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Game Story: Sox get two in ninth, edge D'Rays »
August 14, 2007
OTTAWA — It may be a modest one, as high-water marks go, but the Pawtucket Red Sox last night hit a standard that had eluded them the whole season.
They won their fifth game in a row, something they failed to do on four previous occasions.
That achievement came their way by taking a 5-3 count from the Ottawa Lynx, before 1,786 at Lynx Stadium.
“We’re just playing good right now,” said Ed Rogers, a former Lynx, who scored what proved to be the winning run in the sixth inning. “Everything is working together, right now. We’re playing as a team.”
The Pawsox fell behind 2-0 in the third, when starter Devern Hansack (8-7) allowed two of his seven hits in his 62/3 inning stint.
Pawtucket was held scoreless for five innings by Lynx starter J.A. Happ. But in the sixth, Happ, who had fanned 10 PawSox, issued a walk to Jed Lowrie.
Then, with two away, Brandon Moss singled to left, which set the stage for Bobby Scales’ three run shot over the left field wall, putting Pawtucket up 3-2.
It was his eighth homer of the season, and second in as many nights.
“I’m really pleased for Bobby Scales,” said PawSox skipper Ron Johnson. “The last time up, he struck out with the bases loaded. Then he comes back and hits a three run homer to give us the lead.”
Ottawa replied with a run in the bottom of the sixth, but next inning, Pawtucket regained the lead for good, when Rogers led off with a single, worked his way to third, then was singled home by Jacoby Ellsbury.
Joe McEwing added some breathing room in the ninth, by clubbing a solo homer on an 0-2 pitch.Closer Travis Hughes nailed down the last two outs to pick up his 19th save.
“It’s great that everybody is picking up their game toward the end of the season,” Hughes said. “It shows that everybody still has energy to play.”
AROUND THE BASES: Although his first day on the job in that Aug. 8 doubleheader in Scranton is one he’d rather forget, outfielder Bobby Kielty is showing that he’s just about ready for a promotion to Boston.
Kielty, of course, was signed as outfield insurance by Boston after Oakland let him go in July, then was assigned to Pawtucket for a tune up.
“I’m starting to feel pretty good,” said the 29-year-old Californian. “I just needed to get my timing down.”
After going a combined 0-for-6 with five strikeouts in his PawSox debut, Kielty hit safely in the next five games, going 7-for-20, with two homers and four RBI.
“Those first couple of games were pretty bad,” he said. “But I should be ready to go.”
Kielty said he received no concrete guarantees from the Sox about being called up, but is of course, hoping to make a strong case for himself.
“Nothing’s really going on right now,” he said. “I’ll wait and see what happens. I think if I’m performing well, I’ll get a shot.”
The baseball trail is a long and sometimes twisted one, and as it happens, Kielty was a teammate of PawSox knuckleballer John Barnes back in 2000, when both were Minnesota Twins farmhands and Barnes was a promising slugger who would go on to compile a .301 lifetime average.
Kielty said he wasn’t taken completely by surprise when he found out that Barnes had made the mound conversion.
“It’s definitely funny,” Kielty said. “because he was a great hitter. But he always wanted to try pitching. I knew he had a good knuckleball back then, because he liked to throw it, and it was hard to catch. It wasn’t a huge surprise. I think it’s pretty cool.”
The teams will continue their series tonight (7 p.m.), when RHP Mike Burns (4-7, 4.25) will start against Lynx RHP John Ennis (4-4, 3.73).
--DAN HICKLING (Special to the Journal)
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 10:49 PM to PawSox
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