PAWTUCKET --- Mark Wagner’s 25th birthday may have been a couple of weekends ago, but he received a nice belated birthday present late Saturday night -- a promotion from the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs to the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. 
Wagner received the good news after the Sea Dogs’ 3-1 win over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Manchester, N.H., and on Sunday morning, made the nearly 100-mile trek to McCoy Stadium in time for the PawSox’s game against the Syracuse Chiefs.
“I’m very happy,” added Wagner, who did not play in yesterday’s contest. “I’ve worked hard to continue to move up (the organization) and I want to keep working hard here and hopefully help these guys win.”   
Wagner was hitting .301 in 42 games with the Sea Dogs, collecting 46 hits, 18 doubles, three home runs, and 23 RBIs. He had been on the disabled list from April 27-May 13 with a hamstring strain, but since coming off it, he’s batted .324 with 34 hits.
But defensively, Wagner had been arguably the finest at his position in the Eastern League. In 38 contests, he was leading all E.L. catchers with a .997 fielding percentage (one error in 321 total chances) and threw out a league-best 62 percent of would-be base stealers (18 in 29 attempts).
“It’s always a team effort (in Portland),” added Wagner. “You have to have great pitchers to work with, and I’ve also worked really hard with (Portland manager) Arnie (Beyeler) and everyone else on my defense and it shows.”
In his first season with the Sea Dogs last year, Wagner had an E.L.-best .997 fielding percentage and gunned down 42 percent of attempted base stealers, but he only hit .219 in 94 games with 10 homers and 48 RBIs. 
“I felt like I swung the bat pretty well last year, but unfortunately, things just didn’t go my way for the most part,” added Wagner. “This year, I seemed to have found a few more holes here
 and there and worked hard with (Portland hitting coach Dave) Joppie to get a good consistent routine and everything’s going pretty well.”
A former standout catcher for the University of California-Irvine who was a ninth-round selection of the Red Sox in the 2005 MLB draft, Wagner’s best pro campaign was ’07 with the Single-A Advanced Lancaster JetHawks. In 95 games, he batted .318 with 35 doubles, 14 homers, and 82 RBIs.

Lowrie still feeling effects of Tuesday’s HBP 
Boston Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie, who is on a 20-day rehab assignment with the PawSox as he works his way back from surgery on his left wrist, has been dealing with another ailment -- a contusion near his left knee that he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in Tuesday’s game in Norfolk.
Lowrie, who was the designated hitter in Sunday afternoon’s contest, went 1-for-2 and got a two-out single in the third by lining a 2-2 pitch to shallow left field and just over the reach of shortstop Peter Orr.
But when Lowrie was due to bat in the fifth with two gone and a runner on second, Bubba Bell, who had been sidelined for the past three games with a nagging quadriceps injury, pinch-hit for Lowrie and immediately flew out to Orr in shallow left field.
“It’s the lingering effects from that hit by pitch,” added Pawtucket Red Sox Johnson. “It’s still bothering him a little bit. He just wasn’t running right, so he got his two at-bats today and we shut him down.”
Lowrie, who played shortstop for six innings and went 0-for-3 in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Chiefs, expects to take Monday night’s game off to rest his sore leg.
“The leg was spasming,” noted Lowrie. “It feels like I just had gotten done with a couple hours of leg workouts. Those muscles are in a constant state of contraction and it wears me out.
“It’s not really a long-term thing. I think I just came back a couple days too early. We’ll let it relax and get (the contusion) out of there.”
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Notes: Left fielder Paul McAnulty was tagged with an error after misplaying a pop fly in the fourth, but he came back with diving catches in the sixth and seventh. … Backup catcher John Otness was transferred to Portland to make room on the roster for Wagner. Otness was 8-for-23 (.348) in seven games. … Rookie Michael Bowden (3-4, 3.11) will get the start on the hill for the PawSox in tonight’s 7:05 p.m. game against the Chiefs, who will send former Florida Marlins starter Scott Olsen (1-0, 5.68) to the mound. In Bowden’s last seven starts, he is 1-3 with a 6.23 ERA.