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April 8, 2007
FORT MILL, S.C. -- The Pawtucket RedSox's first-ever 4-0 start will have to wait for another season.
The PawSox (3-1) missed that milestone the hard way Sunday afternoon, fallling to the Charlotte Knights 4-3 in a 12-inning, 3-1/2 hour marathon in front of 2,009 fans at Knights Stadium. Kenny Kelly's single through a drawn-in infield off PawSox relief pitcher Bryan Corey gave Charlotte a comeback win after Pawtucket had broken a long-standing 1-1 tie with two runs in the top of the inning.
"It wasn't meant to be today," said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson. "But you win three out of four on the road to start the season, I'll take that any time. It was a real good series for us."
And it looked as if the PawSox were poised to sweep it from the Knights in the top of the 12th. Jeff Bailey put Pawtucket in front 2-1 with a long leadoff homer to left, just inside the foul pole, off Charlotte reliever Ryan Bukvich (1-0), the fourth Knights pitcher.
The PawSox added one more run in the inning. With one out, George Kottaras walked and went to third when Brandon Moss singled off the bag at second base. Kottaras scored on Bobby Scales' sacrifice fly to left.
In the bottom of the inning, Josh Fields led off with a homer to left off Craig Breslow, on a wind-aided fly ball that just cleared the fence. Breslow walked Ryan Sweeney and was replaced by Corey. Ernie Young stroked a single to center field, where David Murphy trapped, then momentarily appeared to lose track of the ball. The error allowed Sweeney to score and Young took second on the play. Kenny Perez sacrificed Young to third, and the winning run scored when Kelly stroked the ball through the left side of the infield.
"It was kind of an odd inning, and it (the error) was a weird play," Johnson said. "The walk (to Sweeney) was really the only downside of the whole game. When we got up 3-1 it looked like we might be in pretty good shape, but that's the way baseball goes sometimes."
Once again, the PawSox got a boost from their starting pitching. Runelvys Hernandez baffled the Knights over 5-2/3 innings, scattering three hits and striking out five. Charlotte put three leadoff batters on against him. But they couldn't get anybody past second base until the sixth. Casey Rogowski's double off reliever Mike Burns drove in Owens, who had reached on a fielder's choice after Gonzalez' leadoff single.
Charlotte starting pitcher Gavin Floyd was just as effective. He allowed four hits in six innings, with the only run scoring when Bobby Scales homered to right field with one out in the fifth.
"You tip your hat to the pitchers on both sides," Johnson said. "When both teams only have one run through 11 innings, you're throwing some pretty good stuff out there."
From the sixth inning to the last one, baserunners were scarce on both sides. Charlotte relief pitchers Shaun Babula, Aaron Wasserman and Bukvich allowed only one PawSox player on base combined over five innings..
The Knights had an opportunity in the seventh against Burns. Sweeney led off with a single and went to second on a one-out infield out by Perez. A balk advanced Sweeney to third, but Kelly flied out to end the inning.
Burns, Manny Delcarmen and Breslow combined for shutout relief from the sixth through the 11th inning.
NOTES: The PawSox begin a four-game series against Durham at 7 p.m. tonight at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Scheduled starting pitchers are left-hander Abe Alvarez for Pawtucket and right-hander Mitch Talbot for Durham.
--KEITH CANNON (Special to the Journal)
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