01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 16, 2006

BY BRUCE WELLS
Special to the Journal

NORFOLK, Va. -- It took the Pawtucket Red Sox three days, one rainout and both games of a doubleheader, but they finally won a game in Norfolk.

Corky Miller drove in three runs to back knuckleball specialist Charlie Zink's best outing of the season, as the PawSox defeated the Tides, 5-1, and earned a split of a doubleheader at Harbor Park. Pawtucket dropped the first game, 3-1.

"He [Zink] was real good tonight and gave us what we needed and Corky came up with the big hit," said PawSox manager Ron Johnson.

Pawtucket scored the game's first run on an Alejandro Machado second-inning single that scored Dustan Mohr. The PawSox would add four more in the third.

A one-out walk to David Murphy and a two-out hit by Jeff Bailey put runners at first and second for Mohr, who followed with a single, scoring Murphy.

Norfolk starter Evan MacLane then tried to muscle an 0-2 fastball past the next batter, Miller, who crushed the ball just inside of the left-field foul poll -- bouncing it off the concession stand roof and into the pine trees behind the building -- for a three-run home run and 5-0 Pawtucket lead.

Norfolk could do nothing against Zink's fluttering knuckler.

They scratched out a run in the third, but managed just two meaningless singles the rest of the way against Zink, who gave way to Craig Breslow in the seventh. Breslow struck out the side to end the game.

"I had Charlie in Portland three years ago and he came up and almost threw two no-hitters for us down the stretch," Johnson said. "He's had some rough spots since then but that pitch is a tough pitch to command. If you look at the last 100 years in baseball, how many can you name that have mastered the knuckleball?

"He had it going tonight."

Led by veteran pitcher Jose Lima and outfielder Xavier Nady -- with Norfolk on a rehab assignment from the New York Mets -- the first game belonged to the Tides.

After surrendering a leadoff homer on the game's second pitch to Adam Stern, Lima settled down, allowing just one hit over the next five innings.

"In my whole minor-league career against the Red Sox organization I always pitch good," said Lima. "I threw my first no-hitter of my career against the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1995. I had 13 punchouts. I always pitch well against them because it's a great franchise. You know they have good hitters and you take that to the mound; it makes you concentrate better."

In his two starts against Pawtucket this season, Lima is now 2-0 with a 0.75 E.R.A. and eight strikeouts

Norfolk, meanwhile, jumped on 21-year-old PawSox starter Mario Pena -- making his first ever appearance above Single-A -- for all three of their runs in the third. The 6-foot-4, 170-pound left-hander from Nicaragua got the start in place of Jimmy Serrano, who signed with a Korean League team on Monday.

Pena was practically flawless in the first two innings, allowing just a harmless single. With one out in the bottom of the third and facing Tides' catcher Joe Hietpas -- who had just one RBI in 105 at bats -- Pena tossed a changeup that Hietpas clubbed into the picnic area over the left-field wall, tying the game at 1-1.

A two-out single to Anderson Hernandez and walk to Jeff Keppinger set the table for Nady, who lined a single down the third-base line -- just inches away from being foul -- driving in both runners for a 3-1 Norfolk lead.