PAWTUCKET -- Life isn't good for Juan Pena
right now.
Pena, 24, began spring training hoping to show he was healthy enough to pitch in Boston after recovering from Tommy John surgery. After throwing well in Fort Myers, Pena was assigned to Pawtucket with the hope that a few good outings would prepare him for a quick call up to the majors.
But after five outings, Pena holds an 0-5 record with a 4.48 ERA. The good news is he's struggling with only one bad inning per start. The bad news is that seems to be enough to saddle him with defeats and his frustration level is growing.
"I have no luck at all," Pena said. "What can I say? I'll get ready for my next one and hope to do better."
Pena pitched into the sixth inning in yesterday's 7-2 loss to Norfolk but a three-run first inning proved to be the key to the game. The key blow was a two-run homer by the Tides' Rod Stratton.
"In the first inning, I got the ball up," Pena said. "The home run was a high change(up). After that I was fine."
Pena, a member of Boston's 40-man roster, says he has no arm problems, and PawSox manager Buddy Bailey
says the righty's velocity and control have been as good as hoped for. He's been hit hard (10 hits, 7 runs versus Syracuse on April 11) just once in his five starts, and Bailey says he's hoping Pena's luck changes quickly.
"Well, he's 0-5 and that can get you down," said Bailey, "but a win-loss record for a pitcher isn't always an indication of how you're throwing. He's throwing well. It's been an inning here or there and when you don't score for a pitcher, you can't have one bad inning."
Waiting for the call
Both Lou Merloni
and Michael Coleman
want to get back to Boston as quickly as possible and hopefully for the PawSox' sake they can be the hitters that spark the team's offense.
So far both players are mired in the same slump as the rest of the team. Coleman, who made a great diving catch yesterday and looks fine physically after rehabbing a hamstring strain, went hitless yesterday and is now 3-for-27 (.111) in his 10 days with the PawSox. Merloni played his third game with Pawtucket yesterday and also went 0-for-4, giving him just one hit in 11 at-bats. In four games in Boston earlier this month, Merloni was 3-for-8 with a double, a home run and 4 RBI.
Fans love that board
The PawSox use their beautiful message board in right field to show live shots from Fenway Park, and fans at McCoy always enjoy the bonus coverage. But yesterday the board got booed.
With Derek Lowe
working on a no-hitter, the Red Sox game was shown in between several innings of the PawSox game. The game was conveniently in between the eighth and ninth innings when Lowe took the mound for the final three outs in Boston. Lowe retired the first two hitters and then worked ahead of the third batter.
That's when Norfolk's Carlos Hernandez
stepped into the batter's box and the McCoy message board shifted back to the PawSox-Tides, drawing plenty of boos from the crowd. When Lowe registered the final out for the first no-hitter at Fenway since 1965, the crowd at McCoy was left in the dark. International League rules state that message boards must go black as soon as live action is set to resume.
The final out was shown during the break between the top and bottom of the ninth inning.
