Projo Sports Blog

September 1, 2007 Archives

Lefthanders had a big day at TPC Boston today.

Mike Weir, the former Masters champion who is coming back from neck problems, moved into a tie for the lead at the midway point of the Deutsche Bank Championship with a 68 for 133 total. What’s more, Phil Mickelson tied for low round of the day _ with some guy named Tiger Woods _ with a 7-under 64 to surge into a tie for fourth at 134, just one back.

Righthanders did all right, too. Rich Beem, who spent his day Monday playing at Triggs, had a 66 to tie Weir and Aaron Baddeley, who also had a 66, for the lead.

Mickelson was tied for fourth with Arron Oberholser (66) and Sean O’Hair (66). Brett Wetterich is still on the course at 8-under with two holes to play.

We will have more about Beem’s day at Triggs and Oberholser’s visits to play in the Northeast Amateur back when he was in college in the Sunday Journal.

| Categories Golf

PAWTUCKET -- Four Scranton Wilkes/Barre pitchers combined to throw a two-hitter against Pawtucket to lead the Yankees to an 11-2 victory this afternoon.

Matt DeSalvo (5 innings, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts), Scott Patterson (3 innings, 0 walks, 1 strikeouts), Charlie Manning (2/3 inning, 2 walks, 2 hits, 2 runs, 2 strikeouts), and Colter Bean (.1 inning, 1 strikeout) dominated Pawtucket’s batters.

Chris Carter prevented history from being made in the bottom of the ninth inning when he ripped a two-out single down the third base line off of Manning, who struckout the first two batters he faced.

Only once in International League history has three pitchers combined to no-hit a team in a nine-inning game.

Portland (AA) call-up Cory Keylor hit a two-out, bases-loaded, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning for Pawtucket's only runs of the game.

Pawtucket made things interesting in the bottom of the fourth when DeSalvo walked Jed Lowrie, Jeff Bailey, and Bobby Scales to load the bases with two outs, setting the stage for Keylor to be the hero. DeSalvo, however, struckout Keylor, who was making his PawSox debut.

Rual Chavez broke up Charlie Zink’s no-hitter in the top of the fifth inning with a one-out single to left field. That rattled Zink, who walked three batters with the bases loaded to force in three runs, allowed a two-run single to Bronson Sardinha and a two-run double to Chavez.

The PawSox fans gave Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson a standing ovation for finally taking Zink out of the game after he allowed seven runs (3 earned) on four hits with six walks in the inning. He threw 50 pitches in the fifth.

Lowell call-up Scott Lonergan, 23, replaced Zink with the bases loaded and two outs. He struckout Brett Gardner to end the inning.

Duncan crushed a two-run double down the first base line with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning. Keylor misplayed the ball and a third run scored while Duncan advanced to third base. Duncan scored on a Mike Kinkade ground out to give the Yankees an 11-0 cushion.

---Robert Lee

| Categories PawSox

Monday afternoon, Rich Beem and his caddie enjoyed a day off before this week's Deutsche Bank Championship by playing a casual round of golf. At Triggs Memorial in Providence.
``I loved Triggs. Classic Donald Ross course,'' Beem said.
Beem said he had a few beers on the course and was paired with a few local policemen, Chip and Scott, who also enjoyed a few drinks on their day off. ``They drove us home. I don't have a Get Out of Jail Free card.''
Beem has used his practice round at Triggs to help zoom to the top of the leaderboard at TPC Boston. He shot 67-66 and is in a tie at 9-under par with Aaron Baddeley and Mike Weir, who is still on the course.
Beem, the 2002 PGA champ, is one of the funniest characters in golf and he had the New England media in stitches telling his tale of his day at Triggs. Everyone will be writing this story for Sunday.

*A big story today was the resurgence of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods after a sub-par opening round. Mickelson shot a 7-under 64 and leads a big group at 8-under par. Woods also shot a sizzling 64 and is at 6-under for the tourney.
*Barrington's Brett Quigley struggled to a 74 and finished 3-over for the tourney, likely outside the cut line.

Kevin McNamara

The Boston Red Sox today recalled outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Brandon Moss, and pitcher Clay Buchholz from Pawtucket, and purchased the contracts of pitcher Bryan Corey and shortstop Royce Clayton from Pawtucket.

Ellsbury leaves one day after his PawSox franchise-record 25-game hitting streak was snapped when he went 0-for-4 on Friday. He also leaves in a three-way tie for the International League lead with 33 stolen bases. He started 87 games in the outfield (65 CF, 12 LF, 7 RF) and batted lead-off in every one of his starts.

Ellsbury began his 25-game hitting streak on July 21 (just before he went on the disabled list with a groin streak) and then continued it from Aug. 5-30. He bettered the franchise-record 19-game hitting streaks posted by Dave Stapleton in 1979 and Dave Berg in 2005. Ellsbury batted .377 during his streak (40-for-106) which was the second longest hitting streak in the International League this season (Brandon Watson of Columbus had a 43 game hitting streak).

Clayton was signed by the Red Sox as a free agent on Aug. 23 and added to the PawSox roster on Aug. 24. In seven games with the PawSox he hit .143 (4-for-28) with three doubles and four RBI. He began the season with Toronto and batted .254 in 69 game before being released by the Blue Jays in early August.

Moss was chosen as the PawSox MVP prior to Friday's game. In his rookie season with the PawSox he leads the team in games played (133 out of 138), hits (139), runs scored (66 tied with Ellsbury), doubles (41), home runs (16), and RBI (78). His 41 doubles currently leads the IL and are just two shy of the all-time PawSox club record.
Moss hit .282 and made just two errors in 127 games in the field.

Corey led the PawSox with 58 appearances (2nd most in the league) while posting a 6-8 record with a 3.69 ERA along with three saves. In his last 24 outings with the PawSox he was 4-3 with a 3.20 ERA (9 ER in 25.1 IP).

If you subtract his one bad outing (7/29, 4 ER, 1.1 IP), his ERA during that stretch becomes 1.88 (5 ER in 24 IP).

Buchholz was 1-3 with a 3.69 ERA in eight games started for the PawSox since joining the team in mid-July. He was 7-2 with a 1.77 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) for Double-A Portland to begin the season and led all minor league baseball with 116 strikeouts until his promotion to Pawtucket on July 12.

Pawtucket added Cory Keylor (OF) and John Barnes (pitcher) from Portland, and relief pitchers Blake Maxwell (from Single-A Lancaster) and Scott Lonergan (from short-season A Lowell). The PawSox also reinstated infielder Ed Rogers from the disabled list.

| Categories Red Sox

Good morning. Welcome to the eight-way tie for first place in the Deutsche Bank Championship.

That’s exactly what the situation is right now after much moving and shaking already on a beautiful but breezy day at TPC Boston.

The eight-way tie for the lead, as play now stands, includes one Phil Mickelson. The lefty has rocketed up the scoreboard this morning by going 5-under through 10 holes, including a chip-in eagle at the par-5 18th, his ninth hole of the day.

That lifts him to 6-under for the tournament. Steve Elkington, Sean O’Hair, first-round leader Camilo Villegas, Aaron Baddeley and Rich Beem all also are at 6-under at various stages of their rounds. Mike Weir andRyan Moore are at that same score but have not yet begin second-round play.

Tiger Woods, playing with Mickelson, is 1-under for the day, even for the tournament in a tie for 58th place. Vijay Singh also is even. He is 3-under for the day and has birdied his last three holes.

Brett Quigley is even for the day and the tournament, in the tie with Woods and Singh, after seven holes of his round.

| Categories Golf