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August 4, 2007
Whoever said baseball is a game of inches wasn’t too far off with their statement.
The Pawtucket Red Sox came very close on a couple of occasions last night, but fell just a bit short and lost to the Rochester Red Wings, 2-1, in 10 innings Saturday night at McCoy Stadium.
Both starting pitchers provided solid performances for their clubs as the PawSox’ Mike Burns and the Red Wings’ Dave Gassner each worked eight scoreless innings and allowed four hits apiece.
It’s been an interesting season for Burns, who replaced Kason Gabbard in the rotation after Gabbard was promoted to Boston on June 26. Burns has made eight starts since and is 3-3, but it’s been his last two outings that have stood out. Despite the no-decision last night, he’s only allowed only one run in his last 14 innings of work.
“He was outstanding,” said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson. “He did an absolutely outstanding job. Mike was really fantastic, but you have to score; that’s what it’s all about.”
After both pitching staffs pitchers put up a pair of zeros through the first eight innings, the Red Wings scored a run in the top of the ninth. for the marginal lead. After PawSox reliever Craig Breslow issued a lead-off walk to Denard Span and a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. With two outs, the Red Wings’ Garrett Jones provided an RBI-single, hitting a 3-0 changeup.
But Pawtucket wouldn’t go quietly.
Jed Lowrie led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and, with two outs, reached third on a Brandon Moss single to the right side. With runners on the corners, Joe McEwing drove a hard liner down the first-base line and into the corner in right field, scoring Lowrie for the game-tying run. Moss was on his horse when Johnson sent him home, attempting to push across the would-be winning run. But, the throw arrived in plenty of time, 9-4-2, to get him and send the game into extra innings.
“I sent Moss because, it was weird because it was twilight, and I saw (the right fielder) laying on the ground out there and then I was hoping the ball was thrown away. But, it was a nice try by Brandon. Like I’ve said before, they play hard. We got after it and our pitching was good, but it’s tough to win a 1-0 ballgame.”
Despite allowing two runners on with two outs in the top of the 10th inning, Breslow was in control. On two different pitches to Span, the PawSox left-hander thought he had strike three. But home-plate umpire Andy Vincent called back-to-back both pitches balls. Span then provided the game-winning hit, a RBI-single to right field.
“I thought they were strikes,” said Breslow. “I don’t think I could have made better pitches. The first one was close; it could have gone either way. The second one was better. They were obviously two very big pitches. If the umpire saw them as balls, then so be it.”
Johnson replaced Breslow with Bryan Corey and when Breslow was walking off the mound he had words with the umpire.
“I though Breslow’s stuff was good,” said Johnson. “There were a couple of close calls there.”
Pawtucket went down in order in the bottom of the inning and Breslow suffered the loss.
--JOE McDONALD
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 11:03 PM to PawSox
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