PawSox Beat Bisons 3-1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AUGUST 18, 2013
PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Charlie Haeger and the spectacular defense of Jonathan Diaz aided the PawSox in their 3-1 victory over Buffalo in front of 10,455 fans at McCoy Stadium Sunday afternoon.
After three and a half scoreless innings, the PawSox were the first to strike. Jonathan Diaz would draw a lead-off walk from lefty Sean Nolin, making his Triple-A debut, in the 4th inning. He'd move to second base on a deep fly ball to center with two outs. Drew Sutton then singled back up the middle with two strikes to score Diaz and put PawSox in front 1-0.
Pawtucket added to their lead in the 5th as Jackie Bradley Jr. collected an RBI single scoring Jeremy Hazelbaker, who had singled and stole second base, making it 2-0.
Charlie Haeger was un-scored upon through the first five innings and retired 15 of 17 batters before Clint Robinson lifted a solo home run, his 2nd with Buffalo, to cut the PawSox lead in half, 2-1.
Haeger would end his outing after six strong innings of work allowing just a run on three hits while striking out five.
In the 7th, Jackie Bradley Jr. blasted a solo homer, his 10th, to put Pawtucket in front by a pair, 3-1. It was his 2nd home run in the last eight days and his 2nd since returning from the disabled list.
The PawSox bullpen took it from there with Chris Martin tossing two scoreless innings, Ryan Rowland-Smith retiring the only man he faced and Anthony Carter recording the final two outs of the game to pick up his 19th save of the season.
Jonathan Diaz was hitless at the plate, but took away three potential hits due to his stellar defense at shortstop. Jackie Bradley Jr. led the way on offense with two hits and two RBI, while Drew Sutton had two singles and an RBI, his 6th RBI in his last four games.
The PawSox will continue a crucial four-game series with the Buffalo Bisons Monday night at 7:05pm. Pawtucket currently leads Buffalo in the Wild Card standings by 1.5 games with only 15 games remaining on the schedule. Anthony Ranaudo (1-1, 2.70) will start for the PawSox against righty Kyle Drabek (1-0, 1.80) for the Bisons. The two teams have split the first 14 games they've played, with Pawtucket going 4-2 at McCoy Stadium.
The first 4,000 youngsters (aged 14 & under) coming to McCoy this Tuesday night when the PawSox play Buffalo at 7:05 pm will take home a PawSox back-to-school kit compliments of Citizens Bank, Pepsi, and LITE Rock 105. The kit contains PawSox items such as a ruler, pencil, eraser and other back-to-school items.
NOTES: The PawSox have won seven of their last eight, despite snapping their six game winning streak Saturday night…With just 15 games left on the regular season schedule, the PawSox will have nine of those contests at home. All come against divisional rivals… Pawtucket is 2nd in the league in Team Fielding Pct. as the Sox have made just 2 errors in their last 8 games.