Burned
| Syracuse vs. Pawtucket: May 26, 2007 | |||
 Sky Chiefs |
10 | W: Brian Wolfe (2-0) | 19-28, 1 game winning streak |
| Red Sox | 7 | H: Craig Hansen (3) H: Bryan Corey (7) BS, L: Mike Burns (5, 0-4) |
19-26, 1 game losing streak |
| Highlights: Brandon Moss and Russ Adams were afire with 4-for-5 efforts. The most impressive pitchers of the evening were steadily progressing Justin James and perennial minor leaguer Brian Wolfe. The duo pitched five and one-third shutout innings with five hits, no walks, and four strikeouts. | |||
Russ Adams wants a major league job back badly. He proved as much with his 4-for-5 showing including a first inning home run and a fifth inning triple. He hit them off a major league pitcher, Runelvys Hernandez. Upon further consideration, since Hernandez played for the Royals, I use the term “major league” in its loosest sense.
The Paw Sox responded in the bottom of the first with two runs of their own. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and Ty Taubenheim hit Joe McEwing and Jeff Bailey to load the bases. Brandon Moss doubled to tie the score.
Moss matched Adams’s 4-for-5 effort and fell a home run short of hitting for the cycle. I had predicted a game-tying three-run jack in the ninth with David Murphy and Bailey on base, but Moss and his teammates failed to comply. The right fielder battled back from a 1-2 count to work it full, but on the seventh pitch Moss grounded out to first to end the game.
The crowd got to see the much-ballyhooed Craig Hansen in the seventh. His velocity was stupefying and consistently in the mid-90s, but with men on he lost his movement on his slider. He disposed of the first two batters he faced handily but once Wayne Lydon reached on a single the lanky reliever became unhinged. Two singles and a run later Pawtucket pitching coach Mike Griffin visited the hill to settle his young charge. Whatever Griffin did to settle Hansen worked; Kevin Barker grounded to second for the final out of the inning.
Bryan Corey relinquished a homer to John-Ford Griffin (no relation) in the eighth, leaving Mike Burns with a slim margin to protect.
No words could halt Burns’s ninth inning disintegration. Adams drove in the tying run after Wayne Lydon’s one-out double and Chad Mottola finished off the job with his three-run shot to left. The ball cleared the home team’s bullpen in left to the walkway to the berm seating.
Paul Bunyan-sized petition to get Jim Rice into the Hall of Fame.
Hernandez’s name didn’t inspire confidence, but as it turned out a completely different pitcher blew the game.
Anxious fans await player autographs.
This fan got a few autographs from the Sky Chiefs.
Trot Nixon’s picture on the walls of the spiral ramps. I’ll be seeing him tonight at Fenway.
Jim Rice’s portrait.
Punsters of the world, unite.
Hernandez giving up one of two first-inning homers.
Ellsbury prowling the basepaths. He singled twice and scored both times.
Murphy hanging out on the first base sack. Murphy walked, stole, and scored in the third and had an RBI single the fourth.
Hansen hurling in the seventh.
The final score.
McCoy at Sunset.
