Ian Snell and Ryan Doumit provide the pitching and the batting to pummel Pawtucket yet again, as they lead Indianapolis to a 7-4 victory.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 10, 2005

BY PETE CAVA
Special to the Journal

INDIANAPOLIS -- Ian Snell's arm and Ryan Doumit's bat spelled doom for visiting Pawtucket yesterday as the host Indianapolis Indians defeated the PawSox for the third time in as many days.

Doumit slugged a pair of homers and Snell struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings as the Indians logged a 7-4 win. Snell's fastball was consistently in the mid-90s.

In the first three contests of the season, the Indians have already surpassed their 2004 win total against Pawtucket. Last season the PawSox won six of eight meetings with Indianapolis.

Ron Johnson, Pawtucket's first-year skipper, knows Snell and Doumit from the Double-A Eastern League. Johnson managed Portland last year, while Snell and Doumit played for Altoona, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate.

"Snell's got a really good arm and really good stuff," said Johnson. "Any time you're running the ball between 94 to 96 (mph) and you've got a breaking ball like that, it's going to be a long afternoon."

Johnson claimed the only way to counter a pitching performance like Snell's was to keep the score down. "But Doumit made sure we didn't," he added.

Pawtucket jumped right-handed Snell (1-0) for a pair of runs with two out in the second inning. After singles by Mike Lockwood and Jeff Bailey, Tim Hummel cleared the bases with a 415-foot double to the deepest corner of the park, in left center.

The Indians made it 2-1 on Ryan Doumit's home run in the bottom of the frame off PawSox starter and loser Jeremi Gonzalez (0-1).

Gonzalez, a 30-year-old Venezuelan right-hander who played with the Cubs and Devil Rays, gave up three more runs in the fifth. Doumit started the ruckus with a single and went to third with one out on a double by Ray Sadler. Jorge Velandia followed with a bloop single to right that scored Doumit and sent Sadler to third. Shaun Skrehot drove in Velandia with a perfectly executed hit-and-run play to put the Indians ahead 4-2.

In the meantime, Snell, who also relies on a late-breaking curve, whiffed eight PawSox batters through the first five innings. He threw 92 pitches, 62 of them strikes. The 23-year-old, who appeared in three late-season contests last year for Pittsburgh, was making his Triple-A debut. Snell went 11-7 for Altoona in 2004.

Jeff Miller relieved Snell and struck out the first three batters he faced. Miller gave up a run in the eighth, when George Lombard led off the inning with a solo shot over the left-field fence.

Miller then gave way to Mark Corey, and slammed the door after giving up a double to Luis Figueroa and an intentional walk to Shawn Wooten.

Jack Cressend relieved Gonzalez in the seventh for Pawtucket and gave up Doumit's second homer, a two-run shot in the eighth. A switch-hitting catcher who is in his first year of Triple-A ball, Doumit has had a career has been slowed by injuries and illness, including a bout with mononucleosis last year. If healthy, Doumit could develop into one of the crown jewels of Pittsburgh's farm system.

Cressend said it was difficult to gauge at this point in the season, but he believes Doumit's long-ball display is for real. "It's hard to tell after just three games, but he seems like he's got some power," Cressend said. "I made him a good pitch, and he just went out and got it. I know I'll pitch him different next time."

Indianapolis made it 7-3 in the eighth, when Yurendell de Caster raced home on Velandia's one-out suicide squeeze. Pawtucket scored its final run in the ninth, when Mike Moriarty doubled off the centerfield wall and scored on Lombard's line-drive single.

Corey earned a save, his second of the season.

Lenny DiNardo, who appeared in 22 games for the world champion Red Sox in 2004, makes his first start of the new season this afternoon at Indianapolis. The southpaw faces Bobby Bradley, the first pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1999 June draft. Bradley, a right-hander who played last year at Altoona, will make his Triple-A debut.

Today's game marks Pawtucket's last appearance in Indianapolis this season.