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May 26, 2007
The Pawtucket Red Sox were well on their way to a fourth straight win, but the Syracuse Chiefs had other thoughts.
The Chiefs scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning off PawSox reliever Mike Burns en route to a 10-7 come-from-behind victory last night at McCoy Stadium.
Burns’ record drops to 2-4 with an 8.06 ERA and has blown five of eight save opportunities this season.
Former PawSox player and current Syracuse designated hitter Chad Mottola belted a three-run homer in the ninth to secure the victory.
Pawtucket had 7-2 lead after four innings, but the Chiefs chipped away and scored eight runs over the last five innings for the victory.
“You have to look at the game as a whole,” said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson. PawSox starter “Runelvys (Hernandez) did a great job of battling and we’re facing a team that has a lot of guys who can hit. When they hit the ball it’ll account for something. It was just one of those things tonight where we couldn’t hold them down. They started pecking away late in the game and you really have to tip your hat to those guys.
“I don’t think Burns made bad pitches,” added Johnson. “We just got beat tonight. That club just came back and beat us tonight. Those types of games are hard to lose, but we did not beat ourselves tonight.”
The Pawtucket offense was solid and banged out 12 hits with outfielder Brandon Moss providing a 4-for-5 performance with three RBI.
“He was perfect,” said Johnson. “He had a lot of professional at-bats tonight. He’s done a great job and it’s good to see.”
It’s very possible Hernandez made his last start for the PawSox last night. A veteran of 78 big-league starts for the Kansas City Royals in parts of four seasons, Hernandez signed with the Red Sox as a minor-league free agent last December and has an out-clause in his contract, stating if the Red Sox don’t recall him to Boston by June 1 then he’s allowed to sign with another club.
If he does start another game for Pawtucket, it could be Thursday against Columbus.
“He’s done exactly what we thought he’d do,” said Johnson. “He’s a veteran guy with multiple years of experience in the big leagues. You look for guys like that to come down and stabilize your staff. You take away the win-lose record; we just haven’t scored any runs for the guy. He’s done a real nice job for us. . . With the way pitching is around baseball he’s a guy who can help a club, but we hope he can stay here.”
Hernandez, who would not speak with the local media after the game, entered last night’s start with a 0-3 record in six starts for the PawSox, and also spent some time on the disabled list (April 25 to May 7) with a strained left hamstring, which caused him to miss a few starts.
If he does decide to look elsewhere for employment, that could mean Red Sox pitching prospect Clay Buchholz could be promoted from Double-A Portland. The 22-year-old right-hander is 1-1 with a 1.97 E.R.A in eight starts for the Sea Dogs. He has struck out 61 and walked only seven.
For now Hernandez remains with Pawtucket and he battled at times last night, but he was able to control most of his outing.
The Chiefs’ Russ Adams and Kevin Barker each hit solo home runs in the top of the first off Hernandez, but Pawtucket’s offense answered in the bottom of the inning as Moss delivered a two-run double to tie the game at 2-2.
Following the two runs Hernandez surrendered in the first, he settled down and retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced before allowing a two-run triple to the Chiefs’ Russ Adams in the fifth inning. Fortunately, the PawSox scored one run in the third and four more in the fourth, so Hernandez and Pawtucket still held a 7-4 advantage.
Hernandez’s day on the job was over after he retired the side in order in the sixth. The veteran right-hander allowed four runs on five hits with three walks and one strikeout, throwing 112 pitches (60 for strikes) in his seventh start of the season for Pawtucket.
Syracuse scored a run in the top of the seventh inning as Adams provided an RBI-single, his fourth RBI of the game, off Pawtucket reliever Craig Hansen to cut the Chiefs’ deficit to two.
The Chiefs pushed across another run in the top of the eighth as John-Ford Griffin (cq) hit a solo homer off PawSox reliever Bryan Corey to cut Syracuse’s deficit to one, 7-6. Moss recorded his fourth hit of the game, a one-out triple to deep right field, but he was left stranded 90 feet away.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Chiefs finally knotted the game at 7-7. Syracuse lead-off man Wayne Lydon led off the inning with a double and later scored on Adams’s RBI-single off Burns. Adams finished the night 4-for-5, including a home run, triple, a pair of singles and five RBI.
The Chiefs, however, weren’t done.
Mottola crushed a three-run homer off Burns to take a 10-7 lead and Syracuse held on for the win.
--JOE McDONALD
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 10:05 PM to PawSox
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