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Game Story: Wakefield pitches Sox to 2-1 victory »
June 29, 2007
The Pawtucket Red Sox witnessed first hand last night why Garrett Olson is rated so highly by the Baltimore Orioles.
Olson, a 23-year old Californian, was a high pick in the 2005 draft who’s zoomed to Triple-A Norfolk in just his second full season of professional baseball. Last night at McCoy Stadium, the lefty starting pitcher struck out the first five PawSox he faced and went on to cruise to a 7-0 victory.
Olson allowed just two hits over seven innings and struck out 10 batters. His fastball cracked the low-90’s on the radar gun and his curveball and changeup kept the PawSox on their heels. Olson is rated by Baseball America as the Orioles’ sixth-best minor league prospect and the top lefty pitcher.
``He’s supposed to be our best pitching prospect and he’s doing a real good job,’’ said Norfolk manager Gary Allenson, a former PawSox catcher. ``He’s third in the league in strikeouts. He’s pitched. He’s getting the difference between a pitcher and a thrower.’’
Olson improved his record to 7-6 on the season with a 3.10 ERA. This was the second time he’s faced the PawSox this season. The first came on June 4 in Norfolk when the Sox managed two runs on five hits and squeaked out a 2-1 victory.
Olson said he was pleased with his control last night and benefited from the quick, five straight strikeout start.
``I just felt like I was able to put the ball where I wanted to,’’ he said. ``I went right after the hitters right away.’’
The win was the third in four games at McCoy for the Tides. The PawSox won on Thursday night but failed in an attempt to win two straight games for the first time since June 14. Pawtucket starter David Pauley (4-3) matched Olson for the first three and two-thirds innings with shutout pitching. J.R. House then rolled a grounder past Pauley that Bobby Scales miss-handled for an error. Pauley then hung a pitch that Mike Cervenak lifted to left field for a 2-run homer.
``A seeing-eye hit and then a home run, which can happen anytime in this ballpark,’’ said Allenson. ``That kind of got us going.’’
Pauley ran into major trouble in the fifth inning after allowing a walk, a single to center and them having a chopper by Luis Hernandez pop off his glove and nose for an error. With the bases loaded, Tike Redman singled in two runs, Elder Torres added an RBI single and House made it three hits in a row for another run and a 7-0 lead.
``You can’t take away the (Cervenak) home run but I was very pleased with Pauley,’’ said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson. ``He pitched better than his line showed.’’
The PawSox’ Scales halted the game-opening strikeout streak with a grounder to third base to end the second inning but the home team didn’t manage a hit until David Murphy gapped a shot to left-center for a double in the fourth inning. Scales led off the fifth with a double but was stranded. Olson walked the first two PawSox in the eighth and that sent him to the showers in favor of Victor Moreno. He allowed just one hit in his two innings of work to close the game out.
--KEVIN McNAMARA
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 10:38 PM to PawSox
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