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June 6, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. -- Abe Alvarez was nearly un-hittable for six plus innings, Brandon Moss and two other PawSox each slugged a home run and Pawtucket kept winning, beating the Richmond Braves 5-3 at The Diamond Wednesday night.
With their fourth win in a row, Pawtucket (25-31) matched their longest winning streak of the season and extended their 11-game winning streak against Richmond that dates back to June of 2005. The four straight road wins are a first this season for the PawSox.
“We have persevered no question,” said PawSox manager Ron Johnson. “We’ve gone through some rough times, we had that couple of week drought when we couldn’t score a run. When that happens you just have to keep at it.”
David Murphy put Pawtucket on the scoreboard in the first, hammering a 1-0 pitch from Richmond starter Kevin Barry over the billboard wall in left field.
The PawSox added two more in the second; one of those runs a towering homer by Moss. The lanky left fielder followed up a 4-RBI performance in Tuesday’s game by going 3-for-4 with the homer and a double. He finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
Michael Tucker added another home run off Barry in the PawSox two run third inning.
“Mossy has been pretty consistent all year, Murphy’s been hitting the ball hard, and Michael Tucker is starting to get past his spring training which he didn’t have,” Johnson said. “It’s good to see.”
There was controversy in the bottom of the third inning involving one of the stranger plays of the season. With Moss at third and Jeff Bailey at first, Braves starting pitcher Kevin Barry faked a pick-off throw to third then turned and fired to second, catching Bailey in a run down.
Moss then started toward home to draw the Braves attention away from Bailey. Moss soon found himself caught in the rundown while Bailey meanwhile had sprinted all the way around to third base. Moss somehow got away from the run down and also found himself back at the third base bag.
Moss, figuring that he was out, touched the bag then turned to walk off to the PawSox dugout. Braves catcher Corky Miller tagged Moss for the out. Braves manger Dave Brundage ran onto the field and argued that Bailey should also be out since both he and Moss had occupied the same base. The umpires agreed and called Bailey for the third out, drawing the ire of Johnson.
Johnson argued his case, the umpires huddled again, then reversed the previous call, allowed Bailey back to third and George Kottaras back to the plate with a 1-2 count. Brundage argued again but to no avail. In the end the play was scored as Moss caught stealing 1-4-5-2, Bailey was credited with a stolen base and Kottaras singled on the very next pitch to drive in Bailey for the 5-0 lead.
“I give those guys [umpires] credit because I’m not really locked in on all those [rules] but it just didn’t look right,” said Johnson. “You could just feel it after that. Our guys had a really good feeling after the call went our way. That was a momentum thing.”
Alvarez meanwhile gave the PawSox his strongest performance of the season, scattering three hits over six and two-third innings. The crafty lefty was in control of all three pitches in his off-speed repertoire, allowing just one run while striking out six.
He left the game after being hit by a line drive on his pitching arm. Alvarez and Johnson said it was a slight bruise but they weren’t concerned about it.
--BY BRUCE R. WELLS
Special to the Journal
Posted by Chris Venditto 
at 10:47 PM to PawSox
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