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PawSox slow down Scranton |
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
Special to Blackstone Valley Sports
MOOSIC, Pa. -- The Pawtucket Red Sox pulled back within one-half game of first-place Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday night with an 11-5 romp over the Yankees.
Scranton had defeated Pawtucket three games in a row before the PawSox jumped on Yankees starter Alfred Avenes.
Edgar Martinez got a much-needed win for the PawSox on Wednesday night. "El Guapo" (6-2) gave up just 2 runs in 5.1 innings.
Jon Switzer did a tremendous job out of the bullpen, with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. Switzer allowed just 1 hit.
Hunter Jones mopped up in the ninth. Jones allowed a 2-run homer to Nick Green and an RBI double to Eric Duncan.
Offensively, it was a team effort for Pawtucket. In the second inning, Gil Velazquez put the PawSox on the board with a sacrifice fly that scored George Kottaras.
In the fourth, Jonathan Van Every smashed a booming, 2 run double. In the sixth, Dusty Brown's single plated another pair of runs.
The PawSox added 5 runs in the ninth. Velazquez drove in his second run of the night with a double. Joe Thurston hit a 2-run double and Sean Danielson and Kottaras added RBI base hits.
With the win, the PawSox (72-47) snap a three game losing streak, moved to within a half game of first place and assured themselves of a winning record in 2008.
The series concludes tonight at 7 p.m. Devern Hansack (5-9) faces rehabbing righthander Phil Hughes, who will be limited to approximately 65 pitches.
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EXTRA BASES: The PawSox are 5th in the International League in Team Batting (.265) and 2nd in Team Pitching (3.69) after leading the league in both categories for much of the first half of July. The PawSox do still lead the IL in runs scored (614) and walks (452) and they are 2nd in HR (154) – 7 homers behind Toledo. Pawtucket has finished with the best ERA in the IL just once in franchise-history back in 1999 when they posted a 4.01 ERA. Pawtucket has not led the IL in Team Batting since the league expanded to 14 teams in 1998. To put their current accomplishments in perspective, the PawSox were last (14th) in Team Batting last season (.254) and 8th in Team ERA (4.05) and were 13th in both categories in 2006, 9th in both categories in 2005, and 10th in batting and 8th in pitching in 2004.
The PawSox – who wound up 4-2 on their first homestand this month - finished 2-2 during each of their two homestands in July. They did go 7-1 on their last homestand in June - their best homestand in more than three years since they also went 7-1 from May 30 – June 6 of 2005 at McCoy. The PawSox have played 59 of their 72 home games this season leaving just 13 home games remaining (homestands of 6-games, 3-games, and 4-games). Pawtucket is on pace to finish with 47½ home victories this season – the club-record for most wins at McCoy in a season is 46 set in both 1977 and 1995.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 August 2008 )
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