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Baseball Today: Friday, April 13 »
April 12, 2007
The Pawtucket Red Sox had to settle for a split in the series with the Durham Bulls, but still head back to Rhode Island for their 2007 home opener with a 5-3 record after an eight-game swing through the Carolinas.
“I’m excited to get back home because it almost feels like we’ve been on a two month road trip,” Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson said after Thursday night’s 3-2 loss to the Bulls. He pointed out that the Pawsox had just one day at home between spring training and their opening eight-game road swing through the Carolinas.
“If somebody told me at the beginning that we’d be going back 5-3 after playing the games we’ve played … I’m real pleased with what’s been going on,” Johnson said. “Every game has been close.”
The veteran manager wasn’t even upset by his team’s close loss to the Bulls in the finale. The Pawsox were within one pitch of a 2-0 defeat, when Johnson’s team staged a dramatic rally to tie the game.
The Bulls appeared to have the victory wrapped up in the top of the ninth after shutting out the visitors for eight and two-third innings. Catcher George Kottaras, who had doubled, was at second base with two outs and two strikes on third-baseman Chad Spann.
The partisan crowd was standing, anticipating the game-ending third strike, when Spann rocketed Scott Dohmann’s pitch high off the wall in left-center for an RBI double. Moments later, pitch hitter Bobby Scales dumped a single into left, driving in Spann with the tying run.
“We battled back really well,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to look at their pitching staff -- they pretty much dominated us for eight innings. That’s what you want to see out of your club. You want to see situations where guys battle back in the end.”
Unfortunately for the Pawsox, the Durtham Bulls did the same in the bottom of the ninth.
Reliever Craig Hansen (0-1), who had already worked two scoreless innings, walked Justin Ruggiano to lead off the last inning. Ruggiano then stole second and went to third on Kottaras’ overthrow to second.
“They came right back and they executed a nice play on us,” Johnson said. “The guy did a nice job with his jump and the ball went to center-field. In the bottom of the ninth on the road, you’ve got a guy on third with no outs and you’re in big trouble.”
It didn’t take Durham’s Elliott Johnson long to put the Pawsox out of their misery. He bounced a single through the drawn-in infield to plate the game-winning run.
The Pawsox squandered several early chances against Durham starter Jeff Niemann, leaving five runners on in the first four innings.
The Bulls also had trouble converting base runners into runs against Pawktucket starter David Pauley. But left-fielder Chris Richard, who blasted his first homer of the season Tuesday, led off the fourth inning with a shot deep into the right-field bleachers. Designated hitter Jorge Cantu followed with a double high off the wall in left-center, then came home two outs later, when catcher Raul Casanova doubled into the right-centerfield gap.
Those two runs were all that either team could manage until the ninth-inning drama.
The Pawsox return home for their home opener Friday night when the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees visit McCoy Stadium.
--AL FEATHERSTON (Special to the Journal)
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