« Sox Streakers for June 5
Main
Final: Oakland 2, Red Sox 0 »
June 5, 2007
BY BRUCE R. WELLS
Special to the Journal
RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia, like so many of the other venues in the IL’s South Division is known for among other things it’s southern hospitality.
Five games into an eight game road swing through “The Birthplace of Presidents”, the Pawtucket Red Sox have certainly enjoyed a heaping helping of it.
Hot on the heels of taking 3 of 4 at Norfolk, Pawtucket capitalized on the strong pitching of starter Kason Gabbard and a 4-RBI night from Brandon Moss to beat the Richmond Braves 10-3 at The Diamond last night.
The win extended Pawtucket’s streak to three in a row and marked only the fourth time this season that the PawSox have won three or more in succession.
“We’ve had some outstanding pitching performances on this trip and then tonight the offense bust out, I couldn‘t be more pleased with the way we swung the bats” said PawSox manager Ron Johnson. “We have three guys right now in Bailey, Kottaras and Ellsbury who aren’t in the lineup so it’s opportunities for some of these guys and they’re trying to take advantage of it.”
The PawSox wasted no time at the plate, scoring in the first when Brandon Moss singled to drive in Joe McEwing, who had been beaned by a pitch earlier in the inning. The 15-year veteran was leveled by a Trey Hodges fastball that struck just above the left side ear hole of his batting helmet, knocking him to the dirt.
“It hit so hard, it actually tore the paint off the helmet,” Johnson said.
The 34-year-old, appearing slightly shaken up, sat in the batters box for several minutes holding his head in his hands. After being attended to by PawSox trainer Greg Barajas, McEwing --who would later double and score in the third and homer in the sixth -- trotted down to first and looked to be none the worst for wear.
Pawtucket added a run in the second. Bobby Scales singled, stole second and scored on a Chad Spann base knock to make it 2-0.
The Braves tied the game in the home half of the inning when, with a runner on first, the diminutive Brent Lillibridge crushed a 2-1 fastball from PawSox starter Kason Gabbard over the leftfield wall for his first career Triple-A homerun.
The high fastball that resulted in Richmond’s two runs would be the only misfire of the night for Gabbard who pitched seven innings, equaling his longest outing of the season and striking out five.
“He has a little trouble early controlling it, because he was getting so much movement,” Johnso said. “He was trying to go to certain spots and he was missing. The last few innings he was just a groundball machine.”
Pawtucket meanwhile was busy pouring on the runs.
In the aforementioned third inning, the PawSox sent eight batters to the plate against Richmond starting pitcher Trey Hodges, beginning with the McEwing lead off double. David Murphy followed with a walk but was doubled up on a Michael Tucker grounder. With two outs PawSox hitters tagged Hodges for five runs, chasing the right-hander from the game.
Alex Prieto was thrown out trying to steal second base to end the inning.
The PawSox tacked on runs in the fourth on the strength of a 2-RBI single by Moss and one more in the sixth courtesy of the solo shot by McEwing, his fourth of the season.
Posted by Thom Cahir 
at 10:32 PM to PawSox
| Permalink
