Projo Sox Blog

BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Sports Writer

Highlights: There are good losses, and bad ones. Pawtucket has experienced a lot of the bad kind lately, suffering through 12-0, 3-1 and 1-0 defeats the past three nights. So Saturday night, it was almost a victory in itself, to see the team's bats come alive and battle back against Syracuse after starting off the game down 7-0. The heroics at the plate weren't quite enough, however, and Pawtucket fell, 8-7.

Angel Chavez drove in two runs with a double in the second inning, and Chris Carter hit a two-run home run to bring Pawtucket back within striking distance in the third. But despite some good contact in the late innings, Pawtucket couldn't close the gap, and fell to .500 on the season.

Still, manager Ron Johnson was thrilled by his team's strong comeback effort, especially considering Pawtucket had scored only one run its past three games.

"Doggone it, we've been coming in here, one run, two hits, one hit -- and we come in here tonight, square some balls up, guys had good swings, and I'm hoping that's something to build on for our offense," Johnson said.

The team had to dig itself out of that hole because Charlie Zink's knuckleball wasn't moving, and he faced a team that has given him trouble all year. Syracuse hitters have been known to feast on the knuckleballs of Charlie Zink, and they were again happy to dine on what he served up tonight. Mike Morse homered once and Justin Maxwell went deep twice against Zink, who was battered around for the first three innings.

Then manager Ron Johnson walked out to the mound, waved off the other fielders, and spoke to Zink one-on-one.

"I went up there and told him, this is you. I'm going to sit back here with my legs crossed, you've got to figure out a way to get through this," Johnson said.

Zink responded.

He stayed in the game, lasting through three more innings without incident to spare the Pawtucket bullpen. He mixed in more fastballs and cutters to keep the hitters off balance.

"Now I know, if they start hitting it real solid, I'll know it's not moving enough, and I should get them off balance with some other stuff," Zink said.

Solid relief: Rocky Cherry pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Zink, making quick work of Syracuse batters. He allowed only two baserunners, and immediately picked one off.

Hit parade: Pawtucket actually outhit Syracuse, 14-10, six more hits than the PawSox had over their past three games combined.

Jedwatch: Jed Lowrie went 3-for-5, the first multihit game of his lengthy Pawtucket rehab.

"I think Jed's feeling good about his physical ability. I was very pleased with everything he did tonight. I was very pleased with the bat speed," Johnson said.

The shortstop looks like he is rounding into shape following wrist surgery, and seemingly could return to the big leagues soon.

"What I saw tonight -- I really liked what Jed did. And I know he did too, I could tell, by talking with him during the game, after he hit some of those balls, he's starting to feel pretty good," Johnson said.

Next up: Pawtucket goes into the All-Star break with its best option on the mound, Clay Buchholz (7-1, 2.11), against Syracuse Chief Collin Balester (6-8, 4.14). The team is then off until Thursday, when Pawtucket begins a four-game set against Indianapolis.

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