PAWTUCKET – Jeff Bailey’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the first inning proved an accurate portent of things to come when Pawtucket and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre squared off at McCoy Stadium on a windy Monday afternoon.
“It’s funny how the game is,” PawSox manager Ron Johnson said after his team blasted six home runs – two by Bailey – during an 11-5 victory over the Yankees that deadlocked these two teams at the top of the International League North pennant race with identical 32-20 records. “The wind was blowing out and that puts hitters in a good frame of mind.”
Johnson, a slugger during his own professional career, knows something about the psychology that hitters take to the plate with them.
“Everyone likes to hit in these conditions,” he said, “but I think all of our homers would have gone out of the park anyway. (George) Kottaras hit a phenomenal blast.”
Kottaras, the lefthanded-hitting catcher who has been stuck in a month-long slump, drilled a 400-foot homer that cleared a small warehouse located behind the right field foul pole and bounced high in the air, coming to rest more than 100 feet away.
“George has been struggling for awhile,” Johnson conceded. “He got off to a great start in April. He was keeping the ball fair. Then he started to hit those balls foul. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself at the plate, starting (his swing) too soon.”

While Kottaras has seen his average fall to .224, Bailey is hitting a career-high .327 with 14 homers and 40 RBI at this juncture in the season. The 29-year-old veteran has never hit higher than .299 in his 11-year career after being selected in the second round of the 1997 Player Draft by the Florida Marlins.
“Am I a better hitter?” Bailey said after the game, repeating a reporter’s question. “I don’t think so. I guess the difference this year is when I get my pitch, I am not missing it. Today I came up in the first inning and got into a fastball situation. I got my pitch and drove it.”
Bailey, normally a middle-of-the-order hitter, moved into the leadoff spot a month ago and has responded well to the change.
“If you can hit a homer to start the game,” he said, “and that makes the other guys in our lineup feel better when they go to the plate, that’s pretty good.”
Johnson explained his rationale for moving a player who has hit 143 homers in the minors, into the leadoff spot.
“We really don’t have a guy on this team who profiles as a leadoff hitter,” the manager said. “I put Joe Thurston there in April and I think Joe would be the first to tell you he doesn’t really like it. I started looking at other options and thought about Jeff, who is really a selective hitter. He also has the ability to hit homers. We had a first inning where we were behind 1-0 and it could have been worse but Charlie (Zink) minimized the damage. Jeff leads off the bottom of the inning and ties the game up on one pitch. I think that makes all of our hitters more confident.”
Johnson can relate to Bailey because he had a similar professional career. RJ was a power hitter who earned a cup of coffee with the Kansas City Royals before heading into managing.
“The game is so different today,” Johnson said. “Jeff is 28 years old (29, actually). I always remind people that Jeff can catch … and he’s a pretty good catcher, too.”
The PawSox roughed up Yankees pitching prospect Jeff Karstens, who yielded seven hits and six runs in 3.2 innings. Bailey hit both of his homers off the righthander, who is only two starts into his season after coming off the disabled list.
Scranton, which has lost nine of its last 13 games, sent lefthander Billy Traber in relieve Karstens and he got touched for fifth-inning homers off the bats of Keith Ginter and Jonathan Van Every.
In the sixth inning, new pitcher Steven White tossed a fastball into Kottaras’s wheelhouse (low and on the inner part of the plate) and George caught it flush, rocketing a line drive far over the wall, the kind of homer that players talk about after the game.
PawSox shortstop Gil Velasquez touched White for his first homer of the year in the seventh inning. That completed the homer parade for the day.
Zink, now 6-2 on the season, pitched eight innings, surviving a shaky first inning that began when leadoff hitter Brett Gardner struck out and reached first when Kottaras couldn’t handle a nasty knuckler. Justin Christian then got hit by a pitch and Jason Lane walked. But Zink fanned cleanup hitter Cody Ransom, gave up a run on a sacrifice fly to center, and then got the third out.
Pawtucket’s offense took care of the rest, erasing a 4-2 Yankees lead with its barrage of home runs.
The PawSox will have a rougher time tonight in Game 2 of this series as the Yankees send league ERA leader Dan Geise (4-2, 1.01) against Kyle Snyder (1-1, 3.71). Sole possession of first place will be on the line as the PawSox, who have won 15 of their last 19 games, seek to maintain their winning ways.
“This game today was all the more impressive,” Ron Johnson said, “because Scranton is a very good baseball team.” The Yanks are on a bad run, though, having blown a five-game lead in the last two weeks after losing ace hurler Darrell Rasner to their big league club.

EXTRA BASES: Masochistic Yankee fans in the region can buy tickets to see Kei Igawa (3-4, 3.83) pitch for Scranton on Wednesday night against Pawtucket’s Devern Hansack (2-5, 5.55) … Zink threw 101 pitches, 69 for strikes … Pawtucket is now 20-7 at home this season.