The Results
Pawtucket vs Syracuse - W, 7-0
Portland vs New Britain - W, 2-0
Wilmington at Frederick - W, 13-2
Greenville vs Columbus - W, 7-6
Lowell vs Brooklyn - W, 2-1
The Prospects
Jacob Ellsbury - DNP
Christian Lara - 1-4, r, 2k
Jed Lowrie - 2-3, r, bb, k
Alejandro Machado - DNP
Cla Meredith - DNP
Brandon Moss - 1-4, rbi
Dustin Pedroia - 1-4, 2r, bb, k
Hanley Ramirez - 0-4
Kelly Shoppach - DNP
Luis Soto - 0-2
The Starters
name IP H R ER BB SO HR Dec
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Abe Alvarez 7 2 0 0 0 6 0 W
Anibal Sanchez 7 3 0 0 0 7 0 W
Thomas Hottovy 3 2 2 2 0 3 0 ND
Roger Lincoln 6 6 2 2 1 5 0 ND
Mario Pena 6 4 0 0 0 3 0 W
Other Notables
Mark Bellhorn - 0-3, 2k
Kevin Youkilis - 2-3, r, bb
Roberto Petagine - 2-4, r, hr, 3 rbi, bb, k
Shawn Wooten - 2-4, r, k
Justin Sherrod - 2-3, 2rbi
Scott Youngbauer - 2-3, r, 3b, bb
Matt Van Der Bosch - 3-4, 2r, 2rbi, 2bb, k
Chad Span - 2-5, r, 2b, 2rbi, bb, k
Dustin Brown - 2-5, r, hr, rbi, k
Ian Bladergroen - 3-6, r, 2 2b, 2rbi, k
Jeff Ontiveros - 3-6, 3r, 2 2b, k
Scott White - 2-3, 2r, 3b, hr, 4rbi, bb, k
Zach Borowiak - 2-4, r, rbi, bb, k
Jeff Corsaletti - 2-4, r, rbi, bb, k
Jeff Natale - 3-5, r, 2b, rbi
Andrew Pinckney - 2-5, r, 2b, hr, rbi
Claudio Arias - 2-4, 2r, k
Ian Cronkhite - 2-4, r, 2b, 3b, rbi, k
Tim Bausher - 2 IP, H, 3 K
Edgar Martinez - 1 IP, H
Jim Mann - 1 IP, K, SV
Justin Sturge - 4 IP, H, K, W
Mike James - 2 IP, 2 H, K
News and Notes
It was a great night for the Boston organization as every team from Boston to Lowell earned a victory. The day had it all from great pitching duels in Portland and Lowell to a one sided slugfest by Wilmington to some late inning heroics in Greenville. The entire organization has been heating up as a whole. Not only has Boston been on a roll, but Pawtucket has climbed out of the cellar and is making a run at Buffalo at the top of the division. Portland is making sure they don't lose their grip on the division lead by winning their last 6 and 9 of their last 11. After losing 6 in a row Wilmington has won 5 of their last 6. Even at the lowest levels, Lowell has won 3 in a row.
Dustin Pedroia will be getting in some time at his natural position, shortstop, while Mark Bellhorn, who is now 0-8 with 5 K's in the last two days, is in Pawtucket on his rehab assignment. Alejandro Machado, the club's best middle infielder so far this year, had today off, but will likely continue to see some time in centerfield to add versatility to his resume that already included the ability to make contact, speed, and switch hitting.
Abe Alvarez and Anibal Sanchez pitched a couple of great games yesterday. Alvarez had a perfect game going until the 6th inning. His day ended after 7 scoreless innings where he allowed only 2 hits and no walks while striking out 6. He had excellent control, hitting all his spots and threw only 85 pitches to improve his record to 10-4 on the year. Sanchez hasn't missed a beat after his promotion to AA and after 7 scoreless, walkless innings where he allowed 3 hits and struck out 7 his ERA on the year is 0.98 in 27.2 IP. He has struck out 32 while walking only 6. There is a debate going on about who is the top pitching prospect in the system; Lester, Papelbon, and Sanchez. Personally I think that's like trying to decide between bacon pizza, sausage and pepperoni pizza, and extra cheese pizza. Basically, you just can't go wrong with your decision. Although the Sox pitching prospects are less likely to give you a heart attack.
Don't look now, but Ian Bladergroen is begining to turn this around. He went 3-6 last night, finally getting some extra base hits with 2 doubles. In fact, the entire weak hitting Wilmington line up went nuts last night combining for 18 hits and 13 runs. Three of the Blue Rocks had 3 hits while four had 2 hits. Shortstop, Ignacio Suarez was the only starter to go hitless on the day.
After his solid first career start, Jon Papelbon was optioned back to Pawtucket to make room for the newest Red Sock, Jose Cruz. Papelbon will be back up by the end of the year, but most likely he will be working from the bullpen. Now that he is back in Pawtucket he'll be getting some time as a reliever to try to geared up to make an impact in Boston come September.
Chip Ambres made his Fenway debut last night, but as an ex-Paw Sox member, traded to the Royals, he was in the wrong dugout. He hurt his former team by going 2-3 with a solo home run and 2 runs scored. He has a .385/.484/.654 in 26 AB's for Kansas City.