01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 23, 2005

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

PAWTUCKET -- The message scribbled on a piece of paper and taped to Pawtucket Red Sox manager Ron Johnson's door playfully read: "Media People. I managed my [butt] off. Show a little respect."

It was, of course, intended as a light-hearted dig to the larger than usual crowd of sports writers, who quickly passed by Johnson's door to speak instead to rehabbing Boston outfielder Trot Nixon about his second game back since straining his left oblique muscle.

But Johnson knew full well that Nixon's individual performance and how his body responded to being back in action was far more important than the overall result of the PawSox' meeting with Rochester last night at McCoy Stadium.

And the bottom line is that his body once again responded extremely well.

Serving as the designated hitter and batting in the lead-off spot, Nixon went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored, helping Pawtucket to a 4-0 victory over the Red Wings with a season-high 11,678 fans -- the second highest attendance in franchise history -- looking on.

"I felt fine," said Nixon, who will fly out tomorrow and meet the Sox in Kansas City, although he added that he is not sure yet whether the team will activate him for tonight's game or sit him down for one more day. "My oblique muscle, it did fine. It responded well, like I was anticipating it could. It's been doing that . . . for about a week and a half, so I'm happy with it. I had a little bit more strength [yesterday], a little bit more legs underneath me from the trip and so forth. Yeah, I felt fine."

After Nixon led off the game with a single up the middle and went on to score along with Dustin Pedroia to give Pawtucket a 2-0 lead, Red Wings starter Henry Bonilla intentionally walked him the next inning with one out and Justin Sherrod on third base. Sherrod still managed to score, on Pedroia's groundout to short.

"They're trying to win over there, too, and just because I'm down here rehabbing with the team doesn't mean that in certain situations they need to pitch to me," Nixon said of Rochester's decision to put him on base. "That's just the game of baseball. It didn't bother me one bit. I knew I was going to get my at-bats tonight."

Indeed, Bonilla couldn't hold Nixon down twice in a row. In the fourth inning, Nixon took advantage when the right-hander left a fastball out over the plate, smacking it into the picnic area in right field.

Said Johnson of the intentional walk: Rochester manager "Rich Miller's a good man, and everybody runs their ball club a certain way, and I certainly wouldn't say anything negative about how they do it." "Then [Nixon] comes up the next time and smokes the ball out of the ballpark, so then it kind of makes him look like a smart guy."

That's all the run production Pawtucket would need both to win this four-game series (3-1) at McCoy and even the season series with Rochester at seven games apiece with two meetings remaining.

PawSox lefty Mark Malaska (5-3) was in fine form, giving up two hits and striking out a season-high nine batters through six innings, in his longest outing of the year.

"Mark set the tone," Johnson said. "His command was ridiculous. He commanded every pitch he threw, as far as his fastball, his breaking ball, his cutter. He broke bats. He got strikeouts with his breaking ball. Everything he had was really, really good tonight."

Ricky Bottalico took over in the seventh and held the Red Wings scoreless for the next two innings, giving up one hit.

Tim Bausher preserved the shutout, retiring the side with three groundouts in the ninth.

"It was a scary situation because of the way that we played those guys over at their park and had leads and had a tough time holding onto them," said Johnson, whose club lost three of four in Rochester just last week. "But they spread it out real nice. We did a nice job of getting men in when we got them on base."