01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, June 18, 2006

BY BRUCE WELLS
Special to the Journal

RICHMOND, Va. -- You might say that Pawtucket saved the best for last.

In a game in which they trailed by five runs, the PawSox erupted for nine runs in the final three innings, completing a 11-7 come-from-behind win over the Richmond Braves last night at The Diamond.

The win enabled the PawSox to overcome a shaky outing by starter Abe Alvarez who was rocked for seven runs on 12 hits in 4 1/3 innings. More importantly, Pawtucket (34-34) is now back at .500 on the season.

"Geez, that was like watching two different ball games," said Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson.

Pawtucket took the early lead in the first. Adam Stern lead off and reached second on a two-base throwing error. Dustin Pedroia followed with a base hit, putting runners at the corners.

After David Murphy popped out, Ron Calloway lofted a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Stern.

Richmond evened the score in the bottom of the first on a RBI single by Bill McCarthy and took a 2-1 lead in the second Jonathan Schuerholz's run-scoring single.

The PawSox tied the score again in the third. Alejandro Machado walked, stole second and reached third on the play as a result of a throwing error. Pedroia's one-out base hit scored Machado.

The undoing of Alvarez began in the Braves' fourth.

A leadoff single by Schuerholz and a one-out base hit by Bryan Pena set the stage for a three-run home run by James Jurries to make the score 5-2.

Richmond struck again against Alvarez in the fifth. A leadoff double and a one-out home run to left by Tony Pena, his first of the year, chased Alvarez from the game and pushed the Braves lead to 7-2.

"He [Alvarez] wasn't as crisp as he was his last couple of starts, but he was right within himself," Johnson said. "There were a lot of balls hit down the first base line, some well-placed grounders and it all seemed to play into the effect of runs."

Craig Hansen -- making just his second appearance since being sent down by Boston on June 10 -- pitched brilliantly over his two plus innings of work, allowing only one single.

"That was momentum time in the game when we can't allow anything else," said Johnson of Hanson, rated the No. 4 prospect in the Red Sox organization by Baseball America. "He was outstanding."

Pawtucket put three runs on the board in the seventh, and Hee-Seop Choi's mammoth two-run homer in the eighth tied the score at 7-7.

Barry Hertzler pitched a scoreless eighth inning for Pawtucket and set the stage for the ninth.

The PawSox scored four runs in the ninth, keyed by a two-run single by Caloway and an RBI single by Jeff Bailey.

" We had some bounces go our way literally to help us pull it out," said Calloway. "It's supposed to be the characteristic of a good team to finish strong."

Hertzler finished off the Braves in the bottom of the ninth to pick up the win in relief.