« FINAL: Walk-off homer by Kottaras gives PawSox 4-3 win over Richmond
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June 16, 2007
PAWTUCKET – It was George Kottaras to the rescue once again last night for the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Five days after hitting the club’s first walk-off home run of the season – that one a three-run bomb over the Hood sign in right field that gave his team a 6-5 victory over Ottawa – the 24-year-old catcher delivered again yesterday and in the same fashion, blasting a first-pitch fastball over that same sign to give the PawSox a 4-3 decision over the Richmond Braves before a McCoy Stadium crowd of 9,534.
With his late-inning heroics, Kottaras helped Bryan Corey pick up his second victory, after helping the right-hander earn his first win last Monday.
``I’ve been feeling good,’’ said Kottaras, who has now hit safely in six out of his last eight games. ``I’ve been working with the hitting guys, making small adjustments here and there, and things are just coming together. It’s a good feeling.’’
The PawSox got off to a good start, doing more damage in the first inning of last night’s game than they did in nine innings combined against Richmond on Friday, when Pawtucket managed just two hits and suffered a 3-0 loss.
The PawSox kept Braves right fielder Larry Bigbie plenty busy in the opening frame, beginning with back-to-back doubles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Joe McEwing.
Michael Tucker followed a David Murphy single to right with another double to that side of the field, plating McEwing who had driven in Ellsbury with his hit.
Tucker later scored on an Ed Rogers’ infield single to make it 3-0.
But Richmond got one run back in the third, sixth and seventh innings to tie the score.
Martin Prado, who previously went first to third on Brayan Pena’s single to right, put the Braves on the board in the third, scoring on Graham Koonce’s double-play ball.
PawSox starter Kason Gabbard then gave up an RBI single to Bigbie in the sixth before being relieved by Craig Hansen in the seventh.
Hansen – who had posted a 10.39 ERA in his five previous outings after pitching eight scoreless innings in the six outings before that – surrendered a two-out RBI single to Pena in that inning.
``We got some runs early and then we just died,’’ said PawSox manager Ron Johnson. ``I mean, it’s hard to say died when you’re playing a club like this. They’ve got some really good guys and they came in after the first inning and that was it. We even tried some things to try to create some stuff that didn’t work, and they kept scratching back in it. And it makes it very uncomfortable with a ballclub like this because you know how good they are, and if you let them stick around, the next thing you know it’s a tie game.’’
But then Kottaras delivered in the bottom of the ninth. After Corey pitched his second scoreless inning for Pawtucket, Kottaras stepped to the plate and drove the first Jeff Bennett offering out of the park.
``I was just trying to do the same thing’’ as last Monday night, he said. ``Just go up there and have a good at-bat and put the ball in play hard somewhere, and that’s what happened.’’
-- CAROLYN THORNTON
Posted by Chris Venditto 
at 9:40 PM to PawSox
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