Durham Falls In Pawtucket, 9-5
The Bulls (6-11), who saw the PawSox (12-5) hammer five homers in the series opener on Friday night, witnessed Mauro Gomez hitting his third of the set, Will Middlebrooks hit his second in two games, and Lars Anderson led off the fifth with his first of the season.
Trailing 6-0, Durham rallied to come within an inch of tying the game. The Bulls sent 10 hitters to the plate against starter Ross Ohlendorf (W, 3-0), who entered the inning on a three-hit shutout. Will Rhymes tripled to begin the inning, then scored on a single by Jesus Feliciano. One out later, Leslie Anderson was hit, followed by an RBI-single by Matt Mangini to make it 6-2. Juan Miranda got hit on the leg to fill the bases before Nevin Ashley fouled out. Jeff Salazar cashed in on a walk to force in the third run before Ohlendorf was relieved by Mark Melancon. Shawn O'Malley greeted Melancon with an opposite-field hit to score Mangini. Then Rhymes smoked a liner in-and-out of Melancon's glove, deflecting the ball back toward home plate. Melancon tracked the ball down and threw out Rhymes, who was denied a game-tying single to center, ending the inning.
The Red Sox scored three in the last of the sixth to stretch the lead to 9-4, with Nevin Ashley homering against rehabbing lefty Rich Hill in the eighth to close out the Bulls' scoring.
Alex Torres (L, 1-2) permitted three runs on a pair of homers in the first two innings, then walked five of the last 12 hitters he faced in the third and fourth innings before he was relieved by Jhonny Nunez. Torres now leads the International League in walks with 19.
Brandon Guyer, who had a career-high five hits on Friday night, went 3-4 on Saturday to lead the Bulls' nine-hit attack. Feliciano was 2-4 with an RBI.
The series continues on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 PM ET with Ryan Reid scheduled to make an e