Midday Misery At McCoy

Will Middlebrooks photo courtesy of PawSox (c)

The wind and the Red Wings continue to stifle Will Middlebrooks

Ryan Fox (@Spider_Fox87)

Though it was a beautiful day to play some baseball, the winds were still howling about McCoy Stadium. Last night the PawSox got a big 3-1 victory over the Rochester Red Wings in those same conditions. But unfortunately they could not replicate their nighttime success during the daytime.

Taking the mound for the PawSox was starter Anthony Ranuado as he opposed Kris Johnson of the Red Wings. Last time Ranuado faced the Red Wings was back on April 14. In that game, Ranuado pitched 5 innings, allowing just 8 hits, 5 R (all earned), while walking 3 batters and striking out 5. He was able to get the W in the 9-5 victory. This time around the young pitcher wasn’t lucky.

For the first two innings of the game, Ranuado kept getting himself in a jam. He ended up facing 7 batters each time while loading up the bases in the process. The Red Wings were able to only manage 2 runs combined in those innings however. But after the third inning, Ranuado’s day was done as relief pitcher Jeremy Kerht came in to pitch. That’s where the proverbial crap hit the fan.

In the fourth inning, Kerht faced a grand total of 8 Red Wings batters. But in that span, they were able to score 4 runs on 3 hits to push the score to a whopping 7-0. What’s more surprising was the PawSox could have avoided such an inning hadn’t second baseman Ryan Roberts not bungled a routine groundball. If he had successfully fielded the ball, it could have turned into an inning-ending double play. Alas, it was not meant to be.

In the top of the 8th, Kerht was then pulled in favor of RP Dalier Hinojosa. Unfortunately Hinojosa gave up another run to push the run total to 8 for the Red Wings, which then ended up being the total runs scored for the game for the Red Wings.

At the plate, the PawSox hitters tried to respond to the deficit. They loaded the bases twice both in the bottom of the 4th and then in the bottom of the 6th. But out of those innings, they managed only to get one run across (an RBI walk by CF Mike McCoy in the 6th) to cut the deficit 7-1 at that point. But in the end, that one run was all they could manage.

Rochester ended up taking the 3rd game of the series by a final of 8-1. In the process of their victory, the Red Wings out hit the PawSox (13 hits to a meager 3). Kris Johnson got the W for the Red Wings, going 6 innings for them. He gave up 3 hits and 1 run (it was unearned) while walking 4 and striking out 6 PawSox batters on 98 pitches (58 for strikes). On the PawSox side, Ranuado took the loss. He went just 3 innings, giving up 6 hits and allowed 3 runs (2 were earned) while walking and striking out 4 Red Wings batters in each category.

At the plate, the PawSox batters were stifled by Kris Johnson. Only OF Bryce Brentz (2-for-4, 2K) and 2B Ryan Roberts (1-for-4, K) were the only ones made contact. Will Middlebrooks continued his injury rehab assignment today, finish the day 0-for-4 but had some brilliant defensive stops at third. He is now 0-for-10 in the series with 5 strikeouts.

The two teams meet up for the series finale tomorrow night at 6:15 p.m. with Matt Barnes (first appearance of season) taking the mound for the PawSox against Trevor May (1-0, 2.93 ERA) of the Red Wings.