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PawSox swept in doubleheader again

MOOSIC, Pa. -- Two long days, four tough losses. Two of those of the walk off variety.
The PawSox found a way to make a two-day stay in Scranton seem twice as long, by losing back-to-back double headers to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

The second of those came last night when Pawtucket dropped dropped counts of 4-2 and 3-2 (in extra innings) before a sellout crowd of 10,310 at PNC Field.

The nightcap was settled by Scranton’s Eric Duncan, whose one-out single off Travis Hughes ended an 11-inning marathon.

Duncan lashed the first pitch he saw from Hughes (5-6) into left field, scoring pinch-runner Andy Canizzaro from third.

Pawtucket has now lost five straight, scoring just seven runs in the process.

The offensively challenged PawSox went down meekly in the opener, after falling behind 4-0 in the second inning.

Starter Devern Hansack (7-7) was charged with all the runs, two of which were doubled in by Bronson Sardinha.

Pawtucket squandered scoring chances in the early innings, but pulled to within two runs in the fourth.

New arrival Bobby Kielty, late of the Oakland A’s, singled to lead off that frame, then legged it in from first when Brandon Moss, just back from a brief stay with Boston, doubled to center.

Moss later scored on Junior Spivey’s ground out.

Game 2, at least, provided some interesting twists and turns, but unfortunately for Pawtucket, produced the same sad result.

Trailing 1-0 heading into the fifth, the PawSox scratched out a pair of runs off reliever Ross Ohlendorf to take the lead.

Light-hitting catcher Kevin Cash, led off the frame with a homer to left, his fourth of the season.

One batter later, Ed Rogers reached on a fielder’s choice, then was doubled in from second by Jacoby Ellsbury.

But Scranton knotted the score in the bottom of the fifth with a run off reliever Lincoln Holdzkom.

The PawSox left the go-ahead run stranded at third in both the eighth and ninth innings.

AROUND THE BASES: Moss was still a little bleary-eyed from his all-night cross country flight on the Bosox charter, which landed in Baltimore, yesterday morning. Nonetheless, he was still buzzing from his first taste of the big leagues, a three day stay while Boston was in Anaheim.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Moss, “because I’d never been there before. I was a little nervous, but everything settled in and I got more comfortable. It was awesome, I loved it.”

Moss went just 1-for-7 (with a walk) in two games with the Bosox, but was pleased to get that first big league hit, a single, under his belt.

“I was wondering if I was going to get that,” he said, “because I’d hit some balls well earlier in the game. I thought, ‘man, I might not ever get that hit’. But it finally came, and it was a big relief.”

To make room for Moss on the PawSox roster, RHP Craig Hansen was placed on the disabled list (retroactive to Aug. 6) with a contusion of his pitching forearm, suffered in an off-field mishap…Although Johnson wasn’t completely certain, he said that RHP Charlie Zink, who had received a “temporary” promotion from Double-A Portland last week, would finish the year with Pawtucket. “He’s earned it,” he said. ..As if things weren’t tough enough for the PawSox, they were without the services of both catcher George Kottaras (sore knee) and first basesman Jeff Bailey (sore neck)…In Game 2, PawSox lefty Craig Breslow, who has been exclusively a reliever, made the first start of his six year professional career…

After the game, the club motored on to Syracuse, the second stop on their three-city, 10-day sojourn, to begin a four-game set with the Chiefs. RHP Mike Burns (3-7, 4.39) will get the start tonight (7 p.m.) against Syracuse RHP Jeremy Cummings (2-1, 2.64).

--DAN HICKLING

Posted by Chris Venditto  at 11:01 PM to PawSox | Permalink

Projo SoxTalk postponed

We regret to say that projo SoxTalk has been postponed today due to scheduling conflicts here in Providence. We'll be back tomorrow morning with Art Martone and Mike McDermott, and Sean McAdam will be back to record a new edition on Monday. Click here to hear Wednesday's edition.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 12:17 PM | Permalink

Baseball Today: Thursday, August 9

WHAT A RELIEF: The Red Sox took the field in Anaheim last night knowing they wouldn't lose any ground in the A.L. East race -- the Toronto Blue Jays had seen to that (New York Post) -- but it sure didn't seem they would gain any, either, not with a lineup that featured Brandon Moss, J.D. Drew and Wily Mo Pena in the outfield (both Coco Crisp and David Ortiz were given the night off; read why on projo.com's Red Sox Journal) and not after Jon Lester was lit up for three runs in the first two innings. Four hours and two minutes after it began, however, the Sox walked off the field with a 9-6 victory powered by the one thing they've been able to depend on all season: Their bullpen. Sean McAdam reports the 'pen turned in 5 2/3 innings of one-run relief, with Hideki Okajima (above, AP Photo) getting the win, enabling Boston to salvage the final game of the three-game series with the Angels and push its lead over the Yankees back to six.

LET'S DO IT AGAIN, REAL SOON: The Riverside Press-Enterprise's Jim Alexander hopes these last three games, which he described as ''intense [and] entertaining,'' were a preview of a Red Sox-Angels playoff matchup.

THE GLASS-IS-HALF-EMPTY REPORT: Lester was ineffective for the second start in a row and says it's ''back to the drawing board'' in an attempt to figure out what's wrong. (Boston Herald)

THE GLASS-IS-MORE-THAN-HALF-FULL REPORT: FanNation.com predicts the Red Sox will ''cruise to their first division crown since the 1995 team Kevin Kennedy always talks about on his XM Radio show.''

'WHAT'S THE FASCINATION, WHAT'S THE FASCINATION, WHAT'S THE FASCINATION WITH J.D. DREW?' Sean McAdam examines the poor season -- thus far -- of J.D. Drew (projo.com), which was parodied in a hilarious mock-rap by WEEI's Pete Gustin. (weei.com)

FATHERS AND SONS: Bill Reynolds has a conversion with Skip Buchholz, father of Sox pitching prospect Clay Buccholz, who says he's known his son was destined to be a baseball star since the young man was 7. (projo.com)

THE CURSE OF O-CAB: Orlando Cabrera says the Red Sox won't win the World Series again until they put his old No. 44 in mothballs. (Boston Herald) Don't quite understand why Cabrera thinks the number had anything to do with 2004's championship, since it had been worn by Fabian Gaffke, Ben Steiner, Joe Trimble, Haywood Sullivan, Don McMahon, Bob Gallagher, Andy Kosco, Joel Finch, Jim Dorsey, Wes Gardner, Danny Darwin, Kevin Kennedy, Rudy Pemberton, Michael Coleman, Butch Huskey, Ed Sprague, Rolando Arrojo, Chad Fox and Bill Haselman before Cabrera ever arrived in Boston. (redsoxdiehard.com)

WESTWARD HO: The Los Angeles Daily News has an interesting feature on how Lancaster, Calif., has become an outpost of Red Sox Nation after the Sox put a Class A team there.

AND BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ENOUGH CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING ALEX RODRIGUEZ . . . Chipper Jones decides to make a veiled steroids allegation against A-Rod, though, when pressed to clarify, he backpedaled faster than Ty Law. (New York Post)

SORE POINT: What hurts A-Rod even worse than Chipper's comments is his right calf, where he was hit by an apparently intentional Josh Towers pitch Tuesday and which forced him out of the lineup last night. (New York Post)

SUMMER VACATIONS: Joe Torre and Roger Clemens may each get one soon, thanks to their bit in Tuesday night's beanball battle with Toronto. (New York Post)

AND FURTHERMORE . . . The New York Daily News' Mike Lupica fires away at people who claim Barry Bonds didn't need steroids to break Hank Aaron's home-run record, asking ''If steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs don't matter, then why do athletes in all sports take them in the first place? . . . The subject is drugs, which they use because they work. Whether they are staying ahead of the testers or not. You think anybody will ever look at the Tour de France the same way ever again, no matter how many people are on the side of the road? You really think that smart people still believe Lance Armstrong was the only pure one in the race?''

HE'S TALKING TO YOU GUYS: Joe Torre apparently is one of the people Lupica's referring to. (New York Daily News) So is Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post.

NEXT IN LINE: ESPN.com's Rob Neyer lists the six players with the best chance to break Barry Bonds' home-run record.

RADIATED GLORY: Whoever surrenders the next record-breaking homer probably won't be as happy about it as the Nationals' Mike Bacsik, who's reveling in the 15 minutes of fame he received for serving up No. 756. (San Francisco Chronicle)

'SLEEZEBALL TO SLEEZEBALL': That's what the blog Armchairg.com is calling the Bacsik-to-Bonds connection, since it claims Bacsik intentionally grooved one to Bonds to get himself a little publicity. But David Pinto of Baseball Musings thinks that's absurd, and shoots holes in the argument. Al Downing, who threw the pitch that Aaron hit to break Babe Ruth's record, would agree with Pinto. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO: Pedro Martinez declared himself satisfied by his first rehab start, even though the results -- three innings, six hits, five runs against Class A competition, with a fastball that topped out at 88 mph -- were far from satisfactory. (New York Daily News)

BIG DEAL: Miguel Tejada isn't bothered by reports that the Orioles placed him on waivers, saying he understands the business of baseball. (Baltimore Sun)

I'M GONE: David Wells says he'll retire if the Padres release him (San Diego Union-Tribune), which is exactly what they're doing. (AP, via projo.com)

QUICKLY: Cubs GM Jim Hendry laughed off rumors that his team was trying to acquire White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik (Chicago Sun-Times) . . . Craig Monroe is about to lose the center-field job in Detroit (Detroit Free Press) . . . This may be Rondell White's last season (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) . . . The Rockies' Jason Hirsch pitched five innings with a broken leg Tuesday night (espn.com) . . . 48-year-old Julio Franco has been sent to Class A Rome, though the Braves plan to bring him back on Sept. 1 and say he would still be eligible to be placed on the postseason roster (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

OLD FRIENDS: Casey Fossum -- the man the Red Sox wouldn't part with in 2002 in a potential deal for Bartolo Colon -- has been sent to the minors by the Devil Rays (Tampa Tribune) . . . Wilfredo Ledezma has resurfaced in San Diego's starting rotation (San Diego Union-Tribune).

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:49 AM | Permalink

Relief in sight, Sox salvage finale with Angels

By SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

ANAHEIM – As their divisional lead has narrowed and their level of play dipped, one component has not failed the Red Sox of late: their bullpen.

Even as the club rode out stretches of inconsistency, the bullpen remained dependable. So perhaps it was fitting that the team’s relief corps rode to the rescue Wednesday night and ensured that the team would not be swept by the pesky Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

On a night when their starter (Jon Lester) couldn’t get through the fourth, five different relievers provided 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 9-6 victory that helped re-establish a six-game lead over the New York Yankees.

''(The Angels) kept battling back and finding ways to score,'' said catcher Jason Varitek, ''but our bullpen slammed the door and that allowed us to spread it out a little bit.''

''We got into our pen so early,'' said Terry Francona, ''that that can run into problems. Runs weren’t necessarily a problem. It was holding them down and our bullpen did a great job of that.''

The game was a test of endurance for both teams, requiring a total of 11 pitchers and 4:02 to complete, making it the longest nine-inning home game in Angels history.

The lone run off the Boston bullpen came against Julian Tavarez, who got Lester out of a jam in the fourth on an inning-ending double play, but was touched for a run in the fifth.

But Mike Timlin came on to get the final two outs in the fifth, stranding a runner in scoring position and retired four of the five hitters he faced in a key inning and a third outing.

''If Timlin stumbles,'' said Francona, ''we’re going to get to other guys too early. But he got four outs, which was exactly what we needed. It allowed us not to over-extend our other guys.''

Hideki Okajima, Eric Gagne and Jonathan Papelbon followed, with Papelbon getting his 26th save in 28 tries. The Red Sox’ bullpen entered the game with a 2.37 ERA over the previous 34 games and a 2.82 ERA for the season.

The Sox banged out 14 hits, with Mike Lowell going 4-for-4 with two RBI and Dustin Pedroia adding three hits and three runs.

Through the first six innings, the teams traded swapped leads and lost, then regained momentum.

Pedroia snapped a 6-6 tie to open the seventh with his fifth homer of the season, a belt to left that just landed beyond Garret Anderson's reach. The Sox tacked on two more runs in the eighth, thanks to some uncharacteristic sloppiness (passed ball, wild pitch, error) by the Angels. That inning include the first major league hit for rookie Brandon Moss, which occasioned a hearty ovation from the many Red Sox fans on hand.

After falling behind early and showing little offensive spark in the early going, the Sox got untracked in the fourth against rookie Dustin Mosely, sending eight men to the plate and scoring four times.

Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis singled to get things going and Manny Ramirez then drove a bullet double to deep center, scoring both baserunners and giving him 30 RBI since the All-Star break and 21 RBI in his last 17 games.

Two more doubles – one each by J.D. Drew and Lowell – gave the Sox their first lead of the night, though the Sox missed an opportunity for more when they couldn’t plate Lowell from third after one out.

The two teams had traded runs right from the beginning, with the Angels grabbing a 3-0 lead against Lester.

The Sox lefty gave up seven hits to the first 10 hitters he faced. In the first, singles from Reggie Willits and Chone Figgins and a groundout by Vladimir Guerrero produced a quick 1-0 edge.

A run-scoring single from Erick Aybar and a booming, bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Figgins in the second stretched the lead to 3-0 and made it seems like Lester’s night would be a short one.

He seemed to find himself after the long sacrifice fly, retiring six of the next seven hitters he faced. But in the fourth, after one out, he walked back-to-back hitters and yielded a two-run double to Figgins and was yanked in favor of Tavarez.

''I was terrible,'' said Lester. ''There’s no getting around it. I wasn’t getting ahead, wasn’t throwing strikes and when I threw strikes, there were getting too much of the plate. You never want to pitch like that and I’ve done it back-to-back times now. I thought this time, I worked some things out, but I took a step backward.''

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 2:48 AM | Permalink | Comments 1

Sox win marathon

The Sox beat the Angels, 9-6 and avoided a sweep in a game that lasted more than four hours -- without extra innings!

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 2:08 AM | Permalink