a single with two hit-batsmen to load the bases with no outs for Jeff Clement, who entered the night with the I.L.’s second-best batting average. Clement would hit into a forceout up the middle, but nonetheless nudged Chase d’Arnaud home for a 1-0 lead and put himself and Gorkys Hernandez at the corners.

Designated hitter Jeff Larish knocked both runners in with a double to the warning track in left-center.

Promptly succeeding Bard after one inning, Doug Mathis allowed two straight singles to commence the second, then yielded the Indians’ fourth unanswered run in the third. Brandon Boggs’ base hit scored Yamaico Navarro from second base.

With Pedro Ciriaco and Ryan Lavarnway aboard in the third, Mauro Gomez retorted with a one-out, three-run dinger over the opposite wall in right, instantly reducing the deficit to 4-3.

But Indians’ southpaw starter Jeff Locke retired each of his next seven challengers and eight of his next nine, six by virtue of a strikeout. Upon rallying from a 3-0 deficit to catch Gomez swinging and missing at a payoff pitch, he handed things over to the bullpen to commence the sixth.

As reliever Evan Meeks’ third challenger with two outs in that inning, PawSox infielder Tony Thomas belted a straightaway solo shot to draw a 4-4 knot. But Navarro’s own solo blast to left renewed the Indians’ lead to 5-4 in the top of the seventh.

Indianapolis reliever Tim Wood, who supplanted Jose Diaz with two down in the bottom of the seventh, saw to it that a cumulative three runners were stranded. The Sox finally solved him in the ninth, though, when Pedro Ciriaco doubled, advanced on a wild pitch, then came home for another equalizer on Ryan Kalish’s two-bagger to the centerfield gap.

Two scoreless extra innings ensued before Navarro walked, stole second and advanced to third on Lavarnway’s throwing error, then hustled home ahead of Boggs’ double, his second RBI hit of the night.

Che-Hsuan Lin led off the bottom of the twelfth by repeating his tenth-inning act with an opposite-field triple. And this time, he completed the tour with the help of Josh Kroeger’s one-out single to shallow left, making it 6-6 and forcing a thirteenth frame.

With two men in scoring position, a previously hitless Starling Marte wasted no time drilling a single to left field, plating Hernandez and d’Arnaud for an 8-6 Indy advantage.

In his third inning of relief, Indians left Kris Johnson subsequently repressed Pawtucket’s attempt at a fourth rally, retiring the top of the order 1-2-3.

PawSox pluses

Despite pitching six times as many innings as Bard, Mathis tamed the Tribe much more proficiently. Even as he elevated his single-night pitch count to an easy season-high of 105, Mathis finished strong by striking out three of four batters in the seventh.

Mathis’ successor, Alex Wilson, needed only 22 pitches, 16 for strikes, to whip up back-to-back 1-2-3 frames in the eighth and ninth.

Lin led the home team’s multi-hit club, which also featured Ciriaco and Kalish, with a single and two triples.

Sox stains

Bard’s brief and blunderstruck shift on the mound kind of speaks for itself. If not for that, maybe the Sox could have finished a sweep of the Indians within regulation and thus allowed the McCoy masses to leave without any guilt.

Other than that, there were no individual PawSox who had an altogether egregious night. Although, Kroeger, Nate Spears and Ciriaco all left Thomas and Lin hanging in scoring position when any one of them could have won it in the tenth with a simple base hit.

Indians notes

Navarro hit 3-for-5 on the night along with a walk, a run batted in and three runs-scored.

d’Arnaud was charged with his team-leading ninth error of the year from his shortstop post when he couldn’t collect Thomas’ grounder in the second inning. Although, on the other side of the ball, he batted a decent 2-for-5 along with his free base on Bard’s hit-by-pitch as well as Inman’s throwing error in the thirteenth.

Larish was the only Indianapolis batter to draw a walk on Mathis, getting the four-ball pass in both the third and fifth inning. In their third meeting, though, he would strike out swinging at a 2-2 pitch. Striking out again against Will Inman in the twelfth, Larish’s night ended when he was ejected for disputing the call.

Diaz intentionally walked Lavarnway in the seventh. Wood did the same to Gomez in the ninth shortly after Kalish’s double had drawn the 5-5 knot. Daniel Moskos likewise put Thomas on board in the tenth with a planned pass.

Each Indianapolis hitter struck out at least once, combining to brook 15 Ks on the night.

Miscellany

In his first home outing with the PawSox, Mark Prior struck out four while allowing a hit and a walk over the ninth and tenth inning.

Kroeger pinch hit for Ronald Bermudez in the bottom of the eighth, then nudged Alex Hassan to Bermudez’s left field post while assuming Hassan’s old spot in right for the ninth. Spears hit in lieu of Jonathan Hee to lead off the home half of the ninth, replacing him at third base for extra innings.

Indianapolis and Pawtucket combined to ground into seven forceouts, including six unanswered at the Indians’ expense within the first six stanzas.

At four hours and 41 minutes, Friday’s contest easily set a new mark as the longest game in the Sox’ 2012 season so far. They previously took four hours and eight minutes to lose an April 15 tilt in Buffalo.

The Gwinnett Braves will drop in for the second half of the PawSox homestand. Gwinnett pitching staff leader Julio Teheran will counter Tony Pena, Jr. in Saturday night’s series opener.

Post-game Pop-ups: PawSox 5, Indians 3

Swift summation

Even with a protracted wait to perk up and without the services of the two radiant Ryans, the patient Pawtucket Red Sox found a way to end Brandon Duckworth’s winless skid. 

When Duckworth threw his final pitch against the Indianapolis Indians in the sixth inning Thursday night, he and his mates were nursing a 3-2 deficit. But a three-run outburst in the home half at the expense of Indians’ reliever Duke Welker amounted to an eventual 5-3 victory at McCoy Stadium.

In addition to giving Duckworth his first winning decision in four starts and 23 days, the PawSox garnered themselves their third five-game winning streak of the season. What’s more, the I.L. North leaders are assured the better part of the ongoing four-game wishbone with the I.L. West-leading Indians.

Those developments cast no disturbances on the horizon to start the night as the omission of both Ryan Kalish and Ryan Lavarnway from the PawSox batting order at first appeared a dubious decision on the part of manager Arnie Beyeler. Rehabbing Indianapolis starter Jeff Karstens smoothly plowed through four-plus innings while his mates nibbled at Duckworth.

Back-to-back doubles via the heavy-hitting Jeff Clement and Yamaico Navarro drew first blood in favor of the Indians with no outs in the second inning.

One inning later, Chase d’Arnaud augmented the lead to 2-0 upon singling to centerfield, stealing second and advancing to third on catcher Mike Rivera’s error, then scoring via Gorkys Hernandez’s sacrifice grounder.

With his own sacrifice in the fifth, a straightaway flyout to Che-Hsuan Lin, d’Arnaud brought home Jake Fox for a 3-0 Indians edge.

Meanwhile, after leadoff man Pedro Ciriaco singled to lead off the bottom of the first, 12 consecutive PawSox were retired, beginning with Ciriaco’s foiled stealing attempt. They finally mustered another baserunner in the fifth with Josh Kroeger’s one-out double to right.

But Alex Hassan wasted no time following up with a rolling single to center, scoring Kroeger to whittle the deficit down to 3-1. Karstens was simultaneously injured and replaced by Welker, a development beyond everyone’s control that nonetheless equaled the turning point of the evening.

Welker’s first two challengers, Nate Spears and Mike Rivera, singled in succession with Rivera’s base hit sending Hassan home from second, reducing Indianapolis’ lead to 3-2.

Kroeger came up again in the sixth with Lars Anderson and Mauro Gomez on board and dropped his eighth home run of the season over the right-field to usurp a 5-3 lead for Pawtucket.

The defense propped up that lead by bailing reliever Clayton Mortensen out of a pair of shaky relief innings with two double-plays. Mark Melancon only needed seven pitches in the ninth to stamp his 11th save of the season.

PawSox pluses

Spelling Lavarnway behind the plate, Rivera recompensed his throwing error with his second straight multi-hit game and fourth in 15 total appearances with the PawSox this season.

A similar performance by Kroeger, who is now 3-for-3 with each hit going for extra bases in this series, made it easy to forget that the DH also struck out twice on Thursday.

Sox stains

Batting 0-for-4, Lin was Pawtucket’s only batter who failed to reach safely at any point in the game. His final at-bat saw him grounds out to second base in the seventh when Jonathan Hee and Rivera both in scoring position and both unable to advance on any sort of sacrifice.

Indians notes

Centerfielder Starling Marte struck out in each of his three encounters with Duckworth.

Following Welker’s botched effort to hold up Kerstens’ victory, Evan Meek and Jose Diaz each threw a scoreless inning of relief in the seventh and eighth, respectively.

Hernandez was caught stealing in the top of the first with Duckworth throwing to Hee at his second-base post. 

Miscellany

Sent down from Boston earlier this week, Daniel Bard will toe the rubber for the series finale on Friday, countering Indianapolis southpaw Jeff Locke.

Post-game Pop-ups: Tides 2, PawSox 0

Swift summation

Ever the polite hosts to their departing visitors from Norfolk, the Pawtucket Red Sox could do no favors for their other special guest from their own parent club in Boston on Thursday.

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s latest rehab start blended the basic elements from his previous two. Just as they did against Toledo last Saturday, the Sox could not offer him enough support to reward his effort with a win.

And for the first time since Matsuzaka’s previous, and only, decision at the Triple-A level in 2012, namely a 5-0 loss at Durham May 17, the bat rack took a vow of silence. In the process, they treated Tides starter Chris Tillman to his longest, most efficient start of the season, his fourth in Norfolk.

The consequence: A 2-0 setback at McCoy Stadium decided almost in exclusive tandem by Tillman and designated hitter Lew Ford.

Ford’s first-inning solo shot off Matsuzaka was enough to hold up the Tides as visiting starter Chris Tillman one-upped his counterpart in stifling the Sox.

Lars Anderson constituted Pawtucket’s only hit and one of only four individuals to reach base through the first seven innings. Other than Josh Kroeger, who in the second inning reached first on a fielder’s choice and then advanced on a botched pickoff attempt, nobody could cross into scoring position on Tillman’s watch.

Meanwhile, in the seventh, Ford took full advantage of PawSox reliever Alex Wilson’s oily right hand to add to the lead he created six innings prior. Drawing a walk and then stealing second base, Ford was permitted to advance to third and then score on two consecutive wild pitches to Miguel Tejada.

Tillman would retire 17 consecutive batters between the third and the eighth inning and did anything but wear down along the way. He struck out the side, including Ryan Lavarnway and Anderson, in the seventh, then benched Mauro Gomez and Kroeger to start the eighth for five unanswered Ks.

His next challenger, Alex Hassan, redirected his one hundredth pitch of the night right back to the mound, allowing him to do the honors on his last out.

Nate Spears, who was Tillman’s final baserunner after drawing a walk in the third inning, led off the ninth with an opposite-field single against reliever J.C. Romero. But after Pedro Ciriaco’s sacrifice bunt nudged him to second, Spears was stranded as Jon Link took the ball for Norfolk and nimbly retired Che-Hsuan Lin.

PawSox pluses

For the second time in as many rehab appearances this homestand, Matsuzaka made it through five full innings, giving way to Alex Wilson after retiring his first challenger in the sixth. He walked no batters and struck out four, including former Boston teammate Bill Hall, and only Ford (2-for-2) could whittle any hits off of him.

In two full innings of relief, Garret Mock struck out three Tides and threw 19 out of 25 pitches for strikes.

Sox stains

Other than the top-to-bottom offensive famine, you mean?

Through the first seven innings, Norfolk’s only other baserunner besides Ford was leadoff man Chris Robinson in the third. He was admitted to first base when Anderson dropped Pedro Ciriaco’s routine throw from short, incurring his fourth error of the 2012 campaign.

Tides notes

Tejada had a busy, yet effective evening at his third-base post, fielding and executing seven PawSox ground balls within the first six innings. Those included each of Ciriaco’s first three plate appearances and Lin’s game-ending grounder.

Robinson’s two-out, eighth-inning single off Mock was Norfolk’s only hit at the expense of the Pawtucket bullpen.

Out of nine strikeouts on the night, Tillman threw six against the heart of the PawSox batting order, two apiece against Lavarnway, Anderson and Gomez.

Ford would appear on base a third time in the seventh when he drew a leadoff walk on Wilson. 

Miscellany

Pitchers Chorye Spoone and Billy Buckner switched places in the organization earlier in the day with Buckner coming up to Pawtucket from Portland.

The PawSox will embark on an abbreviated, one-stop road trip to Lehigh Valley the next four nights. That series will be their first against a divisional rival since finishing a home set with Rochester May 10 and their only one between now and an eight-day swing through Buffalo and Syracuse starting June 14.