The Results
Pawtucket at Scranton/WB - W, 4-1
Portland vs Norwich - W, 3-2
Wilmington vs Winston-Salem - L, 3-1
Greenville vs Savannah - W, 4-3
Lowell vs Hudson Valley - W, 5-0
The Prospects
Jacoby Ellsbury - DNP
Craig Hansen - 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K, SV
Jed Lowrie - 2-4, 2r, 2b, hr, rbi, k
Alejandro Machado - 0-4
Cla Meredith - DNP
Brandon Moss - 0-4
Jon Papelbon - 3 IP, 4 K, SV
Dustin Pedroia - 0-5
Hanley Ramirez - 0-2, 2bb
Kelly Shoppach - 2-3, rbi
Luis Soto - 1-4, r, hr, 2rbi, k
The Starters
name IP H R ER BB SO HR Dec
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Lenny Dinardo 6 3 1 1 0 7 1 W
Jon Lester 6 3 2 1 2 8 1 W
Andrew Dobies 5 5 1 1 0 3 0 ND
Gary Galvez 6.2 4 3 0 2 4 0 ND
Clay Buchholz 3 1 0 0 1 3 0 ND
Other Notables
Justin Sherrod - 3-4, r, 2 2b, hr, 3rbi
Chris Durbin - 2-3, r, bb
Scott Youngbauer - 3-4, r, 3b, 2rbi, k
Matt Van Der Bosch - 3-4, 2b, 3b, rbi, bb, k
Zach Borowiak - 3-4, r, k
Jeff Corsaletti - 2-3, bb
Jeff Natale - 2-4, r, 2b, k
Austin Easley - 1-4, r, 3rbi, 2k
Edgar Martinez - 2 IP, 1 BB, 4 K
Barry Hertzler - 4 IP, 1 K
Matt Hancock - 2 IP, 1 H, 1 K, W
The Bad Guys
org W-L place GB runs(rank) RA(rank)
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SCA PHI (AAA) 58-61 6th 7.0 575(8 of 12) 575(8 of 12)
NOR SF (AA) 56-62 4th 8.5 496(10 of 12) 514(7 of 12)
News and Notes
Jon Papelbon pitched 3 perfect innings to finish off Lenny Dinardo's gem to earn his first save. Papelbon struck out 4 and seems to be adapting to the bullpen quite nicely. Dinardo did very well himself. The only damage done to him was done on a solo home run hit by the first batter of the game that he faced. He allowed only 3 hits, didn't walk any, and struck out 7 over his 6 innings of work for the win.
Jon Lester pitched another great game yesterday striking out 8 in 6 innings of work. He is now 9-5 on the year with a 2.47 ERA. At the moment Pawtucket is really short on pitching with Chris Narveson being claimed by the Cardinals and Papelbon moved to the bullpen, but Lester isn't getting the call to help fill in. To me that suggests they want to take their time with him a little bit and I support that decision. He'll very likely finish this year in AA and start next year in Pawtucket.
5 of the 7 hits and 2 of the 3 runs scored came from Chris Durbin and Scott Youngbauer, batting 1st and 2nd in the line up. Durbin has been battling some injuries all year, but has performed very nicely with a .289/.344/.483 line in 315 AB's this year. He's not your typical leadoff man with only 3 steals in 6 chances and his power has been better than his ability to get on base, but production is production no matter where it comes in the line up. Youngbauer, more of a utility roster filler than a prospect, has found himself playing a lot of second base since the trade of Kenny Perez. After putting up a .321/.380/.514 line in 109 AB's in Wilmington, he has a .300/.338/.600 line in Portland. The SLG is bloated a bit by his 4 triples.
Wilmington wound up losing their game in 10 innings, but it wasn't the fault of the starter, Andrew Dobies. Dobies went 5 innings without walking a batter and he allowed only 1 run. He now has a 4.37 ERA in 71 IP for Wilmington so far this year. He's not striking out many with only 45 K's, but he's not walking many either with only 14 on the season. The loss also wasn't the fault of the man who came on in relief of Dobies, Barry Hertzler. Hertzler pitched 4 perfect innings and struck out a batter to bring his ERA down to 4.03 on the year in 76 IP. He's appeared in 30 games, only one of them a start. The fault for the loss can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the offense who managed just 1 run in support of the great pitching.
Craig Hansen made the jump to AA and pitched a scoreless inning in his debut. I also added him to the prospects list, knocking off Christian Lara, who hasn't done much this year to further his status as a prospect. Hansen is on the fast track to the majors and could help out there as early as next year.
Three pitchers out of the Lowell bullpen combined to throw 6 scoreless innings finishing off the shutout that Clay Buchholz started. Buchholz has been kept to a very strict three inning per start limit by the Sox so he left after the third, but the bullpen gave the team a huge boost in the 5-0 victory.