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Tuesday, 29 July 2008 |
PAWTUCKET — The first-place Pawtucket Red Sox return home tonight from an eight-game road trip with the sting of a tough 5-4 loss to Toledo in 12 innings on Monday still fresh in their collective minds.
Toledo pushed across the winning run when Freddy Guzman scored from third base on a wild pitch by PawSox reliever Lincoln Holdzkom. Timo Perez swung and missed for an apparent strike three that would have ended the inning but the ball got past catcher Dusty Brown.
The PawSox failed to cash in on several scoring opportunities earlier in the game as they stranded 15 runners in all. Brown got the offense off to a good start with a two-run single in the top of the first inning. Joe Thurston’s sacrifice fly in the second inning gave Pawtucket an early 3-1 lead behind starting pitcher Devern Hansack, who gave up the
lead when Toledo scored twice in the fifth on a two-run double by Clete Thomas.
Both teams scored a run in the eighth inning. Pawtucket got theirs when Gil Velazquez led off with a walk and was bunted up a base by Jonathan Van Every. Toledo shortstop Derek Wathan then misplayed a grounder hit by Pawtucket’s Jeff Bailey and Velazquez came home with an unearned run.
In the bottom of the eighth, PawSox reliever Michael Tejera got Perez to ground out and then struck out Jeff Larish. Manager Ron Johnson then brought in Hunter Jones to replace the lefthanded Tejera and righthanded-hitting Erick Almonte blew up the strategy by homering to left centerfield for the game-tying marker.
Both teams ended up using five pitchers in the game. Holdzkom pitched a scoerless 11th inning before getting into trouble in the 12th when Guzman hit a one-out single to center. The speedy Mud Hen then stole second base. Holdzkom intentionally walked the dangerous Clete Thomas. With Brent Clevlen batting, Guzman then stole third base for his 35th swipe of the season.
Clevlen struck out swinging for the second out and then Perez appeared to go down, too, except the ball rolled away from Dusty Brown and Guzman came home with the winning run.
Pawtucket will send Charlie Zink (12-3) to the mound against Rochester’s Kevin Mulvey tonight. The Red Wings will be in town through Friday night. Former American League All-Star Francisco Liriano remains a member of the Wings even though he has won his last nine decisions and is 10-2 on the season with a 3.28 ERA. Liriano defeated Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Sunday night and would be in line to pitch Friday night in Pawtucket if the parent Minnesota Twins are crazy enough to keep the fireballing lefthander in the minors for yet another start.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which trailed Pawtucket by one game heading into last night’s action, visits McCoy on Saturday and Sunday for a short two-game series before the two teams head to Moosic, Pa. for a four-game series in the Yankees’ home park.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 August 2008 )
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