By BRENDAN MCGAIR

Sports writer

 PAWTUCKET – For Clay Buchholz, Thursday’s start against first-place Scranton Wilkes-Barre was like three outings neatly compacted into one.
The dominant hurler held the Junior Yankees hitless through the first three innings, retiring nine straight. Then came the fourth inning, which saw Scranton pin four runs on the right-hander. Buchholz was able to regain his footing over the final three frames, all of which were scoreless.
“To go back out (after the fourth) and put up a couple of zeros and give this team a chance, that’s key,” said Buchholz.
What Buchholz did in Pawtucket’s 4-3 victory over Scranton, witnessed before 10,423, was provide a textbook case of not resting on his laurels. The promising pitcher looked every ounce of the International League All-Star he his, an honor bestowed upon him earlier in the day.  The other PawSox All-Star, closer Fernando Cabrera, remains perfect in save chances (17-for-17) after pitching a scoreless ninth.
Afterwards Buchholz was asked about being selected to pitch in the Triple-A Midsummer Classic. He said all the diplomatic things one would expect, yet he already knows that a cross-country flight to Portland, Oregon, site of the contest, is not in his future.
“I’m pitching the last game before the break (July 12), so I’ll be chilling out in Providence or Pawtucket. I’ll take some time off and stay on the East Coast,” said Buchholz, who struck out seven and walked one en route to picking up his sixth win. “It’s always good to get off to a good start for the first half of the season. It’s definitely an honor, but it’s sort of bad that I don’t get to go out there and actually participate in the game.”
It was a game of mixed results for Paul McAnulty. The leftfielder gave the PawSox a 1-0 lead in the first inning, courtesy of his team-leading 10th home run. McAnulty followed with a double in his next trip in the fourth, scoring Pawtucket’s second run when Bubba Bell reached on an error by Scranton second baseman Kevin Russo (Russo, by the way, saw his 25-game hitting streak snapped).
The fourth saw McAnulty lose a ball in the lights, which wound up sailing over his head for a RBI double by catcher Juan Miranda. That was the fourth consecutive base hit surrendered by Buchholz. Things grew worse when McAnulty got hit by a pitch in the fifth and later limped off the field.
“You get mad about it, but those things kind of things happen,” said Buchholz about McAnulty’s misadventure. “It hard to beat up anybody over that because that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
“He’s sore, but he should be fine,” said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson about McAnulty.
Buchholz, who saw his ERA rise from an I.L.-best 1.90 to 2.06, was right about giving his teammates a chance. Pawtucket trailed 3-2 heading into the last of the sixth before Bell tied things up with a RBI double. Catcher Dusty Brown delivered what turns out was the game-winning run on a groundout.
It was up to Pawtucket’s bullpen to preserve the razor-thin margin. Marcus McBeth was first up in the eighth, striking out Scranton cleanup hitter Shelley Duncan (league-best 21 home runs) with two on and two outs. Cabrera started the ninth by walking the potential tying run. A sacrifice bunt pushed Jose Molina to second, which was followed by Cabrera’s second free pass of the inning.
A deep fly to center resulted in the second out and allowed Molina to mosey on over to third. The Scranton catcher remained there thanks to a soft grounder to second by Eric Duncan.
“One of the attractive things about Fernando is that he never backs off (when he gets in trouble),” said Johnson.
The win places Pawtucket (42-36) in second place and just 2 ½ games in back of Scranton’s pace.   
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Scranton/WB    000 300 00 – 3-6-1
Pawtucket    100 102 00 – 4-6-0
Sergio Mitre (L, 2-1), Mark Melancon (6) and Jose Molina. Clay Buchholz (W, 6-1), Marcus McBeth (8), Fernando Cabrera (9, S, 17) and Dusty Brown. 2B: Juan Miranda, Paul McAnulty. HR: Paul McAnulty.