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July 1, 2007
Dropped fly balls, overthrows, a base running blunder and not nearly enough offense to make up for all of the mistakes.
There’s no way to sugarcoat this one, says Pawtucket Red Sox manager Ron Johnson: ``We were just bad today.’’
``The bottom line is today we didn’t catch it and we didn’t hit it, and we got what we probably deserved,’’ Johnson said following his team’s 14-2 loss to the Charlotte Knights before a McCoy Stadium crowd of 8,289. ``The only thing we can do is turn the page on that one. We had a little talk afterward . Everybody in that room knows how poorly we played today, so we’ll see if we can regroup (tonight).’’
Managing just four hits, while committing five errors that resulted in nine unearned runs, the PawSox suffered their worst defeat since dropping a 21-5 decision at Rochester on Aug. 30, 2004.
The errors represent the most the club has committed in a game in more than two years. Pawtucket also had five against Durham on June 23, 2005. The outcome was decidedly different than yesterday’s, however, as the PawSox won that game, 13-2.
No such luck this time.
The Knights got on the board in the first when a throwing error by right fielder Brandon Moss allowed Tomas Perez to score from second.
Wiki Gonzalez then banked the first pitch Mike Burns served up in the third inning off the Amica Insurance sign behind the left-field walkway.
Three errors by third baseman Chad Spann proved costly to the PawSox in the fifth inning. He began by overthrowing first base on an infield hit by Jason Bourgeois. Bourgeois, who went to second on the bad throw, then stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jerry Owens deep in foul territory behind third.
Perez ended up at second base when Spann misplayed the Knights shortstop’s grounder and then committed another overthrow. A two-out bloop single to right by former 2004 PawSox All-Star Earl Snyder drove in Perez to make it 4-0.
Loading the bases courtesy of a walk to Alex Prieto and singles by David Murphy and Bobby Scales, Pawtucket picked up two runs in the fifth when Knights right-hander Gavin Floyd issued run-scoring walks to Michael Tucker and Jeff Bailey. That’s all the PawSox would get out of that inning, though, as Moss struck out and a struggling George Kottaras flew out to left field.
Charlotte got one run back in the sixth when reliever Edgar Martinez gave up a two-out RBI single to Gonzalez that scored Casey Rogowski.
Then the floodgates opened in the seventh, as the Knights batted around the order – and then some - rallying for seven more runs, all but one of them unearned.
They picked up two more runs off of PawSox righty Barry Hertzler in the eighth.
Charlotte already had plenty of insurance by then, though.
Outhit 13-4, Pawtucket left nine men on base. In addition to not capitalizing more in the fifth, the PawSox failed to push anyone across when the club also had the bases loaded in the third.
``It was a lot of physical stuff today,’’ said Johnson, whose club falls to 35-45. ``We just couldn’t catch the ball today and we couldn’t hit it. It’s a different story if we get a bunch of runs and we’re firing the ball all over the place and (throwing) to the wrong base or we’re doing things at the wrong time. When you really break it down, we got four hits, we made five errors, they’re all physical. So turn the page, go enjoy your evening, try to forget it – if you can – and see you (tonight).’’
--CAROLYN THORNTON
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
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